The Evolution of the Talent Show

Before Christmas was upon us our home school academy was advertising for a talent show in February. I mentioned it to Kaeley and was all about getting on stage for something... anything! That was all fine and good until I realized she wanted to dance. Kaeley is not trained in dance in anyway. The thought of having other people have to watch someone else's six year old dance a made-up dance just really didn't work for me. Now that I've been to a talent show I think we could make her idea work for us, but at that time, several months ago, I said there was no way in heck that I was going to let her dance on stage. She didn't want to sing. She doesn't know how to play any instruments. Great. What else is there to do for a talent show?

Kaeley was in tears during our conversation over what on earth she was going to do for this public show. What to do? What to do? I said that maybe her talents were better for museums or non-stage performances. She is good at cooking, crafts, and she enjoys reading books. How do you translate that to the stage?

Finally, while her face was buried in my tummy in despair, she looked up at me with tear-filled eyes. She pathetically and quietly said, "I could read a book." I thought that was better than dancing, but again... how to translate that to the stage. Oh, and she said, "I want to either make the people laugh or cry." :) Okay, Anne Shirley.

Our journey through the mind bender moved on and finally we settled on her memorizing, which she's very good at, three short Shel Silverstein poems. For the past two months we practiced "The Prayer of the Selfish Child", "What Did?", and "Shaking".

Yesterday morning was the fateful day. Kaeley was so excited! She wanted to know who was coming, and then would remind me who was coming so as not to forget to save a seat. She wanted to know if Nathan and Alynna would be going to class. I told her I didn't think they were. "Oh, good," she said, "I want them to watch me." She might as well have been starring in a one-woman-show.

Finally, it was the night. It was an incredibly busy night. The day had been awful! I was just not in the mood to be a mommy of young children. Yes, I was a bad mommy. I went to three stores, all of which were supposed to have something I wanted, and none of them added up the way they were supposed to. Nathan ate some Hydro-Cortisone Cream, because it looked like toothpaste to him. Kaeley could not understand the math. Did I mention I was not in the mood? I called Brad and we decided to meet early for a dinner at McDonald's. This way I had something to look forward to.

I realized too late that I should have been walking out the door to meet Brad. I ran around quickly getting everyone, including myself, dressed for the show. We walked into the rainy night and I realized that Alynna had no shoes on. I ran back inside, put shoes on her, ran back downstairs, and realized I had locked myself out of the house! Once that was all set and I was driving off I, of course, got stuck behind quite a long train.

Long story short my nerves were shot, the McDonald's dinner was hurried, but a treat.

One of the biggest thrills of the night was seeing our pew full of supporting family members. My in-laws, mother, sister-in-law, niece, and two nephews were there to cheer Kaeley on. It meant so much to me, because this was an hour and a half show and Kaeley's time equalled a minute on a good day. Kaeley was thrilled beyond words to have such a showering of support.

When it was almost her turn I offered to go up with her and sit in the front seat to help if she forgot her lines or something. Of course, she said that she could do it herself. And do it herself she did! She ran up to that stage, quickly said her poems through a shy smile, and sat back down. We were all so proud of her courage and achievement.