Field Trips

This week was so packed with activities that I called any formal school off for the week. On Monday, Matthew went with Rachel to Veritas to take the ITBS tests,since Georgia state law requires standardized testing at the end of 3rd, 6th, 9th and 12th grade. On Tuesday we went to another concert at Spivey Hall; this one was an Irish music and dance duo. We have seen them before, a couple of years ago, and really looked forward to seeing them again. I love Irish, Scottish and Celtic music, and Matthew...well...have I ever mentioned Matthew's folk dancing obsession? It is pretty well over with now, but starting from the time he was about 3, Matthew loved to do his own hilariously crazy version of Irish folk dancing / clogging. It was so funny, and I really wish I had some video of it. This lasted until around the age of 10...we were treated daily to a wild display of flying feet and flailing limbs. He definitely knew his reels and jigs! When we went to the Spivey Hall concert, the girl half of the duo was both a fiddle player and a ceili dancer. She was great, and I could see in Matt's eyes that it had rekindled his old flame...when she asked for volunteers his hands flew up faster than a leprechaun disappears with a pot of gold. He was sad not to get chosen to go on stage, just as he had not been chosen the last time we had come to their concert. I felt bad for him, but more than that, it warmed my heart a little and made me smile inside that he is still enough of my little boy (inside a teenager body) to not be ashamed to give in to something the little kid in him wanted to do. The Riverdancer lives on.
Wednesday brought a return to more manly activities for him, as he went to a "Wilderness Class". His teacher revisited some basics he has already learned in Boy Scouts, but that a boy can never really get too much of. He learned about making tinder for fires, using a flint, finding your way out of a forest when you're lost and other survival necessities. Because, as we all know, Henry county can be a savage and desolate wilderness.