george washington and the gingerbread house

Warning:
Shameless Mommy Bragging...Bloggagging?

Tuesday night, E had her final park district acting class, and all of the families were invited to see the "performance." Now, I knew she had a flair for the dramatic and since piano does not come easy for her, I wanted to sign her up for a class that would be an easy, fun creative outlet for her. She had always come home from the class happy, and I occasionally ran lines with her for a skit she was assigned (She played Lucy from the Peanuts gang opposite her friend M who played Linus). She seemed to do fine, she always has great inflection when she reads, and I figured she'd do okay and it would be cute.

Wow though, the teacher had them do all these fun improv type exercises where they had to walk around the room in "their own little world" until she gave them a suggestion and then they had to act it out. They had this huge array of costumes and props and were given the freedom to just be creative and put themselves out there. E was just so in her element, so at ease, so comfortable with herself, she was like...shining.

The skits went well, but my favorite part was another improv thing they did. E was asked to be the "storyteller" and sit in a chair. The rest of the kids were told to put on any costume they felt like. Then the teacher asked the audience to shout out a noun, a verb, and another noun. The response was "George Washington" "Eats" and "A house" It was E's job to tell a story while the other kids acted it out that somehow told the story of GW eating a house.

I thought to myself, "Oh no, how's she going to pull this off?" Well, here's how:

She scanned the other kids, one of whom was wearing a rat nose (he also had a hook for a hand, but that's besides the point) and she got this confident smile on her face.

She proceeded to tell the story of how a family was gathered for Christmas. They were decorating the tree and making a gingerbread house. (So all the kids start pantomiming that) I'm like....oooooohkeeeey where is she going with this?...The poor kid.

Suddenly, she says, their pet hamster, who was named after their favorite president, George Washington, jumped up onto the table while they were distracted by the tree and proceeded to eat the gingerbread house. So that's the story of how George Washington ate a house.

The audience was so impressed, none more so than myself, that she pulled that off in such a funny clever way. I was so proud of her. Mostly, I am so happy that she found something that she really has a knack for and likes to do.

I keep going back to how the teacher told them to be in "their own little worlds." And at first that made me laugh because I am constantly telling E to, "get OUT of her own little world" and...insert any of the following phrases : get dressed, put on your back pack, finish your homework, concentrate, find your shoes, flush the toilet...you name it. Then it made me sad because she's such a creative, albeit spacy, little girl and I'm such a nag so much of the time. I'm very glad she's had the opportunity for someone to tell her, "Go ...BE in your own little world" and give her freedom to use her creativity.

Needless to say, I signed her up for the same teacher's all improv class in January.