Toastmasters

Madison is excited about the lines she has for this upcoming weekend's script.  She plays the character Constance, who is one of the Baker Street Irregulars.  Our bottom line is "The Game's Afoot," and has a bit to do with determination, and not letting anyone look down upon you because you're young.  That said, here's a small bit of her dialogue for this weekend:

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MOLLY:  “The regular guard is taking a lunch break.  He’s eating there at Sconehenge, and should be back any moment now.”

IRENE:  “So you’re the guard now?  That seems irregular.”

TABITHA, SYLVIA, and CONSTANCE enter STAGE RIGHT.  TABITHA is holding a few pieces of paper bundled together.

WATSON:  “Speaking of which…”

LESTRADE:  “Oh, the Baker Street Irregulars.  Tell us, oh wise and noble detectives.  What clue have you found for us this time?”

TABITHA:  “We think someone is planning to turn all the power off around here.”

VIOLET:  “What makes you think that?”

TABITHA:  (hands VIOLET the papers)  “Because of this.”

VIOLET:  (reading) “How to turn the power off around here.  (turning to everyone else) Now why would someone want to do that?”

MYCROFT:  “Probably because these nasty little miscreants don’t want to go to school tomorrow.  See?  You’ve got no power, you’ve got no school.”

CONSTANCE:  “And you’ve got no brains.  Bam!  What!?”

TABITHA and SYLVIA high five CONSTANCE.

TABITHA:  “Good one.  That’ll teach him.”

MYCROFT:  “What are you talking about?”

CONSTANCE:  “If you look down on others, you’re not very bright.”

SYLVIA:  “Yeah, I think his IQ test came back negative.”

TABITHA and CONSTANCE high five SYLVIA.

LESTRADE:  “What’s all this then?  I say, I don’t know why Sherlock Holmes ever asked this rabble to help him find clues.”

VIOLET:  “Now hold on a moment, you!  The Good Book is pretty clear about this sort of thing.  It says not to look down on anyone because of their youth, and that’s what you’re doing, see?”

IRENE:  “She does have a point.”

VIOLET:  “You shouldn’t look down on anyone for that matter.  Unless of course you’re at the top of London Tower, then you probably have to look down on people on account you’re so high up and all.”

MYCROFT:  “Uh… right.  This is all good and well, but so far we don’t have much to go on with clues.”

******

The "Bam!  What?" is a quote from Madison's current favorite television show, "Liv and Maddie."  She watches this a lot lately, pretty much as soon as she gets home.  She has a iPad mini, and she watches one episode a day - sometimes more.  It's part of her "getting home" routine, where she eats whatever Mommy has prepared for her, and watches this show.  One of the character's catch phrases is "Bam!  What?"  So Daddy inserted that in there for fun.  Even though it makes NO SENSE to me.

Anyway, she'll have fun with the role this weekend.  She's so excited about it, and has been asking Daddy for a speaking role for some time now. 

Speaking of other things she's looking forward to, this week we signed her up for the next round of enrichment classes after school on Wednesdays.  This time around, Madison has signed up for one of two (basically you get to choose one, and if it is full, the second one is there as well).  First, there's photography.  Madison is wanting to try this out now, and why not?  She just needs a camera.  In fact, she's got that on her Christmas list.

Yes, she's written her list to Santa.  It's two pages long!  But it features mostly art supplies and coloring things, which is pretty awesome.  Yes, "Wonder Woman" is there, along with some costuming.  But she seems in an artistic mode lately.

Which brings us back to photography.  This will be a great thing for her, although she does seem to have a natural eye for composition.  Back in May when she was taking pictures for Summer Xtreme's filming, she took a lot of really good candid pictures.

And speaking of Summer Xtreme, we met today to talk about our next story line for this upcoming summer's video.  It's going to be a return - one last chapter - of our Heroes characters, another live action movie.  The villain this time around will be more crafty and intelligent than previous ones, less of a "strong" character and more of a "devious" one.  He'll be the most challenging yet, of course.  

Back to the after school enrichment class:  the back-up class that Madison is signing up for, in case the photography class is full, is "Toast Masters."  This is the person in charge of heating up bread for everyone else, and making sure butter and jam are available to spread on this crispy bread.  

Yeah, that's not true.  It's actually a public speaking class.  When most of us hear the word "toast," we either think of the bread, or a few small words in honor of a bride and groom at a wedding.  But apparently a toastmaster is a host of a public speaking event.  Looking this term up, apparently it is not used as much as it was about fifty years ago, so we shouldn't feel so bad.  But it sounds like a word we should use more often, doesn't it?  A toastmaster sounds like someone who has earned a degree in toasting, after years of experience with toasts.  Mess with a toastmaster, and yes, you're toast.  Perhaps when you achieve your rank of toastmaster, you get into a secret organization with a secret handshake.  You meet monthly in windowless rooms and discuss the events of the world, and talk about how to further control them.  Yes, the toastmasters are behind the scenes, ruling the world!  

What are we getting our daughter into?

Obviously, it's just a class that helps people with public speaking.  Her homeroom teacher Mr. Reed is the one who hosts this class, and we felt it would be very helpful for Madison.  While she is fearless on stage (see above about being an actress), she still has a good ways to go with her speech.  She didn't have the head start that her classmates had, and so there are plenty of words and ways of speaking that need to be developed.  Speech classes at this school have not really been beneficial to her, but her homeroom teacher is at least acknowledging that this is an area she needs to work on.  That said, this class we feel will be really useful.

Of course, she can only take one at a time.  We signed up later for enrichment than we usually do, so we'll see which class she gets put into.  Whatever it may be, we'll do the other one the next time around.  So she'll get to do both.

Tonight, Daddy had church and KidPak, and more Get a Clue fun with a smaller classroom setting.  It was really quiet and subdued compared to the usual big crowd.  This may be due to the darkness outside - Daylight Savings Time makes it darker earlier, and a lot of us are trying to cope with this!  But it was also foggy and rainy.  Traffic is everywhere, blaring headlights and pouring rain.  It was yucky weather outside, so perhaps that kept some folks home.

Daddy did come home though, for sandwiches at dinner, and to read a few chapters for Madison.  We revisited the Red Gate Farm, and met a new cult called the Black Snake Colony.  So this might be Madison's first exposure to weird cults.  This one seems to be pretty unusual, with folks living in a cave and dancing around in sheets under the stars.  Nancy, Bess and George are going to figure out what this cult has to do with all the other weird events that have been going on lately.  Hopefully we'll find out too!