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

Nature lover

Birding for Mother's Day

In helping Calvin prepare for is Science Olympiad bird test, the two of us spent a number of days out hiking nearby woods and preserves. We've always enjoyed nature, and birding was a casual pastime for me—casual as in I put out feeders and make sure they're filled, and when out on hikes I keep my eyes peeled and snap as many pictures as I can. But this more recent involvement has pushed this casual pastime closer to full blown hobby.

And the timing of the Olympiad couldn't have been more perfect. Not only because it took place in spring, when the birds are busy mating and nesting in a leafless tree canopy, but also because it aligned almost perfectly with peak migration time. Hike after hike we found ourselves surrounded beautiful birds we rarely get to see, some of them just brief visitors in our area.

For Mother's Day this year I requested two things. The first was a breakfast of eggs benedict, which my two boys delivered with great success. The second was an early morning hike through prime birding territory, and they delivered that, too. Eggs benedict, birding in a beautiful spring sun, a relaxing afternoon in the yard, and a delicious dinner with extended family at my parents' house. It was a perfect Mother's Day.

Some of my favorite shots from our recent birding expeditions:

Sandhill Crane (turning an egg in her nest)

Sandhill Crane

Yellow-rumped warbler

American bullfrog (not a bird)

American Redstart

Yellow warbler

Black-throated blue warbler

Common garter snake (again, not a bird)

Nashville warbler

Red-bellied woodpecker

White-breasted nuthatch

Magnolia warbler

Rufous-sided towhee

Rufous-sided towhee

Baltimore oriole (female)

Warbling vireo

Veery

Palm warbler

Wilson's warbler

Two birds of a feather

Blue-gray gnat catcher

Tree swallow

Chipping sparrow

Canada geese and Red-winged blackbird (female)

Tree swallow

Science Olympiad

There are a lot of people who think that homeschooling is a lonely undertaking. These are the very same people who throw around words like "socialization" and "cult" and "brain washing". I won't say that there aren't homeschoolers who have earned those badges that the rest of the homeschooling community has to wear along with them—I'm sure they exist—but that's not the majority of us, and no matter how often it happens, I will continue to be surprised every time I meet with suspicion.

Calvin participated in our county's Elementary Science Olympiad this weekend. This was a completely new event for him—for both of us—in many ways. Aside from never having taken part in a Science Olympiad before, this was our first experience in a public school event of any kind, and Calvin's first ever actual, written test. He spent the month before the Olympiad preparing with his four other team members. He and his partner built towers that could support tennis balls for the "Mystery Architecture" event, and practiced estimating various things for "Estimania". And the two of us went on many a hike, binoculars in tow, to prepare for the "Feathered Friends" bird identification test. He built with straws, he estimated grams of salt, he drilled bird songs and photos.

The Olympiad was great fun. Calvin loved it. He actually went skipping down the hallway to meet each event. He interacted with the public school kids, and his homeschool teammates, with great cheer and obvious social ability.

But there was one interaction that still has me chuckling. When we first arrived, being new to the event and all, we walked down a long hallway (the same hallway where I had a locker my senior year, walking right past my senior year physics classroom, by the way) to a table with the sign "academic check-in" to find out about, of all things, checking in. Just before we reached the table we were halted by a militant hall guard who demanded that we first check in with our school. I asked her politely if there was a table to check in as a school, but we were each confused by the other, and just as I was beginning to understand that the problem was that we didn't fit into their usual paradigm (I couldn't very well check in with non-existent school's non-existent head coach), a nice lady at the check-in table popped up with the clear answer to all our problems—

"Don't you see? They're homeschoolers! They don't have a school, and they're not used to all this!" (indicating the school with a flourish of her arms).

After that everyone was interested in holding our hands through the hallway, as though they were afraid that, being homeschoolers, we were bound to get lost. Or, being "not used to all this", we were in danger of getting spooked and running away. I was torn between being offended and touched. I decided on something between the two—amusement.

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.