Life Cycles

Last Friday, we went to see Emma in her stage debut. Emma's school partners with CAPE (Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education) on a school-wide program in which, throughout the year, each grade suspends regular curriculum for two weeks to focus on the intense study of one subject. The bulk of the time is spent creating a multimedia show on the subject in question, and the school then hosts a performance of the show for the students' families. Last week, it was the kindergartners' turn. All seven kindergarten classes (over 200 kids!) presented "The Cycle of Life Show," about the life cycles of plants and animals. In the days prior to the show, Emma had been talking our ears off about kinds of flowers and planting seeds and photosynthesis and meeting meteorologist Amy Freeze and learning songs and making costumes and lots, lots more. Let's just say, we were very excited to finally see what in the heck she'd been going on and on about, and SHE was very excited to show off her class's hard work.

Hard work, indeed. Simply put, I was blown away. I mean, we are talking 5-and-6-year-olds here, so my expectations going in were rather low. But the show was really fun and clever, and I had tears in my eyes watching all the little ones perform with such pride on their faces. I still can't wrap my head around all the things the teachers were able to get that age group to do. They amaze me. I feel such gratitude that we managed to find a school for Emma that recognizes and utilizes the performance arts as a vital means for teaching young children about the world. Emma now knows more about plants than I do! Honestly, I learned a lot from her these last few weeks...including the fact that she definitely seems to love the stage. Yikes. How does one teach a child to love Biology? Astrophysics? Advanced Mathematics? Anything that could lead to a career that is actually lucrative? Oh well, I guess we still have some time.

Here are a couple photos from the day, and a video highlight of the performance (mostly just Emma's parts). Enjoy!