Norfolk Karate Academy: Perseverance on Both Sides of the Mat

Benny got his brown belt on October 30. Can you believe it? It was a great day for Benny, an enormous day for me too. Benny has been doing karate since August of 2003. It has taken him at least a year to get through every belt, sometimes more than a year. For Benny, karate has been a terrific challenge. There were times when he spent whole class periods spinning and humming. Times when he was kicked out of class for being suddenly defiant over something incomprehensible. Times when we felt he would never be able to communicate with another child enough to be a good sparring partner, a good self-defense partner, even hold a punching bag for another student. He was distracted, disconnected, and disengaged, but he was always in love with karate, always wanted to go train. There were times when we wondered if it would ever "kick in" -- would he ever snap to it? Sync up? Get with the program?



In the last year, Benny has improved in leaps and bounds. Part of it is the input of new instructors at Norfolk Karate Academy. Part is his own maturity, at last starting to bloom. He got his blue belt in February, and now he has his brown belt. His test was absolutely awesome! Everyone who knew him "back then" was blown away by it, including his father and me. We could not get over how much he has changed.



The biggest responsibility for Benny's improvement falls to Master Bill Odom, owner and founder of Norfolk Karate Academy. Master Odom never gave up on Benny, he never made me or Benny feel like he was a hopeless cause. Yet he also never promoted Benny just to make him feel better, or just because his peers were being promoted. Because of this ruthless fairness, this absolute willingness to take each individual child exactly where he or she is and work with them as individuals, Benny's brown belt means a lot. Norfolk Karate Academy is in my opinion the premier training facility for karate in Hampton Roads. We've seen it grow from the very beginning, and I know why it grows firsthand.

After the test was over, Master Odom turned Benny around to the class that was all lined up waiting to be dismissed. He said, and I'm paraphrasing, "This is what perseverance looks like. Benny took a year on every belt, but he never gave up, he never stopped trying. Someday he's going to be a black belt, because he persevered through all those years." And I thought, yes, this is what perseverance looks like: the kid and also the guy standing behind the kid, who also persevered where a lot of other teachers would have thrown in the towel. Thanks, Benny, for being so committed. Thanks, Mr. Odom, for being so patient.

Benny's First Crush

Benny has had a serious crush on a little girl named Cecelia for almost a year. He has had dear, close friends who are girls before, girls he's planned to marry, girls he's been devoted to -- like his deep abiding love for Zoe since he was four years old. But his love for Cecelia is different -- more frantic, more urgent. She's a beautiful, sweet girl with long glorious hair and he just adores her. They hold hands, do art together, play Warriors together, and sometimes he just drags along behind her, worshiping. She is kind enough not to rebuke him, although the intensity of emotion isn't there for her. She sees Benny as a good friend and is happy to let him hang out with her. I so appreciate her tolerance! I thought I'd share some pictures of them together before they both grow out of it.

It must be love. He lets her drive on the bumper cars:



Happy and airborne:



Riding in the front of the roller coaster:



Spinning on the Katapult:



Happy children:



It's summer and they won't be seeing much of each other. I can see at this point that they've already started to drift. Benny loves girls, and his interest is pulled in other directions. Cecelia needs time to hang with her girlfriends and that frustrates him. I can see in my child that his emotions are intense and his loyalty, for a nine-year-old, is deep. The fact that he's been so focused on this one girl for so long is amazing. Thanks to her graciousness and kindness, his first crush was a sweet, innocent business that gave him a lot of joy.

