Cantate Homeschool Choir!

Last winter Christina was telling us all about the homeschool choir her kids were in. I wanted to check them out before signing the kids up so we attended the winter choir performance on Dec 17th. It was amazing. We were blown away!! 

Right after that I signed up Jack and Ella to be apart of the Cantate I Choir. Choir practice was every Friday from 1:15 - 2:30 for 16 weeks at Family Life Community Church in Federal Way. All the kids came along so Owen and Zeke just hung out in the lobby with all the other kids that weren't in that particular choir. It was a great opportunity for the Owen and Zeke to make friends. They would usually bring books or a board or card game and play with others. They also would sometimes play games on one of the boys laptops. There was only one time...I believe our first choir practice where they had to actually do school work. After that they were pretty motivated to get all their work finished up before leaving for choir. 

While Jack and Ella were in choir practice I would either sit and visit with friends or watch them. It was so wonderful to see how much they progressed over the weeks. The best part was they were having a lot of fun doing it! 

The Choir Director had really wanted us to be able to perform at an Elderly Assisted Living Home, but Covid restrictions did not make that possible this year. So instead we all met at NorthPointe Community Center in Tacoma to have a dress rehearsal outside at the park. It ended up being a beautiful day outside! 

They all look so good in their blue choir shirts! 

I believe their was over 100 kids in the choir this session. There are actually 4 different choirs. The Jubilate choir is for the younger kids age 4 - 8. Cantate I is for ages 7 - 13. Cantate II is for ages 12 - 19 and lastly there is an Ensemble Choir that you have to be in Cantate II to try out for to see if you can join it. 

The choirs performance was on May 3rd at Gospel Russian Baptist Church in Des Moines. 

 

Their dress code was black pants or skirts and black shoes. I ended up having to buy these for the kids since they didn't have anything nice like this. They look so good! Ella had me French braid her hair a couple days before so she took it out the day of the performance. Her curls looked glorious!  

Every choir performance they have a program of the show. The kids get to create artwork and Ms. Mangle the Choir Director chooses a few of the drawings to be on the front of the program. Jack and Ella drew pictures, but neither of theirs were chosen. She did have all the drawings on display in the foyer of the church so everyone could see them. She had asked that they draw pictures that coincided with one of the songs they were singing. Jack drew Edelweiss up on the mountains because they were singing the song Edelweiss. He drew it on the page in the portrait position thinking they'd know to flip it around...oops! It should have been mounted on the board 1/4 of a turn to the left. Ella choose to draw a church steeple with a bell which they sang about in the song So Long Farwell. I was so proud of them entering the competition! 

We had to be at the church for practice at 4pm. The show didn't start until 6:30pm. It was a lot of standing and a lot of singing. 

It was super nice for our family because Ella and Jack were standing right next to each the whole performance. We invited a bunch of people to come hear the kids. Ga-Ga & Pa, Miss Ellen, Papa & Miss Ruth all came. The church was packed with people. 

 

Here's the Youtube video with the whole performance! 

The kids did fabulously! There was about a 30 minute piano recital right at the beginning and then they go into the choir singing. The music was wonderful, the kids voices with joyful, the message was meaningful! 

We can't wait to sign up and join again for the next session. I believe Zeke is going to give it a try too. Ella and Zeke will both be in Cantate I and Jack will be moving up to Cantate II so we'll be at choir for even longer this next time.