Circus School

There are quite a few children that travel with the show (though most are in trailers and not on the train) so there is a teacher that also travels with us. It must be a really challenging job for a teacher, not just because there varies between 10 and 14 students, ranging from Kindergarten through to 9th grade but also the different languages and the main hurdle, a class room in a different location every week. If they are lucky class will be in a fair sized room with desks and chairs and far enough away from the arena floor that the children are not distracted by the music. Oh and Internet connection is always a bonus. Some times the buildings have very limited space and rooms and on the odd occasion the school will be situated in a private box with just a curtain separating them from the show taking place beside them. Those weeks it is a struggle.

The lucky thing about the school at the moment though is Miss Sara Greenback who is an amazing teacher and Mrs Darcy Ford who helps her. I really am in awe of them and how they manages to get so much accomplished. They have some how managed to make a school that the children seem to enjoy going to (in fact some times it seems they can't get rid of them), but also have been learning as well. The lower grades are taught using The Calvert School which is really good and the higher grades use The American School, both via distant learning systems.

Willow seems to really embrace this type of learning though I'm sure it wouldn't and isn't for everyone. She loves working at her own pace and putting in extra work which has helped her get ahead a grade. Academically she has become quite competitive, we wonder sometimes where she has got this from. Her favourite subject is mathematics and again we wonder where she has got this from. On both counts though we are not complaining.

http://homeschool.calvertschool.org/

Wilkes-Barre OH

So we weren't expecting much for Wilkes-Barre and that's what we got, there really isn't much there from a visitors point of view but that doesn't mean we didn't have a good time here.

The train was parked in an OK place, near civilisation and a few shops and quite a lot of fast food places. So close in fact we had to step into Pizza Huts car park to get out. This was much more preferable than the majority of the train though who had to leave the train via a swamp.

The arena this week was also near lots of shops and a mall. It was quite hard to not buy stuff we don't really need since there was not much else to do here but wander the shops.

Wilkes-Barre was not just about shopping though, it was also about Halloween and even though I am aware the US go in for the whole 'Tick or Treat' more than the UK I didn't really understand to what level until I experienced it. So many houses decorated and I don't mean just a pumpkin on the door step, I mean really decorated just as over the top as people get at Christmas.

One thing that we are lucky with in the circus (and not just this one) is we are a small community and the children all had a great time 'Trick and Treating'. Between shows all the children in the nursery and school gathered together and attacked on mass. First they went to the concourse and collected from everyone in the concessions and some of the staff from the actual building, before the doors were opened to let the public in. Then they moved on down to the dressing rooms and offices. Willow collected so much she could not lift her bag and we had to empty it before we could carry on. Tweedy and Alex changed there dressing room into a haunted house that everyone had to clamber into before they could get their candy. All in all it was a very successful haul and we have enough sugar to keep us going for quite a while. Then it was back to the school and nursery for a party.

The Halloween celebrations didn't stop there though as there was no evening show that night, a party had been planned and the clowns had resurrected an old tradition of a haunted clown car. Most people dressed up but I wasn't sure if I was going to bother so ended up throwing something together last minute (oh dear I really am starting to take after my Mum). The clowns did an amazing job transforming car 38 and they took donations and raised $200 for the school and nursery (so thank you to them all for that). Willow decided she wanted to go in and Tweedy had said to me she would be OK to go through. Well I shan't be listening to his advice on stuff like that again. Even though they toned it down for us she was still pretty scared and decided she wanted to go home not to long after, so that was the end of my night.