This is the Face

This is the face of the boy who rode Griffon by himself today. We went to Busch Gardens to pick up Dan's phone, which fell out of his pocket while he was upside down last week. We thought we'd hang out for a few hours and just do some kiddie rides, splash in the water areas. It was just me and the two kids. Then we read on Benny's height check sheet that he could ride the roller coasters *unaccompanied.*

I called Dan. Would this be okay, did he think? Should I allow it? Beside me, Benny was jumping up and down, insisting that he would be fine - FINE. I waited for him. I watched every car. I followed the line as it went around. There were times I couldn't see him. I fretted and tapped my toe. He rode Apollo's Chariot, Alpengeist, and Griffon all by himself. In between we did Sadie rides and played in the water. He was patient. He was thrilled. He was, he told me, "self-responsible." Remember when Benny was born? This is that same boy, right now today:

Finally, He Noticed

During the Beijing Olympics, we talked about people's countries of origin and Benny could see the difference in appearance between people from different parts of the world. When we learned about voting and did the suffrage worksheet, we discussed how voting rights were limited depending on where your ancestors lived. We also talked about how Barack Obama's nomination was the first time that someone whose ancestors lived in Africa had a real chance of being President. Somewhere in there, I think Benny has finally noticed ethnicity. He is eight.

Today we went to the spray park. It's the last day of the summer that the outside pool at the YMCA will be open during the week, so even though we were worn out with travelling, we had to brave the threats of thunderstorms and go play in the spray.



I overheard Benny saying to a guy, "Did your ancestors live in the United States of America?" I don't know what the guy said, but it didn't really make that much of an impression -- Benny talks to everyone and asks weird questions. I've given up trying to interpret for him, since I noticed that rude responses don't really bother him. People just have to do the best they can, or ignore him -- it doesn't grieve him either way. But later I heard him approach one of the lifeguards, and say, "So, did your ancestors live in China?"

My first reaction was to shush him. I decided it would be worse for me to leap over there and apologize or try and explain, so I just breathed deeply and listened, hoped that she wouldn't be offended. I couldn't hear her side of the conversation but he told me afterward that she was from Korea, that Korea was divided into north and south, just like Egypt was before King Menes, and that they were getting to know each other. He kept going back and back to talk to her -- she must have been treating her very sweetly. Then he would report to me how the friendship was progressing. At one point he said that she looked like her ancestors lived in China. I briefly explained that just because her ancestors lived in Korea didn't mean that she had lived there, or would be able to answer all his questions about Korea.

I didn't say anything else in terms of generalizing about appearance and ethnicity, but I gathered from the things he was saying to me and others that he now realizes that different people look different based on race. He truly had not understood this until right now. I don't know whether to be proud or horrified, or just to be amazed that he could have lived eight years in this world and just think everyone looks different from each other in random ways, like I look different from him, like he looks different from his friends, and that race and ethnicity had nothing to do with it.

As for Sadie, she liked the ice cream:



Do you talk to your kids about race? At what age? I suppose it's something that kids just pick up from paying attention and making connections, if they are inclined to notice and absorb things like that. But I wonder, how do you handle it?

Benny's Poem

The world is a very special place
All because of its friends and cheers
And everyone's listening to the sound of the bells
Because they have good ears

The world is a very special place
There is happiness but less sadness
For some people are very good
But some people are full of badness

The world is a very special place
Everything is fun
Everything but chores and working
But some people get it done

The world is a very special place
Because of the people all around
On Mars, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn,
There is no life to be found

The world is a very special place
Everyone has the same Dad
His name is God, the creator of earth,
He makes us be not bad

The world is a very special place
But this has come too far
This is the end, be filled with joy,
And have fun squishing the tar

Benny's New Enterprise

Benny has written three glorious and exotic comic books and has plans to sell them at the Colonial Place Community Yard Sale tomorrow. These each represent the first installment in three separate series he has plotted out. Their titles are:

Jefferson in the Missing Clothes
Potato Biscuits and the Big Bad Sausage
Superdog in Cinderpoodle

He figured out all the finances involved in making five copies of each book at Kinko's, decided to sell them at 20% off at his sale, and figured out what profit he expects to make. He made a sign, he's signing collector cells, and he's very very excited. I'm about to go stuff him into bed, but here are a few links:

He created a blog for his comic books. He named his press "Out of the Box Readers" because he wrote his first comic while hanging out at our co-op, Homeschool Out of the Box.
He created a web site for his comic books.

