The first three weeks of home-schooling, we were covering the senses and communication -- particularly with the eyes and ears. Several of our lessons talked about what life is like without those senses, and we learned a bunch by reading biographies of Helen Keller and Louis Braille. Last night, we had a chance to learn more about how deaf people communicate, and we had a great time doing so. Several weeks ago (before we decided to home school) I bought tickets for all of us to see Stuart Little. Will needed to see a live performance for a Cub Scout requirement, and when I saw that it was for children, and also signed, I was excited.
I guess I expected that there would be translators signing the script of the play so deaf people could understand the show. What was an awesome surprise was that the actors signed it all. In fact, two of the five actors were themselves deaf. The speaking actors did the speaking for all of them, but all five signed everything that was said. It was beautiful! It was also a perfect performance for the kids since it was only an hour long, several chase-scenes took the show through the audience, and there were other opportunies for the kids to be a little bit involved -- like cheering on Stuart during the regatta.
All four kids had a great time, and, afterwards, they got to talk or sign with the actors in the lobby. I let them each ask their questions to Jessica (Margalo the bird below) and JW (the gray cat) who were the two deaf actors.
Will proudly signed, "my name is Will," to each of them. Thankfully, one of the hearing actors was with each of them to help translate both ways, but I was glad to be able to follow a lot of their signs. I love it when these fun events can be such a rich learning experience for all of us!
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