The Nineteenth Century Club - Mike McMullin Concert

Why are school holidays great for homeschoolers? On holidays, some of the most fun programs are hosted by libraries, children's museums, and even, to my surprise, non-for-profit community centers that I assumed catered more towards adult programming. I had read about an upcoming concert featuring a musician named Kevin McMullin, who uses storytelling and song to teach kids how to make music with different parts of their body, which was put on by The Nineteenth Century Club in Oak Park.

We sat down on the floor in front of the staging area. Mr. McMullin has a great ability to involve the entire audience in his music. Even so, Jared started rolling on the ground after a while. I think he saw a little girl running back and forth and was gearing up to follow her. Just when I thought for sure he'd pop up and take off across the room, Mr. McMullin started telling a story.

It's like magic with my kids. They can tell just from the sound of your voice within five seconds that a story is about to begin. Jared popped up and plopped himself into my lap, spellbound the entire time. Alexa loved the singing part the best, even standing up and dancing at one point.

I was able to shoot this adorable picture of the kids on the way out to the car.

They fell asleep in the car on the way home (yeah! Twenty minutes to lay the seat back in the car and rest). On the way to the car after the concert, Jared had picked up a stick and put it behind his ear. He said it was like the feather in Yankee Doodle Dandy. When I went to carry him inside, I found this...

Birthday Parties

I still keep beating myself up about not remembering to take pictures on both Steve's dad's and my sister's husband's birthday. We have video, but I really like pictures to go with my posts.

We celebrated Granddad's birthday at his house the last weekend in February. Steve's brother's kids came (well, the three youngest anyways), so, of course, Jared and Alexa were ecstatic. I love to play with the kids, and we have hours and hours of fun every day, but it's also great to have a rest and talk with the other adults, too. So, I was surprised when Jared still wanted me to play "Prison" with him when the rest of the kids were there.

The other kids are 10, 7 and 5 (all have birthdays within the next two months), so I didn't think our kids would wear them down. They did. They eventually retreated to dark rooms to watch TV on their DS.
I felt bad for our kids. They do not see these cousins that often, and to have their cousins just sit there watching a little machine was really, really disappointing to them. Not something I could really explain that well, either.

The next birthday party, the very next day, was so much nicer for the kids. We met at my sister's house, and her friend came with her two girls. The oldest is the cousin O's age, 2 1/2, and there was a newborn, just a month old. Alexa loved the baby. In fact, she's played baby Gabby several times since that day.

My sister did the greatest thing. She gave Alexa a camera, a real digital one, not a silly kid's version. Alexa loved it! But she still wanted to take pictures with Amy's expensive one with the big zoom lens. She looks absolutely adorable holding this huge camera to her eye. She kept telling everyone she was a photographer.

Jared amused himself for a long time, just playing with toys in O's bedroom. Both kids played with their Great-Grandmother, too. And I had several hours of great conversation with family. Beautiful.

Beverly Arts Center - The Three Little Pigs

Yesterday morning we headed to Chicago to watch a production of the Three Little Pigs put on by Chicago Kids Company at the Beverly Arts Center.   Alexa, my mom and I had been here once before to see the Tortoise and the Hare, but this was Jared's first time.

The day started out rainy and mucky, and Steve had been on a business trip the night before, so I needed something different for me and the kids to do. We had been by my mom's most of the day before, helping clean and pack, since they'll be moving this Friday.

I had it all planned out, exactly how long it would take to drive there, park, find a bathroom, and take our seats. But, of course, something always gets in the way of my carefully planned out timeline. You'd think I'd learn to plan in time for the unplanned!

The Center has a parking lot attached to the property, and I had counted on parking there. When we pulled up, I noticed a huge tent covering the lot. Well, ok. Something different. But I'd seen other cars parked there, so I thought it'd be ok. Then, just as I had let Jared out of the car, a workman came over and told us we couldn't park there.  And then Jared fell face first in a mud puddle. Definitely not planned. Still after changing his pants, huffing it to the building and into the bathroom, we managed to get into our seats (front row and center!) with about a minute to spare.

It was a really, really cute production, and very interactive with the audience. Since we were in the front row, it was even more interactive for us, with the characters coming down to shake our hands and asking questions. Both kids especially loved the Big Bad Wolf. Alexa talked throughout the program; she had so many comments and questions. When the play ended, she said, very loudly," I want to come back and watch another play again really soon."

I rushed us into the bathroom again, trying to beat the lines, but when we came out the actors had left the greeting area out front. I felt so bad; I didn't realize how much they'd wanted to shake hands with the Big Bad Wolf. They soon forgave me, though.

There are two plays left in the season - Cinderella and Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  Hopefully we'll make it to them, too.