Here is the sign:



Here are the children holding up some of the products:



If you're reading this blog and you're local to Norfolk, will be in the neighborhood of Colonial Place tomorrow morning, and want to spend $2 supporting Benny's new publishing empire, shoot me an email to jackets at rpsd dot com, and I'll let you know the specifics of where he'll be set up.

And of course I'll blog about it later. :)

Captain Underpants Conversation

Benny: Mother. I read my whole new Captain Underpants book in one night! IMAGINE IT! A whole Captain Underpants book in ONE NIGHT.
Me: I can hardly imagine it. What did you think of it?
Benny: There was exactly 25 chapters. And the most funny part is that the last three were extras And when it came to the 22nd chapter, it was name "The Twenty-Second Chapter." Then the next chapter was "The Chapter Before the Last One." And then on the next one it said, "To Make a Long Story Short" and every chapter that was like that, there are two words in it. So it's like that one is a bonus chapter. It was a bonus chapter, did you hear me?
Me: Yes.
Benny: OKAY, so why did I say it repeatedly?
Me: Hmm.
Benny: And then the last chapter was called "The Chapter After the Chapter Before the Last Chapter." So, the shortest way to write that down was "The Last Chapter." In fact, that's only three words. The. Last. Chapter. That would be the shortest way to write it down.
Me: What did you think of the characters and plot?
Benny: It was like, what's that word, demanding. Professor Poopypants (everybody laughed at his name, I'm sure you will, I do a lot) changed his name to Mr. TinkleSumpinSumpin. I know the first part was Tinkle, but I don't know the rest. There's also the goosey-girl, the shrinky pig, which you might think makes things smaller. Like if you had a giant elephant and you were trying to clean it, you could use the shrinky pig and then it will turn into this big. Right here. This big. Then you could pour a whole bucket of soapy water on it, then a whole bucket of clean water, and then you'd be done. That's how the shrinky pig works. Well, not the bucket thing. But the elephant thing.
Me: But what did you think of the plot.
Benny: I'm just explaining the inventions that were in the plot. The way the goosey girl works is that if you saw a speck and you were wondering what it was, you would use the goosey girl and it would grow very big, like this big, and if it was a FLY, then you'd have to roll it out of the house. That's how the goosey girl works, not the fly thing, but the making the speck bigger thing.
Me: Hmm.
Benny: HEY MOTHER. Do you know what his middle name was? PEE PEE. Professor Pee pee Poopypants. Okay, on with the plot.
Me: You don't have to tell me the plot. Just tell me what you think of the plot.
Benny: First I'll tell you that if you haven't read this book, then it will really be funny. Mr. Crup, the principal, had his name turned into Lumpy Sumpin Biscuits. Put sumpin in italics. I can't remember the other word but if anyone comments on that "Sumpin" just say "Sumpin" like I don't know.
(Benny has become aware that I am typing the conversation, and argues that the title be changed from C.U. Review to C.U. Conversation.)
Me: Can you tell me what you thought about the story?
Benny: This was the second one I saw Captain Underpants with his superpowers. They're so amazing! He can even fly! He was so big, and he attacked really well. The professor, I thought his two names were very funny.
Me: How does it compare to other books in the series?
Benny: Compared to other books, I liked the Flip-O-Rama a lot. Flip-O-Rama is Dav Pilkey's invention. He invented Flip-O-Rama.

Benny and the Bach Double

I will not downplay the significance of this video for me as a parent. It is supremely satisfying for me to play this song with him. It makes me burst with pride and love. Here's Benny on Violin 2 and me on Violin 1. This video was taken over a month ago -- by this time he has all but learned the Violin 1 part. It's in Book 5 so he hasn't technically been given it as a piece yet, but he's picked most of it up by ear.

Boy, Ballerina, Boston Terrier

The Suzuki method is about learning to deal with distractions.

Benny's Awesome Experiment

Benny blogged about an experiment we did today with different types of paint and different sizes of papier mache forms.

