Going to the Symphony!

Frankenstein!!
Friday, October 19, 2007 at 8:00 p.m.

We spent this morning in Baltimore at the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra as they open the last dress rehearsal up to school groups. My friends Homeschool group had reserved seats for us. The upcoming symphony is Frankenstein and looked really cool. In reality, we have never been to the symphony before so this was really kind of special - but the rehearsal was just that and they played the same section over several times. As it wore on, most of the kids got bored so we left. But I think it was a neat experience overall. The first violinist was so animated! I think this was inspiring for Lex who has been struggling recently with her violin. As the pieces become more difficult, she doesn't enjoy playing as much. But her teacher has really been encouraging and it was good to see that even those professionals, who you think are perfect are still practicing the same section over and over!

But now, I would like to actually save up the money to go for real! The conductor composed a piece that was his interpretation of the Frankenstein character, based upon Mary Shelly's book.

The one theme that you find over and over with unschooling is that one thing leads to another. We recognized some of the bits of the song and my friend went home and looked it up and we played it. The kids came in and out while that particular CD was playing and remarked that they recognized that piece. Well, they should as they heard the little sections several times! Then, we want to read the original book - which leads my husband to quoting the silly lines from the Frankenstein movie (the spoof one) - which now I need to go rent.

I will say that Chase was not as inspired and had bioncles in his backpack ;-) But he is like that and seems to need something to do with his hands as he listens. This applies whether it is reading or TV. He doesn't sit still very long to watch or listen and you would almost think he is not paying any attention and then he will come out with something profound that lets you know he really was listening.

I really thought for us that this was a neat experience, because going to the symphony is so costly for our family. If we had waited around for the whole rehearsal they would have had Q&A. I was kind of bummed to miss that but really the kids had met their limit and we wanted to respect that.

Overall, it was a really interesting day!
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