A New Project

And, no, it's not an academic project, but another theatrical experience.

RobotBoy has been cast to help "workshop" a new opera. The piece has been in development for several years, led by a team from New York. However, they are now in residence for about two and a half weeks at an arts center not too far from our home. There is a part in the piece for a nine-year-old boy, and they opted to cast someone local. They took on RobotBoy based on the recommendation of someone who knows him from other things he's done in the area.

So, here we are, in this gorgeous setting. The center is located inside a nature preserve, with facilities for pretty much every kind of creative endeavor tucked among the palmettos and wax myrtles. We have a private room set aside for us for the nights when we want to stay over or just to hang out in comfortably between rehearsals. It's peaceful and so beautiful. And RobotBoy is having an incredible experience working with professional singers and the composer and librettist of the piece.

The only downside? Well, not much school is getting done.

We did manage relatively normal days Monday and Tuesday, and I "gently encouraged" RobotBoy to do some work on what would normally have been a free Wendesday. But from Wednesday evening on, we've been either at the arts center or on the road there and back.

Actually, I'm typing this on one of their computers while waiting for RobotBoy to come out of a rehearsal. So, I'll have to rely on memory to try and recap what we did this week.

Math:
He completed four lessons this week and is now perilously close to finishing the FLVS course. All that's left are the module exam, the final oral exam and the semester exam. He has simply aced this last module, which has been about charts and graphs and probablity. I'd really like him to maintain the current grade, though. So, I've encouraged him to hold off of the tests until he's better rested and able to focus. We're hoping to finish those up by the middle of next week. After that, it's on to Painless Algebra.

History/Literature:
All I can remember him doing on this front this week is continuing to read Dragon's Gate. He has been reading quite a lot for fun in the car and in other spare moments. He zoomed through the fourth of Dorothy Hoobler's samurai novels, A Samurai Never Fears Death, and one and a half of Garth Nix's Keys to the Kingdom series. He's also very much enjoying listening to Five Children and It (courtesty of LibriVox) on the mp3 player her got for Christmas. They all, I suppose, technically fit our modern history timeline. Right? Oh, and we did read a couple more chapters of Great Expectations. RobotBoy has gotten much more interested in the story again now that the mysterious benefactor has made himself known.

English:
Hmm. Well, he's supposed to be writing an essay about theatre this week. We did some brainstorming, and he wrote the outline, but I guess that's something else we'll have to catch up on next week.

Science:
It was another fairly low-key week for science. RobotBoy read from The Human Body and Earth's Waters, watched a couple of Bill Nye episodes and did part of the Earth's Waters Chapter 2 Review.

Latin:
It was back to Minimus Secundus this week, Chapter 6 (I think) about Saturnalia. He got as far as translating the picture story before or routine broke down.

Spanish:
I'm pretty sure he did a couple of pages of ejercios Monday and Tuesday?

I don't think he touched Themes to Remember, so poor old Schubert will have to wait in line. However, given that he's spending two or more weeks working on an opera, I guess he's not exactly "falling behind?"

He did make it to his piano lesson, during which he happily started his new Level 3 book. He also made it to ballet on Tuesday and choir rehearsal on Thursday. And on Monday evening, he attended the first rehearsal/class for the junior production of Pirates of Penzance. He will be playing Samuel, whom the director describes and the Pirate King's "second in command." He has loved Gilbert and Sullivan in general, and this show in particular, for a few years. So, I'm sure he'll have a grand time.

And you know what just occured to me? Gilbert and Sullivan fit into our modern world history era for this year. Bonus! (That's what we call a "two-fer" around here: When something fun that we'd probably do anytway just happens to justify academic credit.)

I'm sure I'd be even more excited about that were it not for the knowledge hanging over my head (like the heavy clouds in the sky) that after we finish here for the day we're off to spend the weekend camping with RobotBoy's choir. We got all kinds of camping equipment for Christmas, so we're well prepared. And RobotBoy is pretty excited. Now all we have to do is cross our fingers that the rain and thunderstorms predicted for tonight and tomorrow don't wash us and all our equipment away . . .

Or that we don't get attacked by bears . . .