Day 1.014: Motley crew

One of the advantages of not having just called today "Day 379" is that it is immediately obvious that it is the anniversary of my one and only totally missed day since this blog was started (Day 14). The other anniversary (adjusted for day-of-the-week) is of the annual Shakespeare performance at the school. Last year Exile #3 had only done about 5 days of school thanks to a string of illnesses and this year she nearly missed it too. Twice. Yesterday, she was sent home at lunchtime with a fever. That's that, we thought she can't go to school tomorrow. In the end Exile #2 took her in at lunchtime when she went to collect Exile #4. About half an hour before I was due to leave work to go up to school this evening, I got a phone call to say that Exile #3 might be sick again and this time we were almost certain that she would miss out.

In the end, for better or worse, she was granted a reprieve and allowed to perform. She did really well, holding her own with her first-grade class mates in a dramatised reading of Nothing by Jon Agee.

Exile #4 was also on good form as the 3 and 4 year olds - motley hats and all - performed some vaguely Elizabethan dancing and my favourite song from Exile #3's performance last year (complete with actions):

I'll build a teapot big enough for two,
Big enough for two, my darling,
Big enough for two.
I'll build a teapot big enough for two,
Under the greenwood, under the greenwood tree.

I'll be T.H.I.N.E. thine if you'll be M.I.N.E. mine
And I will L.O.V.E. love you all the T.I.M.E. time.
When we are married happy we will be
Under the greenwood, under the greenwood tree,
With tea.

The rest of the school all did some Shakespeare-related items. The 2/3s featured him in The Boy, the Bear, the Baron, the Bard, the 4/5s did a Shakespeare-themed "Are You Smarter than a 4/5th Grader?" and we had (edited for length) Macbeth from the 8th Grade and an (edited for length and political-incorrectness) Taming of the Shrew from the 6/7s. Top stuff.

Exile #2 said she thought it was better than last year - then she elaborated - "I didn't understand a word of it last time." From a graduated student of English Literature that's sad really. Of course, she said it was because last year she wasn't tuned into the local accents yet. Forsooth.