Last Co-op For The Spring

Today was the last Friday of our homeschool Co-op until fall. The ending is bittersweet. We are that much nearer to the end of the school year, but we won't see some of these friends again until fall. We moved to this area two and a half years ago and attended the co-op then, but the group of kids and the course offerings did not click with my kids. Then we took a year off to focus on academics only and to give ourselves time to let go of the old life and to embrace the changes that brought us to this new home and town. I hesitated to jump back into the co-op. After all, it hadn't worked before. This time was different and I am pleased we joined. I only wish my daughter had been able to participate. Being a senior this year she has spent her time taking classes at the community college. She has already moved beyond co-op age, emotionally.

For this eight week rotation my son took Medieval Art (taught by me), Shakespeare, and gym. In Medieval art we learned about the time period and the influence it had on the art that was created. We studied the Book of Kells http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Kells, Gothic architecture, stained glass, and Celtic knotwork. Shakespeare class was an exciting read-through of "The Taming of the Shrew"in preparation for a production of the same we will be putting on this September.

Today we submitted a request to use our church as the site for the play. We should find out after Monday night whether it was approved. We also finished casting today. My son is playing Lucentio:

Just as Bianca
is Katherine’s foil—her opposite—the intrepid, lovesick Lucentio
serves as a foil for Petruccio throughout the play. Lucentio reflects the sort
of idyllic, poetical view of love that Petruccio’s pragmatism dismisses:
Lucentio is struck by love for Bianca at first sight, says that he will die if
he cannot win her heart, and subsequently puts into motion a romantic and
fanciful plan to do so. Whereas love in the play is often mitigated by economic
and social concerns, Lucentio is swept up in a vision of courtly love that does
not include the practical considerations of men like Petruccio. Throughout much
of the play, then, Lucentio and Bianca’s relationship appears to be refreshing
and pure in comparison to the -relationship between Petruccio and Katherine.
Petruccio’s decision to marry is based on his self-proclaimed desire to win a
fortune, while Lucentio’s is based on romantic love. Moreover, while Petruccio
devotes himself to taming his bride, Lucentio devotes himself to submitting to
and ingratiating himself with his. While Petruccio stages his wedding as a
public spectacle, Lucentio elopes with Bianca.
The contrast between Lucentio
and Petruccio distinguishes The Taming of the Shrew from other Elizabethan
plays. Through Lucentio and Bianca, the play looks beyond the moment when the
romantic lovers are wed and depicts the consequences of the disguises and
subterfuges they have charmingly employed to facilitate their romance. Once the
practical business of being married begins, Lucentio’s preoccupation with
courtly love seems somewhat outmoded and ridiculous. In the end, it is
Petruccio’s disturbing, flamboyant pragmatism that produces a happy and
functioning marriage, and Lucentio’s poeticized instincts leave him humiliated
when Bianca refuses to answer his summons. Love certainly exists in the world of
The Taming of the Shrew, but Lucentio’s theatrical love, attractive though it
is, appears unable to cope with the full range of problems and considerations
facing married couples in adult life.