Benny's Blog.

Here are some of his findings:



This is all in preparation for the egg drop contest this Saturday at VASC.

1000 Words

The Ice Age

Benny is learning about the East, West, and South Paleolithic time period. He blogged about it on his blog today, and drew this picture:



Have you seen Benny's blog?

The Awesomeness of Benny

Benny and Sadie have been watching Ratatouille. This was a movie that didn't particularly delight them in the theater. I remember thinking that the beautiful imagery of it was lost on them, and that it was another movie with kind of sophisticated adult themes -- about having confidence to step outside your comfort zone, or about believing in someone in spite of their unlikely exterior, or about giving credit where credit is due, or something.

Turns out, now that they have the DVD, they just like the funny rats. Yay!

Benny has been trying to make a chef's hat, or "Toque" as he says, for Sadie. He yearns for her to wear a chef's hat of his creation, and toodle around her little toy kitchen with the Folkmanis rat puppet inside her hat. This dream of the Folkmanis puppet inside Sadie's hat playing "little chef" has resulted in several mishaps, including one of his ears being burned half off in the toaster oven (the puppet's ear, not Benny's) and one chase scene involving Sadie, Benny, and a paper toque with Benny saying "I just want to tape it on her head!"

I scanned in his drawings for the most recent version of the toque. The outside has the lines on it, and the little door. The inside is furnished.





The rat has hung a picture of himself (labelled "Me") and his buddy (labelled "Sadie") although he seems to have taped the labels to the wall. He also has a pretty nice tufted leather sofa! Oh, I do love Benny so much.

Deciphering Benny's Version of Sequencing

The language arts workbook pages we've been doing have now come around to "sequencing," which came right after "context clues" and before "main idea." Or something. I'm not paying an entirely huge amount of attention to this particular workbook except that I get him to do some of it most days and it seems to be teaching him things.

Anyway, here's his sequencing workbook for today. There's a series of five groups of three. Each group describes a sequence of events. In each group, one event in the sequence is missing. The directions were to write a sentence that makes sense in the sequence. So, the question is this: can you determine which is Benny's sentence? I mean, ideally, you wouldn't, right? Because it would all just make so much glittering, flawless SENSE. But see if you can:

1. The clouds grew very dark, and we could hear thunder.
2. All of a sudden, the wind started to blow very hard.
3. The thunder outside blew up our house.

1. The volleyball game was very boring at first.
2. Then a player threw the ball so high.
3. The home crowd cheered so loudly that I had to cover my ears.

1. Jim, Harry, and Timmy had work to do.
2. The boys gathered all the garden tools and put them in the wheelbarrow.
3. "Well, it was hard work, but we got it done, boys!" said Jim.

1. The teacher gave us our homework assignment early in the day.
2. Since the school assembly had to be cancelled, we had an extra study hall.
3. They call it, "Study Hall II."

1. Our cat has been acting very strange lately.
2. We heard unusual noises coming from the hall closet.
3. We looked but it was... an owl.

Hehehe. I didn't correct any of his little tangential meanderings. I never do, unless they're in direct defiance of the instructions. I mean, it could have been an owl, right? I'm trying, trying, trying never to say the words, "This is how they want you to answer." Plenty of time to prep for the SAT later. For now, let it be an owl.

Santa is Still Totally Real

We took Benny's bowling ball in to Dick's Sporting Goods to get holes drilled in it. It's a good thing that Santa shops at Dick's Sporting Goods, because they only drill holes in balls that were purchased there. It's a good thing!

Here's Benny's letter to Santa this year. Some of this will be easier to understand if you know that Benny found a quarter and a nickel on the floor a few minutes before he wrote the letter. That's called fortuitous!



Translation:

Dear Santa,
Thank you for all these gifts. I'm going to pay you "30c" for this joy! Please help yourself to the cokies on the "Christmas platle. Mery Christmas! Sighned: Benny & Sadie. Wisconsin Marshfield N. Peach St.

