Quick, quick Dr. Parenting El-Jay

[rdhdsnippet]

Live performance of The Sound of Music, in a national park with lawn seating (ie far from stage). The intricacies are likely to go over the head of a five year old or I'm going to be explaining about Hitler and all manner of other things I don't want to do? Specifically my five year old.

Comments

[aelf]

The intricacies of The Sound of Music are not that intricate. You're likely going to have to explain Nazis. And why Liesel's boyfriend is one. And what he was thinking. And how she could have liked him. And why were Nazis bad again? And what were they trying to force Mr. Von Trapp to do? And what were they going to do with the kids? And why did he use that whistle? And can you make clothes out of curtains?

At least, we had to when Zoe saw the Sound of Music for the first time when she was 4ish.

[rdhdsnippet]

Bah. I don't think I want to set myself up to tackle it right now. Which is fooeyfull because I generally love any chance to spend a cheap evening on the lawn at Wolftrap.

[aelf]

Zoe was absolutely fixated on Rolf siding on the Nazis. It very much offended her young black-and-white view of the world. If he was Liesel's boyfriend, then he absolutely should be been with the von Trapps!

Now, it's possible if you're far enough away he might not "get" that Rolf-the-boyfriend-is-a-Nazi. Or the other bits and pieces. And he might not care about the same things that Zoe cared about! But I'd be prepared for him to grasp pretty much everything. He's a big boy now. :)

[rdhdsnippet]

*nod* Well, I had my decision made for me - by the time I decided it was likely to be ok the show dates I wanted weren't available. Maybe next time.

[magentametrix]

Good guys/Bad guys. It's a simple and familiar premise. I like the angle that this set of bad guys had a choice, rather than being identified by something they have no control over.
Focus on the music.
Good Luck.

[rdhdsnippet]

Ugh. See, it's the shades of grey that are super hard with a precocious preschooler.

[auryn29a]

I was pretty young when I saw The Sound of Music in an outdoor setting with my grandmother. I may not have been five. Maybe six or seven, but all I remember really are women in big floppy hats and lots of singing. I doubt he'll even notice the Nazis.

[rdhdsnippet]

*nod* That may well be the case, too, particularly on the lawn where it's hard to follow what's going on on stage.

[redhotlips]

Hitler was a leader, like a king, but he turned out to be a very, very unfair mean and bad leader who caused millions of people to die. The people who saw how mean he was fought against Hitler to make sure he couldn't hurt others any more.

Today the symbol that Hitler used, like the one you see there, is a symbol that causes a lot of people to remember Hitler's unfair and very mean actions.

[rdhdsnippet]

Oh, I totally can explain it. I just don't know how much I want to put myself into a situation where I'm almost certain to have to.

Actually, I expect he knows what a dictator is, but I'm not at all certain he'd know what a king is. :)

[redhotlips]

I didn't relish having to explain it either, but I much prefered having the opportunity to do so in my words on my time than to have him get someone else's (potentially more graphic) version. There's a time and age for them to learn the horrors of the world, IMO. :-)

I'm curious to hear how the evening and the discussion (if any) went.

[must_coordinate]

My boys still don't get it. We haven't seen it there, but I don't think all the details would be understood. Heck, I don't even quite get some of it.

However, your 5yo is something pretty amazing, and while I'm certain he'd miss much of it, he will ask questions.

Take him, if only for the experience. I love taking my kids there!

[rdhdsnippet]

I've actually never seen the whole thing myself. :) Turns out I waited too long and I wasn't thrilled with the show times left available. Maybe next year. He's been to wolftrap and loved it. :)

[fenicedautun]

I'm with this. I saw the movie from the time I was 6 or 7, and I didn't catch the whole Nazi thing until I was 10 or 12. Mostly I just didn't like the bits at the end with no singing, so I totally missed why the von Trapps were leaving.