The Arts of Tibet

This year we decided to buy four season tickets to the events that come to the local Performing Arts Center.  Quick calculations revealed that the cost of a babysitter was the same as the cost of tickets for the kids, so taking them with us or leaving them at home makes no difference from a money point of view.

And I see the tickets as part of our education budget, as well.  When I was growing up my parents took me to lots of performing arts experiences, from the local community orchestra and Gilbert and Sullivan group they were parts of to the avant garde events at the local University, to the Seattle Opera, Symphony, and Pacific Northwest Ballet.  It was a big part of my life, and of my homeschool education.

We took the catalog of possible events and went through it as a family, marking the things everyone was interested in, and then narrowing down the selections to a reasonable amount for our budget.

Some of the things the kids picked were obvious choices from a kids point of view (The Stunt Dog Experience?  Of course!), but I was surprised at their pick of The Mystical Arts of Tibet.



It was a great choice, though, and a great opportunity for a short unit study on Tibet.

We read a couple books: Our Journey from Tibet , and Learning from the Dalai Lama.

We watched some videos about mandala art, which inspired Hypatia to make her own mandala design. I was impressed that she did this project on her own: her own idea, her own work, her own time as it took a long time to do all the detailed coloring, and her own pleasure at the result.

As part of the event, the monks were making a sand mandala and it was open to the public to come view in process throughout the week.  We visited it in progress and watched them at work - it's really an amazing process as they shake the sand out with so much precision and care.

And then the performance (which I had to miss for work unfortunately) had music and dance and has inspired some dance and performance of their own today.