Hehehe.

Eight is Great

Benny is eight. This happened on December 27, 2007. He's now been eight for less than a week, and still, changes are in the works.

Example: Yesterday morning he asked me for yogurt and a banana for breakfast. When I questioned his abandonment of his favorite waffles, he told me, "I am really only interested in healthy food, now that I'm eight."

Super.

Another example: Yesterday he learned about analogies and was toodling away at his workbook page, answering Paris is to France as London is to _____ and other questions of that nature, and he looked over at me kindly and said, "I'm a much more cheerful student, since I turned eight."

Glad to hear it.

Final example: I have been trying to get Benny to relax his hand when he vibratos on his violin, so that he doesn't just clamp and quake, which produces a lot of tension and no vibrato. On Monday when we got the violin out, Benny told me he had had a dream which told him how to play the violin better. I asked to hear about the dream, but he said, "I can't tell you. It's just too beautiful." So he started to play and MY GOODNESS. Suddenly he can do vibrato. And played the first movement of the Vivaldi nearly perfectly, with every note in tune, and used about 50% more bow on every note, and in general just sounded fantastic. Yesterday was the same.

I wish I would have that dream!

A new year is here. I don't have an organized list of resolutions like I did last year. But I have a plan in mind. Oh yes I do.

A Bowling Breakthrough

We had three very Benny moments today.

1. Today at Homeschool Bowling League, which I march myself to by the elbow every week because Benny loves it so much, he bowled a STRIKE. A real strike, straight down the middle of the lane, not using the bumpers to ricochet the ball! It was a glorious moment. He turned around, pumped his fist in the air, and shouted: "GOAL COMPLETED." Not "Yes!" or "Yeah!" or "Strike!" or whatever the other children typically say, but "GOAL COMPLETED." On the way to the van he told me he was going to cross this off his list of goals. The existence of a goal list was news to me, and I asked him what else is on it. The answer: "Bowl a double strike." HAHAHA. Lofty!

2. We were driving through downtown Norfolk and we saw, moored by the Spirit of Norfolk, a really big, cool, tall ship that was clearly from some Scandinavian country, or maybe the Netherlands, or... something? I couldn't remember what the flag was supposed to be from. I asked Benny if he knew, and he thought it might be Norway, but I knew it wasn't Norway. So, anyway, I whipped out the cell phone and tossed it to Benny so we could blog it and then ask Dan. He's pointing the phone out the window, and I'm sitting at a red light saying, "Take the picture! Take the picture!" and he's saying "Where, where?" and pointing the camera all over the place. Now, keep in mind we have just been discussing this flag that we were BOTH looking at and guessing the origin of, and now he can't even find the SHIP to take a picture of it? I said, "Benny, the BIG SHIP that's RIGHT OVER THERE." And he said, "Oh, it was behind that tree." Click. Green light. Move on.

3. Later, it is group violin class. The children are playing a piece (Waltz from Book 2 for those of you Suzukians out there) that requires some swaying and movement -- a piece you're supposed to feel. And Mrs. Stevens said for them to be more "emotional." One of the older girls objected to the use of the word "emotional" because in common usage it is synonymous with crying. So Mrs. Stevens asked them to come up with a better word and then turned to Benny and said, "Benny, do you know another word for emotional?" and Benny said, "What do you mean by emotional?" He delivered the word "emotional" as if it were a word in some strange foreign tongue from a forgotten era. Now, Benny is actually very emotional, and very in touch with his emotions. He sometimes even now recognizes that other people might be having emotions too! But it just seemed like such a hilariously typical hyperlexic response, I had to guffaw. What do you mean by this... emotional? *cackle*

Tomorrow is all about packing for Disney World. Must not forget mouse ears.

