The Little Prince
Today we went on our first Home Education Co-op Excursion.
We went to see Spare Parts Puppet Theatre's The Little Prince.
We drove to Fremantle, and parked near the Esplanade park, then walked to the theatre. I had underestimated the time required for the boy to walk—not because of the distance, but because there was so much to see! Cars, bikes, trucks, footpath sweepers, people! He was terribly excited just from that!
It wasn't the first theatre Puggle had seen (although, it was Bilby's first performance). That was Jigsaw Theatre Company's adaptation of Shaun Tan's The Lost Thing.
This was his first 'real' theatre (as opposed to a performance space). He got to sit in his own big seat with arms:-) As it ended up, he was in a seat in front of me, next to another 3 year old boy (whose mother was beside me). Bilby was on my lap where I thought she would go to sleep. (She didn't. She watched intently almost the whole thing. A brief pause to feed, and a couple of minutes being held in a sleep position by another mother, but the rest of the time was watching the stage.)
I reached out to reassure him as the house lights went down, but really, I needn't have bothered. He was completely fascinated. He barely looked around. He didn't really giggle at the initial non-verbal exchanges, but he was intently focussed. He remained that way for the first two thirds of the show (aside from a quick glance around after a while at the step lights). He watched the Little Prince meet the king and the business man. As he met the geographer (and I fortunately just finished feeding Bilby!) he turned around almost in tears and said he wanted to sit beside me... I passed Bilby to my neighbouring mother, and lifted him over to my lap. He certainly sat close, but was definitely still watching!
More movement later, we were sitting side by side, with Bilby back on my lap. Then the play ended. Once again, he was almost in tears asking 'Where are they going?' I think he found the transition difficult as the actors returned to the stage as themselves to answer questions. He was definitely excited as they showed how the fox's tail worked, in response to a question.
Afterwards, we walked back to the car (quickly, as I was worried I wouldn't make it back in time to replace the ticket) and joined the others in the park for a picnic lunch, then a play on the equipment (amongst all the school kids on their excursions!)
All up, it was great fun. Next time (and there will be a next time, this was too good to miss!), I think we'll plan on going ourselves (although, I may tag along with the homeschool group booking, just not with so many folks we know). We'll use the train to get there as the theatre is so close to the station. And we'll just have our lunch in the park adjacent to the theatre. That will make it much easier to talk about the play without getting distracted with cars and people and playgrounds. The big thing that disappointed me today was that with everything else, I didn't take the time to sit and chat with Puggle while things were fresh in his mind. He remembers a couple of bits, but I think he would have taken more in with more immediate re-inforcement. I think he had plenty to process and absorb, but I didn't really allow him time to do that.
We are now reading The Little Prince. I vaguely thought about doing so before, but then decided not to. It may have allowed him to understand the play a bit more. It's been a while since I read it, and I'm not sure how close to the book the play was, but if it is particularly different, I worried that it might put a greater distance between him and the play as it didn't align with what he knew of the story, so I decided against it. I had planned to just read one section at a time (the book is divided into nice short bites), but he's been keen to have a few more:-)
All up, a good day:-)
We went to see Spare Parts Puppet Theatre's The Little Prince.
We drove to Fremantle, and parked near the Esplanade park, then walked to the theatre. I had underestimated the time required for the boy to walk—not because of the distance, but because there was so much to see! Cars, bikes, trucks, footpath sweepers, people! He was terribly excited just from that!
It wasn't the first theatre Puggle had seen (although, it was Bilby's first performance). That was Jigsaw Theatre Company's adaptation of Shaun Tan's The Lost Thing.
This was his first 'real' theatre (as opposed to a performance space). He got to sit in his own big seat with arms:-) As it ended up, he was in a seat in front of me, next to another 3 year old boy (whose mother was beside me). Bilby was on my lap where I thought she would go to sleep. (She didn't. She watched intently almost the whole thing. A brief pause to feed, and a couple of minutes being held in a sleep position by another mother, but the rest of the time was watching the stage.)
I reached out to reassure him as the house lights went down, but really, I needn't have bothered. He was completely fascinated. He barely looked around. He didn't really giggle at the initial non-verbal exchanges, but he was intently focussed. He remained that way for the first two thirds of the show (aside from a quick glance around after a while at the step lights). He watched the Little Prince meet the king and the business man. As he met the geographer (and I fortunately just finished feeding Bilby!) he turned around almost in tears and said he wanted to sit beside me... I passed Bilby to my neighbouring mother, and lifted him over to my lap. He certainly sat close, but was definitely still watching!
More movement later, we were sitting side by side, with Bilby back on my lap. Then the play ended. Once again, he was almost in tears asking 'Where are they going?' I think he found the transition difficult as the actors returned to the stage as themselves to answer questions. He was definitely excited as they showed how the fox's tail worked, in response to a question.
Afterwards, we walked back to the car (quickly, as I was worried I wouldn't make it back in time to replace the ticket) and joined the others in the park for a picnic lunch, then a play on the equipment (amongst all the school kids on their excursions!)
All up, it was great fun. Next time (and there will be a next time, this was too good to miss!), I think we'll plan on going ourselves (although, I may tag along with the homeschool group booking, just not with so many folks we know). We'll use the train to get there as the theatre is so close to the station. And we'll just have our lunch in the park adjacent to the theatre. That will make it much easier to talk about the play without getting distracted with cars and people and playgrounds. The big thing that disappointed me today was that with everything else, I didn't take the time to sit and chat with Puggle while things were fresh in his mind. He remembers a couple of bits, but I think he would have taken more in with more immediate re-inforcement. I think he had plenty to process and absorb, but I didn't really allow him time to do that.
We are now reading The Little Prince. I vaguely thought about doing so before, but then decided not to. It may have allowed him to understand the play a bit more. It's been a while since I read it, and I'm not sure how close to the book the play was, but if it is particularly different, I worried that it might put a greater distance between him and the play as it didn't align with what he knew of the story, so I decided against it. I had planned to just read one section at a time (the book is divided into nice short bites), but he's been keen to have a few more:-)
All up, a good day:-)
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