Drama

The favorable kind -  Musical/Theater...  Alexis spent a good many days in the spring and summer practicing voice, skits, and more in preparation for, Voices of Joy, her Musical/Drama group's performances which were held in pre-schools and nursing homes around the community.  Our homeschool group is extremely blessed to have a talented teacher (who is also a homeschool mom,) work with our students teaching them skills that bless so many.

Spring Classes-----   Alexis playing the step-mother in Cinderella.  The girls in this scene played the step-sisters.

The entertainer is preparing to entertain with The Entertainer at a nursing home.

One of many songs performed as a group.  This is not the group in it's entirety.

Summer Camp-----  These girls are performing Israel Kamakawiwoʻole's rendition of Over the Rainbow/Wonderful World.  Alexis sang a part from Wonderful World.  Notice the ukulele  My daughter now wants to play one...

Alexis was preparing to speak about Cassie Bernall from the Columbine High tragedy in this drama.  The skit was written by the drama teacher's daughter (a high school student,) and emphasized our need to trust our Lord.  It was an amazingly well thought out piece, and I imagine her daughter will go far with the writing ability that God has given her.

Book Review---

This probably seems a peculiar place to add a book review, however, this recommendation evolved out of the skit mentioned above, so I want to make mention of it here.  Just looking at Alexis, should tell you that she's a deep thinker.  When something has made an impression on her, she inquisitively wants to learn as much as she can about the subject at hand.  Working on this drama piece made Alexis want to understand why Cassie Bernall was killed.  How do you explain evil?  Certainly she sees it exists.  We read the Bible, she hears current events, bad things happen.  This skit made the reality of a profound devastation feel a touch closer I suppose.  As the saying goes, knowledge is power, so I thought it would be helpful to Alexis to choose a few books for her to read on the subject.  The first one is obviously - She Said Yes  The Unlikely Martyrdom of Cassie Bernall  which Alexis is actually reading right at the moment.  The 2nd book purchased is  - Rachael's Tears the Spiritual Journey of Columbine Martyr Rachael Scott written by her mother, and the 3rd book, which is the one I'm recommending today - The Journals of Rachael Scott: A Journey of Faith at Columbine High. The author chose to use excerpts of Rachael Scott's own personal journals to create this book.  She did a really good job.  It is not long, Alexis had it read within a day.  The end of each chapter sums up Rachael's spiritual questions by asking the reader to think through those same inquires themselves.  Rachael was well on her way to being someone great, somehow, someway.  The writings are impacting to the heart, not just my daughter's but mine as well.   I'm not sure if I can ever accurately explain to my child why God chose to use this beautiful little girl in such a way. This child full of thoughts, hopes, and dreams, full of obvious love for Him, full of compassion and concern for others - with a sense of knowing she still needed to mature in Christ even though she was amazingly more mature than the average teen. I can only begin to guess at His answers to my child's questions concerning evil.  My sense is that by reading Rachael's story, we can see the hope that laid in the midst of an outrageous tragedy.  May God bless her family.