The play. The play that has taken up our life for the past month, is over.
And guess what? Our "Neverland" was incredibly cute, ran smoothly, and all the kids did awesome. Just check out this quick "trailer" my sister-in-law made:
I wrote about how I was in charge of costumes, but I didn't write about how Dustin ended up doing most of the sets. Yep. He made the pirate ship, the canoe, the hideout stump, the teepees, and the beds. The canoe was especially cool because it scooted around stage smoothly like it was on water.
Last week, when I was handing out costumes, I was watching the play. I was a bit worried. No one was helping the kids get on and off the stage, the kids hadn't done it on the stage before, and the set people were doing things for the first time. I realized they needed more help, so I stepped in. Another mom did too, and some teenagers came to our aid as well.
So now I was a backstage worker.
Back at the beginning of February, Dustin was wanting to get away from winter by running away to Arizona. But we couldn't go because of---the play. Dustin hates feeling trapped, so he started saying he didn't want the kids to do a play ever again. (Often Dustin gives ultimatums that he changes his mind on, so I'm not too worried.)
Then I got sick and Dustin was Mom and Dad for two weeks. Then there was the combination of costumes, sets, backstage work, and being trapped in winter, and----well----lets just say a certain husband is VERY HAPPY the play is over.
Don't get me wrong; You will never find a more supportive husband, but at the end of the day, statements like "I hope everyone's enjoying themselves, because this is your one chance." could be heard.
Really though, it was an amazing experience.
Here's the lost boys: (Maxwell is top left)
The Darlings: (isn't Michael aka Hyrum cute?)
Wendy (my niece---with fake hair that I ordered on Amazon. Mireyah cut her hair really short right after she got the part, and the directors freaked out. Fake hair to the rescue.) and Peter:
And some cute shots of them acting on dress rehearsal night:
I'm a bit bummed I didn't get a photo of the indian scene. Dustin did an awesome job of making it look good. I wasn't thinking, and just wanted photos where my kids were acting. Oh well.
By the way, while the 11 and youngers were doing Peter Pan, the teenagers were doing Midsummer Night's Dream.
They did an amazing job (and it was fun that I didn't have to lift a finger for their play.) Seriously, it was the best Shakespeare play I've seen teenagers put on. I was expecting something really dry and hard to sit through, with teenagers trying to make something funny that they didn't understand themselves.
But no: they added some modern songs, and a few modern lines, and it really worked out well. I know that sounds weird, but trust me, it worked, and the audience was laughing wholeheartedly.
At one point some actors were talking about how they needed to look on the calendar to see if the moon shineth on the night of the play they were rehearsing for, and they snatched an ipad from a guy in the front row and asked Siri if the moon shineth, and Siri said "Yes, the moon shineth on that night." It was great.
Here's their "trailer:"
Anyway, we didn't do science this week, and only one country got done: Syria.
I couldn't find any books kids would be interested in on Syria. This was unique. I've found dozens of books on each country I've done this year. We usually start with some dry books that tell about the culture and facts about the country, and then we read books that are fables, legends, or true stories from that country. I couldn't find anything for Syria but a DVD documentary.
When I started the DVD, Maxwell said "Wait, we haven't read the fun books yet."
The DVD was really great. It was made before the war. The last thing the narrator said was "With a little bit of luck, Syria's amazing past will continue into the future." and my boys all said "nope. That didn't happen."
Each of the Boys have a passport where they stick the flag of the country we're studying into. For Syria, I had them put in TWO flags and we talked about the civil war going on there.
For our activity we made a hamsa craft. This charm is apparently used by christians, jews, and muslims in Syria, so it was perfect. I got the idea from here.
And as a side note, my boys LOVE lego, and usually when I'm teaching one-on-one, the other boys are playing lego, but they got a bit tired of it this week I guess, and they would draw/play instead. They would each draw castles with warriors, cannons, weapons, and fortifications, and then discuss how and why their own castle would defeat the other boy's castle.
I thought this was really cute. Here's a couple of sample castles.
That's it, happy homeschooling!
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