My kids are turning into live theater snobs. We go to the theater so much with our homeschool group that they get offended and disappointed when they’re not sitting in box seats. Like, “We have to sit down here? With these plebeians?” It’s one of those perks of homeschooling you don’t hear about before you start. But it’s awesome.
When I was a teacher, I used to attend 1-2 shows a year with my students that my fellow teachers would arrange. After I started homeschooling, another homeschool mom posted the local theater’s childrens’ offerings for the upcoming school year and I realized that there were all sorts of shows throughout the entire year we could attend, shows that bring books to life, expose my children to other cultures, and bring home positive messages about friendship, community, and being yourself.
The cost of a ticket? $5 a student and chaperones were free! $20 for an afternoon of live quality theater, of being transported to another time and place. Usually, these shows are geared just for kids, with actors and conductors taking questions after the show or explaining how things backstage work. It’s an experience like no other.
And the first-class treatment ain’t bad, either.
Whenever we tell people at the theater that we’re homeschoolers, they usher us past the lines of schoolchildren waiting in the hot Florida heat to get inside, straight into the theater and usually to the best seats in the house. We’ve been to more shows in the past year than I’ve been to in my entire life. So much so that my kids recognize the performers from the same theater companies. (“Oooh! I love her! She was the penguin in Madagascar!”)
In fact, we’ve been to so many awesome programs this past year that we are starting to get picky about the ones we attend. (And that’s good because there’s over a dozen shows to choose from, and that’s just through January.)
I take that as a good sign, that we have refined our tastes and our interests, and only go to the things we truly enjoy. Another bit of magic on our homeschool journey.