Lego My Pulley

Last week our Lego League team learned about pulleys. Pulleys are apparently simple machines that you use to make things lighter, so your little scale hickamajig reads THREE instead of SIX. Getting the scale thingy down to three is exciting and means that you win the game of pulleys! The three moms in our Lego League are open-minded but basically clueless when it comes to machinery. Fortunately we can read and are staying a lesson ahead of our six-and-seven-year-olds. Also fortunately, our six-and-seven-year-olds are happy to inform us of every little thing that we don't already know, six or seven times each.

Here's Benny stretching his pulley cord thingy around his pulley wheelie thingies:



They tell me that if you want the pulley wheels to go opposite directions, like gears do, you have to twist the cord between them. Or something. Is it tiresome when I go on and on about "thingies" and "whatsits"? I'm not being coy, I promise you. I genuinely am that blunt-headed about physics. It all takes me back to that classroom during my last semester as a chemistry major, when I was taking something called "University Physics," an honors class with all the smarty math people that I was trying to hang with at the time. Shortly thereafter, I switched over to hanging with the smarty literature people, and felt much better. The math people always kind of looked at me in a vague, kind, lordly way. Well, here I am with physics again. Celebrating another day of living.

I like to build dog houses with my Legos. Is there any important principle to be learned from constructing a red and blue dog house with a front and back door?

Here's Ben demonstrating his lifting device:



Ben and Benny building away:



Here's the other half of the team, heads bowed over their pulley projects:



This week's assignment was to build a fishing pole, which Benny did this evening with Dan. They made one with one pulley, two pulleys, three pulleys, and you know, the darn Lego fish weight got lighter and lighter to wind up with each additional pulley. It was amazing.

So, does this mean that if I make myself a pulley necklace, I will see some results on the scale? I bet I could fit twenty five Lego pulleys onto a stylish choker. A few sequins, a dangling brick or two, who's with me? Let's accessorize our way to glamorous supermodel status. It's only a Lego (pulley) away.

Meanwhile, Benny will now demonstrate the more practical uses of pulleys: feeding worms to the fish in Broad Bay.

The Fourteen Minute Mile

Benny loves to run. You might say it's his natural state: running. When he was four, he won the "Tot Trot" at the YMCA. I cried all through it because there was just something so earnest and sweet about all the little runners pounding away, 1/4 mile.

Warming Up for the Mile Run

Lately he's been running in the house, which I cannot bear. The crashing, the banging, the thumping, the breathless hecticness drives me into a frenzy. I heard from another karate mom about a running race for kids, put on by one of the local elementary schools. I told Benny if he could stop running in the house a little bit, I would put him in this race. He was so excited.

We discussed with him about how to pace himself in the race, to run a whole mile. We also talked a lot about not pushing, not getting upset with the other kids, not being sad no matter what place he got, etc. He nodded and mm-hmmed through all that instruction, and we thought, what can we do? He'll just have to learn by doing.

Getting Pre-Race Advice from Ahno and Sadie.

On race day, he put on his favorite outfit (which he calls his uniform) and had his number pinned on about 3 hours before the race. He got to the event, which is like a big party with pizza, a sound system, a whole lot of kids running around. Almost every single one of the other children had the official race t-shirt on, but Benny preferred to wear his orange suit -- fine, I thought. The better to locate him from a distance.

Ready to run.

The race lined up -- there were 104 children ready to run the boys mile -- ages from kindergarten on up into the teens. They took off strong and ran around the first corner and off into the neighborhood. Benny was running as fast as he could, looking a little panicked and squashed in the midst of all those kids, and of course I started weeping.



All of us nervous parents bustled over to the finish line, where we waited for the kids to start coming in. I stood there, next to Dan, kneading his arm, twisting his shirt, in general ready to vomit with nerves. The first kids came through to great applause, the next kids, and more kids, and more kids. WHERE WAS BENNY? We did not see him. More children came through. Ten minutes went by. Still no Benny, we couldn't even see him around the corner. I cannot communicate to you the level of my freak-out at this time. I was sure he had fallen over, was sitting on a street corner somewhere in Larchmont, crying, bleeding, or maybe kidnapped, eaten by wolves, fallen into a sudden chasm (you know how those open up in the middle of quiet neighborhoods).

