A play, a talent show, and more

Today was the last day of indoor gathering for our weekly homeschooling group. During the summer we meet at various parks and eschew indoor activities in favor of learning from nature. It's a great arrangement, because while learning doesn't end when summer comes around, I think our desire and focus changes with the season, so why not follow them.

If I thought I might miss out on some of the cyclical nature of the public school system—the yearly plays, the parties, etc. that I always loved as a child—I have found instead that at HAA we seem to one-up them. Today all the kids gathered along with all the parents (both parents today in many cases) to share in food, games, a play performance, a talent show, and a "talented display". Calvin participated in all three, as a munchkin and a monkey in The Wizard of Oz, as a pianist in the talent show, and with a Lego display of ancient structures from around the world (Egyptian pyramid, Mesopotamian Ziggurat, Mayan temple) on the "talented display" table. 

I will never stop reveling in the camaraderie that exists between all the kids in the group regardless of age, gender, race, belief, yadda yadda, nor in the amount of time, effort, and interest the parents invest in their children, and in others in the group. There are about forty families in the group, and today's gathering was a joyful, raucous affair, without being either too big or too small. Although I barely saw Calvin once he was no longer on stage (a sign of our growing comfort with the group) I know we both had a great time because we came home tired yet positively filled with exuberant, happy energy.

Talented display...

Talent show...

This is the second play Calvin has been in through our group. The first one was Percy Jackson, which they did earlier this spring, but it really was nowhere near as good as The Wizard of Oz, which they put on today. Calvin's own acting ability had grown some, and he spoke with great diction and a loud, clear voice, he remembered all his lines, and I could tell he had a great time. Of course, doing The Wizard of Oz as a play was like a dream come true for him.

"Please take the ruby slippers as a thank-you gift."

"We're off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz..."

"I don't have a heart."

"Please take us to see the wizard."

"Hooray!" (she melted)

"Dorothy, you have saved us from the evils of the Wicked Witch of the West. But what do we do with our lives now that we're free?"

"The wizard looked at us and said: 'monkies, you have already found your purpose in life. You said it yourself, you enjoy helping people and you can fly. Combining those two things should give you great opportunities for self-fulfillment."

We are linked up to Saturday's Artist at OLM.

Cricket in Times Square

Calvin loved the book, and today we saw it as a stage production.

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).