(home)school play

It's been a performance week here all around. Calvin participated in a master class at Jon's piano studio yesterday, had long Tarzan rehearsals on three evenings, and this afternoon was the HAA end of the indoor year play, talent show, still projects display extravaganza. Calvin, of course, did all three. He wouldn't to leave any stone unturned, or any activity undone.

The play this year was homegrown—a story written then scripted by one of our own homeschool kids. It was a bit of a socialist production focused the uneven distribution of wealth between the seasons, which in this case were countries of their own. The moral of the story was "share to avoid going to war with the have-nots". It was cute and well-adapted, and I had a good time coming up with a last minute costume for my military leader of the have-nots (billed as chief warrior from the fall).

I apologize for the dark and blury shots from the play. Photography in the gym where we hold our indoor activiites is touchy, to say the least. And I was so busy enjoying the talent show that I forgot to take video of Calvin's performance, which was brilliant. 

But be sure to hop on over to his own blog to see the photograph and accompanying poem (both his own) that he turned in for his still project display. He is considering entering both in the 4H youth show this year as well.

Up next? It's dance recital weekend.

Our very own cows

We have been using the same milk in our house since Calvin was first drinking it in a sippy cup from a high chair at the table. It comes from a daily farm not quite an hour from our home, and in those early years, before it was available in the local stores, we had it delivered. It came in glass jars, carried in a wire basket by a real milk man driving a truck painted with traditional dairy cow spots. It was a highlight of our day, especially when we added things to our order like ice cream, or their annual egg nog, so thick you could eat it with a spoon. 

These days the glass jarred Calder milk is available in a handful of our local grocery stores, but even though we no longer get visited by the milk man in the cow truck, I still feel loyalty and connection to our milk that I might not if it was a national brand in the carton. So it's a little odd that, with the dairy less than an hour away, we never visited our cows to actually see where our milk originated. I mean, that's a homeschooler's bread and butter, isn't it? (They have great butter, too, by the way, that comes in great big wax paper-wrapped blocks).

So today we rectified that educational omission. Our local homeschool field trip club organised an afternoon at the Calder Dairy Farm with animal feeding opportunities, cow and milking education, a hayless wagon ride, and a (very large) scoop of delicious Calder ice cream. The little bit of rain didn't hurt our fun. We fed farm ducks (I love farm ducks!), goats, sheep, and baby cows. We met amazingly portly pigs (they snore). We milked a friendly cow (with a lot of help from an obvious expert). We enjoyed delicious ice cream. 

And now we've met our cows.

Greenfield Village field trip

One event in early October was a trip to Greenfield Village with our homeschool group. Field trips for our group are somewhat of a free-for-all: take advantage of group rates the group arranges, but get there whenever and see whatever you want, the schedule is up to you. A lot like homeschooling in general, really. It was a beautiful, warm day. We started earlier than most of the other families, but found the others shortly after lunch time for fun with friends.

4H Youth Show 2015

Our homeschooling group, the one we gather with once a week, sometimes more, to pool our energies and gather in enough numbers to take classes and go on field trips, is ostensibly a 4H club. I, ostensibly, am their 4H club leader. In our group that's not a big job. Most of our members don't even seem to know that they belong to a 4H club, so that makes my job easy. But over the two years I've had the job, I've slowly gotten to know the 4H machine better and better, and most of what I've learned is really great.

First, while most people when they hear 4H think cows, pigs, and sheep (oh my!), there's really a lot more to the group than that. 4H is really just a state run umbrella group for all kinds of clubs. As the parent group, 4H provides registration assistance, insurance, and even sometimes monetary support to the clubs that pay their nominal dues. So there are all kinds of clubs under the 4H umbrella, including dog training clubs or word working clubs in addition to the standard young farmer or horse clubs. There's our rather substantial homeschooling club, for instance, and at least one other club that resembles more a boy scout type assembly than a farm hand guild. It takes all kinds, and the varieties are far reaching.

Second, once you've paid your dues through your own parent club (for us that's our homeschooling group), you may participate in any other 4H club or activity for which you are otherwise elligible. The door is wide open! Come check it all out! Both this and last year, Calvin participated in our local 4H archery club, where, for just $1 per Tuesday evening, he got to borrow their equipment and their expertise for two hours of archery fun. They also offer classes or workshops throughout the year. Next year we're thinking about taking part in the photography workshops. And the 4H mother office is considering adding some fine arts classes or clubs, including creative writing, theater, and music. I know he'd love that.

The 4H year is wrapped up late every July, just before the August last hurrah vacations and the beginning of a new school year. The wrap up consists of a week of activities that show off what the kids have learned or accomplished during the year. There is a day of still project showing (those being anying that does not include livestock in some way), a variety of contests and competitions throughout the week (some including livestock, some not), and a final fun day of tournaments and silly races. Calvin showed woodowrking, photography, poetry, and educational wildlife notebooks as still projects this year. He participated in the make something out of foam scraps challenge, and competed in the archery tournament. He also got a little crazy in the end of the week olympic game challenge. We ate ice cream, got face (or arm) paint, hung out with a lot of friends, and, yes, saw the obligatory cows, chickens, horses, etc. Oh, and rabbit agility. Can't miss rabbit agility.

Endings

There are so many ways to measure the years, and so many rituals by which to mark their passing. Our homeschooling group's spring play and talent show is one of them, and now that it has come and gone we know for sure that the days will be getting longer and warmer, and that our time will increasingly be spent out of doors. We look forward to it every spring.

This year the play was a little harder to follow, having been written by two girls no older than middle school, maybe younger. I know it had something to do with merfolk and fairies, and I think there was an evil cat, or maybe an evil ring that had been presented by a cat as a gift? There was some adventure that involved merfolk (of which Calvin was a key member) growing legs to rescue ocean water from the bathtub of a castle. There may have been an evil spell.

The plot was a little hazy at best, and the poor acoustics in the gym/theater didn't help any, but it was graciously short, and definitely sweet. And it was followed by the usual cute talent show, with talents ranging anywhere from piano or guitar performance, to running in circles on the stage, or reading aloud one's short story to leading the whole group in a dance.

Plus there were brownies.