Eclectic Parent

Yesterday was show day for the boys’ art class. They both do a three hour art block (visual arts, drama and dance) at a large arts complex near us. The youngest class is preschoolers but the older classes are all homeschoolers. I really like the way they teach. Nothing is mandatory. They seem to understand that kids come at things from different angles. For instance everyone can act out in drama class or they can be the audience. Or maybe they’d like to narrate? Or move the props around? The arts center has art classes for children and adults, several theaters and art galleries. The last day of each session is show day. They don’t put on a show; they simply show us what they’ve been doing. The dance teacher showed us all the movement stuff they’ve been doing. The youger kids work on larger movements while the older kids worked on figuring out specific movements - how would you move if heavy, slow, big, holding a rock?

Then the drama teacher had each class do the play they’ve been working on. The younger class performed a story about a king that has a dragon roaring in his kingdom. The king sends three brave knights who march cave but when the hear the roaring, they come running back. Then he send three scared knights who tiptoe to the cave, but when they when they hear the roaring they come running back. Then the king sends kids and they knock on the cave enterance and talk to the dragon. When the find out he has a tooth ache, they pull his tooth, making him feel better and are rewarded with gold coins. C got to help narrate.

D’s class performed a folktale from the Phillipines about why mesquitoes buzz around ears. There was a queen (some animal??) and D was Kakunk, the crab guard to the queeen. She sends him to find the frogs to sing her to sleep. Then she sends for the crab who was moving his house in the night. Then she sends for the firefly to ask why the light woke her up. Then the mesquitoes who were chasing the firefly. The mesquitoes chase Kakunk and the queen. Back and forth D went in crab walk, pretty funny actually. He really enjoys his art classes.

The art teach talked about the art they’d done and mentioned going to the gallery with the kids. It was the a last day of the exhibit, so it was free. The boys wanted to show us the mosaic exhibit. It was excellent and the kids really like looking at art - not for long, but they do enjoy looking. The nice thing about a wander through a gallery, especially a small one, is that there is something for kids of any age to look at. What is it? What color is it? What materials were used? What emotion does it evoke? Abstract or concrete? You can go on and on but there is something for all of them. Our 2 yo might say, “Pretty. It’s a castle.” Our 4 yo mights say, “I like all the colors of green.” Our 6 yo might say, “It looks like Peter and the Wolf [play we saw that used Easter European design for staging and costumes]”

After the gallery we went to the box office to see if they had tickets for Little Red Ridinghood. It is being put on the center’s youth theater company and ends this weekend. The drama teacher saw us at the box office and shuffled us in the door a few minutes after it began. All three kids were amazed. It was B’s first play. A nice one to start with, it was only 50 minutes. The boys really enjoyed it too. Afterward, their drama teacher, who was the director, had all the homeschoolers stay. She showed the the soft foam of the trap (trap to catch the wolf) and took them around the stage. Two of the people in the play were kids from the oldest art class. They also had kids on the technical staff (lighting, sound, etc). D thought it was very, very cool that he could do that some day.