A midsummer dream

When I said we were on the few days between travels, I really wasn't kidding. Back from Chicago on Sunday, headed to Stratford on Friday. Calvin asked for tickets to see A Midsummer Night's Dream and Alice Through the Looking Glass for Christmas, and thanks to his grandparents we all got to go. This was our second summer trip to Stratford, and we hope to make it an annual tradition, especially now that we've found the perfect place to stay, and the perfect place to stop for ice cream.

The shows were both completely wonderful, of course. I think my favorite part was watching Calvin totally eat up A Midsummer Night's Dream. When we walked into the theater and took our seats next to two gentlemen, I think they were a little surprised, possibly even a little concerned, to see Calvin seated there. I can imagine they were concerned about wiggling and attention spans. I noted that all through the show, the man sitting next to me kept looking over him, perhaps surprised at his delight, because I have never seen Calvin quite so into a show. He loved it.

Alice Through the Looking Glass was also done very well, but it was a little more abstract or eccentric than I think I had expected. Fascinating, though. As a special treat we made reservations to have lunch with the characters before the show. Stratford, it seems, is taking notes from Disney. The lunch itself was a little on the weak side, but Calvin had a great time playing croquet, competing in knight races, laughing with the characters, and, most of all by far, trying on the costumes from previous plays in previous years. We had a hard time getting him out of the costume trying area even to eat lunch.

We couldn't have asked for a more wonderful weekend.

Peter Pan

Yesterday was the final big event of our way too busy spring—our homeschool group's annual spring party, play, and talent show.

Those people that I mentioned recently, the people who think that homeschooling is a lonely, brain-washing undertaking, have probably never visited a gathering of homeschoolers like ours before. Our group is officially described as secular, and is made up of families that homeschool in vastly different ways. The group meets once a week, though the rest of our days are often filled with play dates, field trips, or other activities with friends from the group. And if one counts the very general belief that some children will learn best at home, then I guess I have to admit to surrounding myself with like-minded individuals. As far as the usual culprits for narrow-mindedness go, though, our group is fairly diverse and definitely eye-opening and educating. Plus there's usually excellent food at our pot-luck parties.

This year's spring play was an adapted version of Peter Pan, and Calvin was an excellent Peter Pan.

I can't find my pesky shadow, have you seen it, Wendy?

Sew it on? Oh no!

How could you do it? She was going to be our mother!

You can't have it, fairies like to steal shiny things!

Hook, there is magic on this island that is completely inaccessible to you. You're too old.

Talent show—Peter Pan at the piano

Acting, and great loves

We spent the last month, or I should say Calvin spent the last month, preparing for a stage production of The Wizard of Oz. He's been in several plays before this one, but this production was with a local professional theater company that we've had season tickets to for a number of years—Wild Swan. Though they do not usually cast children in their shows, when the casting call came up for a handful of the younger set, Calvin was excited to give it a try.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little apprehensive about the whole thing. The schedule looked like a lot of long rehearsals, culminating in six shows over four days in what promised to be a tightly packed, large auditorium. Calvin's prior experience was limited to homeschool productions that, while they were really cute and very well done, consisted of weekly one hour rehearsals and a single showing in front of a very small and forgiving audience of friends and family. And they didn't pay for their seats.

Of course you know where this is going—I was wrong to have worried. When Calvin played his first part on stage with our homeschool group three years ago he had a tiny speaking part of about one line. He delivered it with aplomb, and in the next term's play was given a greater speaking part, and so on until this past term when he landed the lead (in Peter Pan, which is coming up in a couple of weeks). He has a mind for memorizing the lines, and a great love for playing make-believe, and those things translate well to the stage.

And here is where I get schooled...at least a little bit. I have always maintained that homeschooling for us was meant to allow the kid to bloom to his full extent. We wanted to give him a chance to learn at his own pace, and to pursue whatever loves he found in life when he found them. And he every time he excelled at a subject, or every time he demonstrated great interest or easy mastery, I've wondered if he was showing, by his achievement, the first steps toward discovering such a great love. But the truth is, I was missing the forest for the trees. Calvin's greatest love is really reading, but not just the reading. For him it's a matter of living the book. He acts out the chapters, he requests character costumes, he lives the books he loves. He acts the books he loves. For Christmas he asked for tickets to see A Midsummer Night's Dream and Alice in Wonderland, and for his birthday he requested theater camp.

Maybe it won't last. I remember when he was pretty small his great love was trains and I thought we were settling in for a life-long hobby, but the interest faded away. But right now this is his great love, and I am incredibly excited to be able to give him free reign to explore that path, and follow him as far down it as he wants to go.

The Wizard of Oz was fantastic. Wild Swan was fantastic in working with the kids. The entire experience was a wonderful one. He is already planning his audition for the next big show.

11 days: The last day of "school"

Calvin's one and only performance as the Cheshire Cat in the HAA stage production of Alice in Wonderland went off without a hitch this afternoon. His teeth have miraculously returned almost to their normal position and he was entirely understandable—loud and clear with all of his lines. Adorable, too, but I happen to be biased. Following the play it was play time, with food, crafts, and all around fun for the HAA holiday party. It was essentially our "last day of school" before the holidays, as we will not meet with the group again until two weeks into the new year.

Pipecleaner ornaments

Snowflakes

Kitchener, Stratford, and Port Huron

Our trip is over and we're home sweet home. Just in time for a low grade heat wave. But here's the rest of our vacation.

After we left Niagara we headed inland to Kitchener where Jon gave a workshop to a group of piano teachers. We could have done without Kitchener. It was a little like walking into Twin Peaks. Or the Twilight Zone. Odd, odd, odd.

Calvin and I went to The Museum (really, that's its name) while Jon was lecturing, but their idea of a museum was pretty lame. Best part? Working the animatronic dinosaur parts.

We got the heck out of Kitchener as fast as we could and landed in peaceful Stratford for two days. What a totally different experience from Niagara and its neon flashing lights. In Stratford we took a pontoon boat tour, ate at the local restaurants, shopped in the quaint shoppes, and stayed in an inn above a tavern right on the main street, a block away from the theatre and the river.

Ye olde fashioned accommodations.

We ate breakfast at the local bakery across the street (chocolate croissants and fresh coffee). We talked to ducks, geese, and swans by the river. We played pianos street side. We relaxed and took it in, two days in a row.

Of course the real point of our stop there was to take in a show, and we saw Pirates of Penzance on Wednesday afternoon. It enchanted us to end. Calvin loved it. We played the CD all the way home the next day.

Following the musical we walked across the street to a small museum of the Festival's 60 years of existence. Two rooms of artifacts and we spent over an hour in them. Mockups of models from costumes and sets through the ages, and some of the actual pieces as well. The girls working the admission desk were the best part. They fell in love with Calvin and basically gave us a private tour. They even let us touch some of the carefully guarded pieces.

To break up the trip on the way home we stopped in Port Huron to visit the lighthouse, train depot, and lightship museums there. Thomas Edison I could do without, but the other two were pretty good stops.

Home again, home again, jiggity jig.