Where's the Juice! (Belly Dancing and my 5yr old)

So, a friend recently came to town to perform in a belly dancing show, so we went and took DS and her boys, too. DS, apparently, is quite the fan. In short time, he was zaghareeting, yipping, and hissing like a champ, often leading the crowd in this endeavor and to the degree I was starting to worry it might be too much! But I didn't want to discourage him because I could see he was so genuinely into the experience and thought it was a beautiful thing. My friend seemed to think so, too, so I took her lead on it. As did he. Whenever she'd make a new sound, he'd mimic her, as did another little girl standing near by. It was awesome and I could hug her neck for her part in offering such a cool cultural experience for my little fella. He's usually kind of reserved when it comes to letting loose in audience participation... shy about dancing, especially, but he was so absorbed in this. At one moment late in the show... he got especially excited and mid-zaghareet, he yells out, "Where's the juice?!" before kicking right back into the vocals.

Don't ask me what that was about, but it was awesome. Where's the juice, indeed.

A few days later, at home, he brought up that the belly dancing was a lot like the "flamingo" dancing he'd seen before. He was referring to a Flamenco show at our local arts center, and thinking of a few similiarities, such as the castanets (the belly dancers had finger cymbals), and some of the foot work. Bless his heart. I love when he makes the connections on his own. That's such a big part of our curriculum and homeschooling style... to have these experiences (immersion) and let him discover the connections and meanings, a priority over we, the adults, doing any kind of interpretation or talky-talky stuff with him.

It rocks when it works... and it works all the time.