Kitchen Table Theater

[Cross-posted from one of my other blogs--L]

As most of you know, we homeschool, which for us means we take teachable moments as they arise. And so I present to you two scenes from Kitchen Table Theater:

SCENE ONE -- BREAKFAST

[Background: Though we are a Pagan family, we are a literate family and Josie has been reading stories in her children's Bible out loud to Louisa; anyone who lives in Western civilization needs to know the stories whether one believes them as holy writ or not. We have also, over the years, read a lot of Beezus and Ramona stories by Beverly Cleary; they're set here in Portland after all. You may already sense where this is going...

Description: The kitchen, where Mama is doing dishes, Josie is writing her name in blueberries in her yogurt, and Louisa is tracing letters in her yogurt with a spoon because she doesn't like blueberries.]

LOU: Look Mama, I marked it with a B!

MAMA: Oh, "for baby and me?"

LOU: No, mama, for Beezus Christ!

MAMA: [speechless]

[fade to black]

SCENE TWO -- LUNCH THE NEXT DAY

[Background: We're getting ready to start up the formal school year in September; though we usually don't take official breaks, the events of this spring required that Mama take a good long rest.

Description: The kitchen, where Josie, Louisa and Mama are eating a deelishush meal of tomato soup and grilled cheese sammiches, except for Jo who hates cheese so she's having PB&J. Josie and Mama are talking about what we're going to study in the fall; Louisa is making faces at herself in the reflection of the Russell-Hobbes electric kettle. Mama has just concluded a list of subjects that will be required study.]

MAMA: So Jo, what do YOU want to study this year?

JO: Politics, like how elections work.

MAMA: Very good, we have an election coming up in November, we'll see if we can find a campaign that we can follow that wouldn't mind fielding questions from a little kid.

[Mama gives a very brief, 9-year-old-level precis of how the federal government is structured.]

MAMA: And OUR representative in this district, Josie, is a guy named Earl Blumenauer. He's a very interesting fellow who wears bow ties and likes to ride his bike everywhere.

JO: Oh! Just like Pee Wee Herman!

MAMA: [speechless]

[fade to black]

---

I swear I don't coach them.