All the thinks you can think

Okay, so if you’ve been following my blog at all, you know we have been at the playhouse all week.
And you know we have been having dress rehearsals for "Seussical."
And that today was their first performance. (It was truly FABULOUS, BTW)

What about school?

I’ll let the kids give their answers.

Let’s start with History.
The Camino Real Playhouse is situated on historic El Camino Real (The King’s Highway – Also known as Highway 101) which links all of the California Missions. Across the street is Mission San Juan Capistrano (this is where the swallows return every year in the spring on St. Joseph’s Day, March 19th).

Vocabulary:
Pseudonym. "Dr. Seuss was the pseudonym used by Theodore Geisel."
Synopsis. "You can find a synopsis of "Seussical" here."

Writing:
Rhyming Poetry & Lyrics.
"But I hope you’re prepared
To be scareder than scared!
‘Cause this ain’t Mother Goose.
Think right over the brink
When you think about Seuss."

Character Growth:
Gertrude McFuzz (played by Miss Lucy Darby) realizes that her desire for the biggest tail is vanity and that she is ok just the way she is. So she ditches the tail and finds she’s truly amazing the way she is.

Natural Science:
Colorful birds – Some with one droopy droop feather. Some amazingly colorful.
I think we’ll add a field trip to the San Diego Zoo and that way we’ll get to see the elephants too.

Electric Science:

How a black light works. And why only the white gloves of the Hunches  show up on stage when it’s lit.

The speed of light. Or how you can do a costume change in no time at all.

Math & Home Economics. Lucy helped me design and sew all the costumes.  We made them to measure for each character, and learned to cut, mark and adjust patterns. And of course, keep the seams straight.  Organizational Skills: We bagged and tagged each costume and delivered it to its owner.

English:
Biography of the man known as Dr. Seuss.

Basic Life Skills:How to work as a team. Following directions. Here’s the director, Barry Koff, signing the programs for the kids.

Programs!
Word Processing and Graphic Design. Using a Mac G4 with dual processor.

This is just the beginning.
I’ve just demonstrated how I pull together a unit study that’s of interest to my kids and it keeps them motivated to learn.

I could also add Photography.

Lucy has taken hundreds of pictures backstage and during rehearsals. She has learned how to crank up the ISO to 1600 so she doesn’t need to use the flash.
Journaling.
The cast has been passing around a "Circle Journal" for the past 5 months. Each has contributed thoughts and drawings. Because Lucy started it we are the ones who will be keeping it.

Film Editing.
We are also videotaping the show and editing it on the G4 using Final Cut Pro.

We will probably dedicate an entire Scrapbook to this project. I believe that falls under Design Skills.

And I hope to add Family History to it…

I distinctly remember the first time I decoded the English language. I was reading a book called The 500 Hats of Bartholemew Cubbins, of course, by Dr. Seuss. (I designed the hats for the cadets in this play as a tribute to that amazing moment in my young life.)

(Those poor losery homeschooled Darby kids. They have had to be involved in a life impacting event and actually learn stuff from it.)

Poor Jonathan got sick and so we learned some things about The Human Body. He was literally turning green. 😉

They also learned how to Take a Bow. I think I might start practicing that with them. =D

(I am nothing, if not creative.)

Welcome to our "school of life."