Chicago Symphony Orchestra - Mozart Experience

These next few posts won't have any pictures since I forgot to bring my camera, something very unlike me. I've been so concerned with just getting us out the door and somewhat on time.

A few weeks ago, we met up with a homeschool group (about 40 of us) at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for The Mozart Experience. Steve was able to go with us (thank God!) which allied my fears of crossing Michigan Ave by myself with the kids. We had checked out the parking garage situation the week before when we'd been to the Art Institute because I didn't want to be driving around the day of the symphony wondering where we were going to park. I'd chosen a garage around the corner, but, not thinking, it turned out to be $30 for the 2 hours we'd be there. $30! It was a hotel garage, but still. Thank God the Millennium lot was just $14 since the Auto Show was still going on.

We had seats in the upper balcony. It really was the perfect venue for the kids. The auditorium was gorgeous, with chandeliers and an ornate ceiling. I wished I had smuggled a drink in because they both started to complain of thirst just ten minutes into the program. Thankfully I had grapes in my purse which did the trick.

The Mozart Experience is a Kraft Foods Family Matinee performance (although this particular date and time was reserved for school groups). It's the story of a street musician (portrayed by an actor from the Magic Circle Mime Company) who finds herself thrust into the role of Mozart. The exciting part of the hour for my kids was when an actor came out dressed as Papageno from Mozart's Magic Flute Opera. We had just listened to the Classical Kids audio version of the story - something the kids LOVED and wanted played over and over again.

Tickets were only $8.50. A great price for the kid's first symphony experience.

Carnival of Unschooling - March Edition 2010

I was very honored to have this post chosen for the March edition of the Carnival of Unschooled Life. There are some great unschooling bloggers there, so please check out the carnival.

Books Read, CD's listened to, and DVDs Watched in February 2010

                                                                              Books Read

Smokey
Can Elephants Drink Through Their Noses?
Batman: The Story of Batman
Dinosaur Hunters
Pirates Past Noon (Magic Treehouse Book)
Pirate Mom
Mozart's Wig
The Best Nest
Play, Mozart, Play!
The Spooky Tail of Prewitt Peacock
Batman: Time Thaw
Why why did Pirates Bury Their Treasure?
Zero is the Leaves on the Tree
A Band of Dirty Pirates
Batman: Double Trouble
Young Cam Jansen and the Double Beach Mystery
The Wump World
Prehistoric Pinkerton
The Berenstain Bear's Science Fair
The Dragon's Scales: A Math Reader
Zella, Zach, and Zodiac
Can You Catch a Falling Star?
The BFG
Batman: Green Gotham

CD's Listened To

Eevil Weevil (book)

Meteor! (book)

Mozart's Magic Fantasy: a journey through the "Magic Flute"

Songs for Little Boys

Animal Tales - Jim Weiss storyteller

No Dogs Allowed! (book)

The Evergreens: Gentle Tales of Nature

DVD's Watched

Magic School Bus: Ready, Set, Dough!

James and the Giant Peach

Honey I Shrunk the Kids

Between the Lions: Season 2

Mozart's Magic Flute Story

Liberty's Kids

Ocean

Dinosaur George's Guide to Prehistoric Life

The Magic School Bus Gets Planted

The Reluctant Dragon

A Few of the First Batman Movies

Wonder Works Children's Museum

It had been a while since we had visited Wonder Works in Oak Park, so last week we headed there for a day of fun. It turned out to be almost literally a whole day, even though I had thought we'd only be there a few hours. I brought our lunch to eat, and even after lunch they wanted to go and go. We stayed there for five hours and even then it was more gentle nudges from me to go that we left than because they wanted to go on their own.

I hope you have fun through these pictures glimpsing a little of the fun we had there that day.

Alexa LOVED this little gas station. She'd ride the car around the museum, stop to fill up the tank, and then take off to do it all over again.

We'd never played puppets before on a puppet stage, so it was so much fun to watch the kids really get into that type of play.

We must have spent at least 45 just in the dress-up area. It really is the first thing they like to do during the day, especially for Jared.

They enjoyed putting on little concerts and dance performances in between costumes.

They met another little boy, who was probably near six, and had such a great time running up and down this tree house. They had one of those cloth tunnel things and would put it on the top of the stairs and slide down. They were so loud with laughing and giggling, almost to the point of screaming. I thought it was great, but I kept getting stares from other parents (well, mostly nannies) and people who worked there. It's just a shame that even in a place designed for play, people still think if children are making too much noise there must be something wrong.

Besides Alexa getting pinched pretty hard from a boy (who had just finished having a screaming match with whoever was with him), the kids had such fun playing a variety of other things before listening to Mozart's Magic Flute Story for children on the way home.