Finally I said to Dan, "I AM GOING TO FIND HIM." And Dan (wisely) said that he would go instead, so he went. And I continued to stand there and dance around in a hot panic. Finally, there he was, cantering along easily, right in front of the police escort and the ambulance, who were bringing up the rear. He was last. Dead last. And completely unconcerned. As he came loping over the finish line and down the chute, he waved cheerily at me.

Benny and the Police Escort

"Mom! I didn't win!" he reported.

I stood there, agape. I mean, he had not fallen into a chasm, right? So, in all, good day.

Later he said, "Now that was some real racing! I decided that since I couldn't win, I'd let everyone else win. You know, I learned this from that movie, "Cars," you know when Lightning McQueen lets The King finish the Piston Cup?"

Thanks, Disney. And thanks to me, for all the times over the last seven years of his life that I've pounded it into his head -- it's not about winning, it's about having fun! It doesn't matter who comes in first! You can have more fun if everyone is having a good time! Etc. This was all meant to cope with the child who pitched an epic fit because he couldn't be the first wiseman in the procession, at age 3. It was not meant to scrub all competitive spirit from the young lad.

Dan said that when he found Benny, he was standing in someone's driveway, kind of dancing around and waving. I always say that Benny marches to he beat of his own drummer -- but really, sometimes it is illustrated for me in such a graphic way that this is true. He saw that he could not beat the older kids, so he just did something else, he changed the plan. He deviated.

We knew lots of people at the race -- through violin, church, and karate, we knew about half the kids and parents there. When Benny finally came over the line, there were lots of moms and dads and kids cheering for him by name. And no one thought it was strange for him to bring up the rear. They know, and we know, that for Benny nothing is strange. He is his own child, unpredictable, earnest, and never never dull.

Cheering for the girls' race.

So Long, Suzuki Book 3

You have to hand it to Benny, he doesn't grow moss on his violin. Here we are a little over six months after his Book 2 graduation, and he's done with Book 3 already. People ask me sometimes how I get him to practice. Those who have been in the house with us know that he will happily play the violin all day long. The question is how to get him to practice correctly. We all know he can memorize songs quickly and learn all the notes. But how do we get his playing technique to measure up to his ability to digest and deliver the music?

In the weeks leading up to Benny's graduation recital from Suzuki Book 3, his teacher, the gifted and glamorous Mrs. Ford, had one goal and one goal only. And that was to get him to correct his bow hold. His thumb, it was concave when it should be convex. His pinky, it was falling over the bow when it should be perched on top. His fingers, they were pinching the stick when they should have been draped around it. It was a mess.

Now, how does this happen? Was he not trained to hold his bow correctly? Of course he was. But there's alway something sliding off the bus, as you're scurrying to secure the rest of the load. A few months ago, we were worried about the fingers on his violin hand -- they were too flat. Now the bow hold. Next it'll be something else slipping toward the edge. You have to keep on top of these things.

That's why in the Suzuki method, it's not okay to just listen to the child practice from the other room. You have to be in there with them, pointing things out, encouraging, correcting, monitoring. Does this always endear you to the young snipe who would rather go romping along at top speed missing half the notes? Not especially. But it does mean that after weeks of work, he does have a proper bow hold for his graduation recital. Thanks to his hard work, his teacher's perseverance, and my watchful eye. ;)

Here are some pictures from the event. There was a pirate theme to the reception that followed the recital, and no he did not play the violin dressed as a pirate. I was trying to be respectful of the other children that were also graduating, and had been warned against turning it into a circus. What's wrong with the circus? Hehehe.



The moms set up the party table as the kids have their "Play In" before the recital.



Benny playing one of his pieces.



Benny receiving his graduation certificate.



Pirate violinist and his little sister Sadie Grace.

Now we are on to Book 4 with a new teacher and a new appreciation for double stops. Look out, Vivaldi!