On Monday Jack participated in his first Thanksgiving program. To be clear, it was his first ever anything program.
As a homeschooling parenting this is one of those things I was sad to think might never happen. Luckily, another mom took it upon herself to organize a homeschool Thanksgiving program.
There was also a time, a few years ago, when Jack never would have agreed to something like this. I've always been slow to push my children into any activity, so when I brought this up I thought he might immediately say no. I think I started the conversation with something like: "Now hear me out before you say anything..."
After telling him that the program would be full of his friends from art class and that everyone would sing the songs together, he shrugged and said "Ok!" To my delight, he actually enjoyed learning the three assigned songs: "My Country Tis of Thee," "Over the River and Through the Woods" and "This Land is Your Land."
We practiced them for about two weeks. Only once, after about eight straight days of singing the songs, did he complain about it being boring, which by that time I felt the same way.
The children chose either a Pilgrim hat or Indian headpiece to wear for the program. We had to make them ourselves based on some links the organizing mom sent out. Because I desire to be crafty, but am not, I got our babysitter to make them one afternoon when she was at the house:-)
It was a wonderful program. Some of the children had reading and speaking parts. Each child also had to stand and say what he or she was thankful for. We ended the program with a Thanksgiving feast prepared by all the parents.
You'll notice Mattie in some of the pictures below. This was the practice session before the program. Stage fright hit big time once the dads and grandparents started filing in. She sat grumpily with Matt and me throughout the actual program. She was fine come feast time, which is typical. Everything for this child is food related!
