Up on stage

Over the past few months I've mentioned several times the homeschooling group we joined that meets weekly in a rented space in Ann Arbor. There are about fifty families in the group, each with different styles of learning and teaching, different ethnic and cultural backgrounds, different religious or political or what-have-you view points, and different numbers, ages, and genders of children. As a general rule I lean toward the introverted so committing to weekly group meetings with so many children has at times been an effort, maybe even a burden. Still, the group comes with fantastic benefits, and time and again has proven its worth. Aside from wild play and free exchange of ideas, we've loved the parties (homeschooling does not have to mean that your child will never exchange Valentines with others), and the this term we took advantage of the classes offered as well.

For the past eight weeks Calvin has been taking a theater class taught by one of the members of Wild Swan (especially fun for Calvin since he'd seen her perform on stage in one of their productions). The class worked on a short stage adaptation of Rick Riordan's The Lightning Thief. It's a book we haven't read, and probably still won't, but Calvin had a great time with the whole process: day 1 auditions, days 2-6 rehearsals, and day 8 performance.

Calvin was the youngest participant with a speaking character, and he did worked hard to memorize his eight lines and to deliver them loudly and with with clear diction. He became fond of the word diction, in fact. They talked about choreography, they planned stage entrances and exits, they practiced line delivery and expression of emotion.

Performance day was today. The audience was made up of fellow homeschoolers, other members of the group, and in some cases extra parents (including Jon), and the play went smoothly, the most difficult part being keeping the youngest quiet in the wings. They were just so excited. At the last minute I found myself on stage reading the parts of Zeus and Mr. Brunner because one of the kids was home sick. There was one other stand-in as well, but other than the two of us wandering around on stage with scripts, the rest of the kids did a great job with memorization and had a great time up on the stage. The kids in the audience had a great time, too.

The next term starts next Friday and when Calvin found out that theater would again be offered, this time putting on an adaptation of The Wizard of Oz, he immediately signed on.

Off Broadway

The Off Broadway production of Mary Poppins made a stop in Grand Rapids this weekend, and we met it there. Months ago our friends asked us if we wanted to get tickets and we've been counting the days since then. We have great friends in that city that we don't get to see very often, so we got tickets, and made plans to stay with them one night while we were in town. Seeing them alone was worth the trip.

Then...I had forgotten the wonder and magic of a Broadway musical—or perhaps I'd attended so many children's plays with Calvin prior that my expectations had become skewed. The voices, the dancing, and ooooh the set. The set was like a fantastical pop-up book.

Calvin loved very minute of it, and my joy was enhanced by his as he tapped out the rhythms and laughed at the comedy and gasped at the magic, sitting on my lap to better be able to see.

A stop for dinner at the local brewery (a big favorite of ours)—one more chance to see good friends—and we were headed back home with good memories in tow. We'd bought a CD of the live production so we listened to it all the way home, the timing so perfect that we were just finishing the curtain call as we pulled into the driveway, shortly after a usual bedtime. And that was a perfect day.

Journal to follow shortly.

The scary part

We were out a lot today, and came home tired and hungry. Nothing a good snack of tea and gingerbread couldn't conquer.

Calvin had his first theater class at our homeschool gathering today. It is a several week long class and is the first he is taking via the group. Actually, other than swimming, I think it's his first class period. He has been talking about it non-stop all week, so I was as almost as glad as he was when the day finally arrived. He seemed to have a great time, although there was some disappointment that they are going to be doing a Percy Jackson play when he had been hoping for a Jack and Annie play. Still, he is thrilled, and I think we might try the first Percy Jackson book to see what it's all about.

Speaking of books, Calvin is still on his Magic Tree House kick. He was hell-bent on having all the books in the series, and we'd been slowly buying them (for .25 each) from our library as they came into the sale room, but one of his favorite Christmas gifts was the last five he was missing. He can spend hours reading and play-acting the series all on his own. He loves the magic theme in them—the references to magic spells and Morgan le Fey and Merlin, and will happily march around chanting incantations. He is now asking me to find a copy of the Puffin Classics King Arthur for him to read, since  he saw it listed in the back of his copy of The Wizard of Oz (which we recently replaced with this one that he likes much better, but that's neither here nor there). It is incredibly hard not to cave and give in to every single book desire he has.

As for what we're reading out loud lately, we just finished The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, also by L. Frank Baum, which he loved. You can read all about that below, including the "sort of scary part" (which he wasn't even going to mention until I suggested that he might want to warn other kids).

Tea and a show

I took Calvin to see a stage production of Little Women today. We have a great local theater company that focuses on stage productions so that they can be enjoyed by children. We've been attending the children's shows for a couple of years now, but this was the first show we've seen that was aimed at older children, and Calvin loved it. It was almost an hour and a half of show and he loved every minute. In fact, his only disapointment was that it stopped there, because they only did the first half of the book.

During the actor talk-back followin the show, Calvin raised his hand with two questions, one about the props and the other about the time period of the costumes. He spoke loudly and clearly and I was pleased to find that he has none of my reservations about speaking up in a crowd. Then on our way home we talked endlessly about scenes and scenery, about sets, costumes, acting, lines, and all the people who are involved in stage production. And he asked if we could see another play next week. And a musical.

Then we came home and had tea while he wrote about it in his journal.

Once Upon a Time there was

Watching The Three Billy Goats Gruff today on stage, the troll asked the audience for their advice: should he let the littlest goat go? My son alone in the audience said "no!" When I asked him why not, he told me his concern that if the troll didn't eat the first food that came along, then he might not get another chance and so might not get enough to eat. But of course.

We had a great time at the play, but what I loved most was hearing his thought process. We didn't read a whole lot of fables or fairy tails when he was younger. It wasn't really an intentional omission, just that we had so many other wonderful things to read, but the more I think about it the more I dislike fairy tales anyhow. They seem beautiful at first glance, but they're awfully one dimensional. Gregory Maguire had the right idea when he took the traditional tales and turned them on their heads, showing the "other sides" of the stories in books like Wicked.

Calvin's thinking that the troll is also worth a life is a refreshing thought, one that bucks convention and has many elements in it from our recent discussions on evolution. All living things have to eat, and meat eaters are not evil, they're just hungry like the rest of us. Even better, like Maguire he had to willingly go against the tide to say "no" in an audience of "yeses" and to me that right there was worth the price of admission.