My kids love learning history and so we were excited to review the audio drama of a story by G.A. Henty called Wulf the Saxon from Heirloom Audio Productions.
Will It Enhance Your Homeschool?
Every G.A. Henty story that Heirloom Audio Productions dramatizes is presented as a story within a story. The bigger story in this case is a simple one. George (G.A. Henty) is traveling by boat across the English Channel and befriends two young French brothers. He offers to tell them a story to pass the time and to teach them about heroism. The story he tells them is Wulf the Saxon, which is dramatized with actors playing the various characters while ‘George’ cuts into the action throughout the adventure to provide the supporting narration.
Condenses a 12+ Hour Read Into 2 1/2 Hours
G.A. Henty’s book will take you a bit over 12 hours to read aloud to your children. While it is generally the way we prefer to read literature in our homeschool, you don’t always have the time to read every book you want your children to know. I stacked up all the classics I wanted my children to read one year early in my homeschooling life, and my husband pointed out that we would never have the time for our children to read everything I had piled up. Audio dramas can be a great way to get exposed to a story without taking the time to read the book when it is a story that is not fundamentally important to your children’s education.
Covers The Basic Story-line Of The Original
As I listened to the CD’s I followed along with a copy of the G.A. Henty original. Nearly all the way through the audio adventure, the ‘George’ character (G.A. Henty) echos lines directly from the original story. At some points, especially during the Battle of Hastings portion of the story, the dramatization picks and pulls scenes out of order from the original story. Also some of the potentially disturbing scenes of the battle are not covered in the audio adventure. But overall, the essential story-line of the original work is covered in this audio adventure from Heirloom Audio Productions.
What Comes With This Product?
Audio CDs
There are 2 CDs in the package. All you need to complete the adventure is a CD player and a comfortable spot to sit for a couple of hours.
Suggested Pacing
It would be very easy to listen to the entire story in one afternoon with your children.
You could even do it as part of a general study of English history, including the reign of Edward the Confessor, William the Conqueror, and the Battle of Hastings in 1066.
Time Required To Teach This
Preparation Time: 0-10 minutes (you could take a short bit of time to bring out some history books and geography books with pictures of the time period and the countryside in England, as well as pens and paper for your children to draw and color while they listen to the adventure)
Teaching Time: 2.5 hours. You could do this all at once for older children, or break it into sessions of 20-30 minutes for the younger ones.
Grading: If you were using this as a supplement for a history or literature curriculum, it is not hard to expand the audio adventure into a study of the time period. You could ask your younger child to narrate a section of the story, or have your teen write a paper exploring the impact of William the Conqueror on the formation of modern England from the perspective of everyday Saxons, like Wulf.
How We Liked It & How We Used It
While this is an entertaining adventure, if you know the original G.A. Henty story, it can be a little disappointing. My son did not care for it because the creative license used by Heirloom Audio Productions in order to condense the long original story into a short drama inadvertently changed the message of honor and duty and what it means to be a man. While that message is still present in the audio drama, it has been converted into a 21st century version. One example is the subplot of the wounding of Osgood, Wulf’s man. In the G.A. Henty original, Osgood is portrayed as a strong and self-assured man who is bound to serve Wulf, and maintains his historically accurate role as a manservant. When Osgood is injured and decides to remove his arm to avoid gangrene, he then informs Wulf that he will take himself to a nearby village to have the wound cauterized. Later he meets up with Wulf and expresses light-hearted frustration at the monks who would have had him in bed for months instead of by his master’s side. It is the picture of a brave and honorable adult man who, in spite of his role as a servant, makes his decisions for himself. In the audio drama version, the subplot details are understandable left out in the interest of time. But the result is a change in Osgood’s character from an adult to that almost of a child. Wulf expresses an amount of overbearing concern for Osgood without Osgood pushing back as an adult man capable of making his own decisions. It is just a subtle difference in dialog but the effect completely changes the character of Osgood and turns him into a sidekick instead of a strong supporting character. I do not think, however, that many people would pick up on this unless they read the original story.
Heirloom Audio Productions has a ‘Live The Adventure’ Club that is an online subscription giving you access to a range of the company’s audio adventures. You can check it out at www.livetheadventureclub.com/home/
Summary of Wulf the Saxon from Heirloom Audio Productions
General Features
- Easy to Adapt To Your Homeschool
- Student Can Use The Course Independently (no or little parental involvement required)
- Stand-Alone (no additional textbook required)
- Works with Gifted Children
- Great for Dyslexic Children
Works with these Age Ranges
- High School (9-12)
- Middle School (6-8)
Good For These Educational Styles
- Eclectic
- Classical
- Charlotte Mason
- Unschooling
- Traditional (like public school)
Subjects Covered
- History
- Geography
- Literature
For Kids Who Like
- Video/Oral Instruction
- Independent Work
Interested in Reading Some Other Perspectives on Wulf the Saxon from Heirloom Audio Productions? Click through to read what other homeschooling families thought!
