Today was the spring concert at Jack's school. Like the winter concert, it was held in the church at Blessed Sacrament. It's a pretty intimidating space that was built between 1917 and 1919. It's a true Catholic church - beautiful stained glass windows and giant crucifix. Read more here and here.
The two PreK-3 classes performed together. This time around, Jack happily sat with his class and went right up on stage. This alone was a massive win over our experience in December. Jack sang his heart out and performed all the movements with energy. They did great.
At the end of the concert, the music teacher, Mr. T, recognized two students from each class as outstanding students. Our Jack was the boy from his class! It was great to see him get his award. He was beaming. For Justin and I, it was wonderful - our little boy, that had such a tough first few months at the school, was now shining and being recognized. For me, it's great to see music mean so much to Jack already (as it was such a big part of my childhood - and something I'd like to make a bigger part of our family).
Watch the performance here:
Now for the "how not to" part.
For whatever reason, Blessed Sacrament's administration doesn't understand the psyche of little kids. On the day of the concert, the kids arrive much later to school, don't bring their bags, and then sit through an hour of singing (in a strange place because they never go to the church) before going on stage to sing in front of a large audience full of their parents. Oh yea - during what is likely still naptime for many of these kids. Anyone else see failure written all over this?
Highlights from this concert:
The two PreK-3 classes performed together. This time around, Jack happily sat with his class and went right up on stage. This alone was a massive win over our experience in December. Jack sang his heart out and performed all the movements with energy. They did great.
At the end of the concert, the music teacher, Mr. T, recognized two students from each class as outstanding students. Our Jack was the boy from his class! It was great to see him get his award. He was beaming. For Justin and I, it was wonderful - our little boy, that had such a tough first few months at the school, was now shining and being recognized. For me, it's great to see music mean so much to Jack already (as it was such a big part of my childhood - and something I'd like to make a bigger part of our family).
Watch the performance here:
Now for the "how not to" part.
For whatever reason, Blessed Sacrament's administration doesn't understand the psyche of little kids. On the day of the concert, the kids arrive much later to school, don't bring their bags, and then sit through an hour of singing (in a strange place because they never go to the church) before going on stage to sing in front of a large audience full of their parents. Oh yea - during what is likely still naptime for many of these kids. Anyone else see failure written all over this?
Highlights from this concert:
- one of Jack's classmates threw up about 10 minutes into the concert (Jack was sitting next to him)
- as the children were coming in, the church asked a group of older women who were in the church praying to move - let's just say that their response was not exactly an example of Christian ideals.
- the first few performances were kind of bad, even for school concerts
- finally, the 1st graders rocked "Rock around the clock" - the PreK-4 class started dancing (read jumping) in their pews, adults started clapping - but the best is that the PreK-3s ended the clapping and it sounded like rain falling (it was great)
- then the parents - one word: clueless. this always explains when some kids are so unaware of the people around them.
Beyond all of this, it was truly wonderful to see Jack enjoying himself and having so much pride in what he'd learned. That makes it all worth it!
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