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!

Sadie's Ballet Recital

Sometimes pink is enough to make you happy forever.

Sadie had her ballet recital. It was, possibly, the best day of her life thus far. She richly, deeply enjoyed every minute of it. She was not afraid to be on the big stage at the Roper Theater. In fact, she was thrilled to be out there, and wanted to go back and do it all over again the minute it was finished.

Her ballet school, the Art of Dance Academy, performed a show based on The Wizard of Oz. There were great moments and not so great moments, as I'm sure is true with any performance involving exclusively children. Sometimes the screw-ups are the most entertaining part of the show, right? No one can remember the perfectly executed numbers, but everyone remembers when little Billy dragged little Sally by the hair into her position before spinning her in a pirouette.

Sadie was a munchkin, along with the rest of the girls in her little class. They all wore variations of floofy pink tutus, with floofy pink feathery headdress things on their heads. They were pretty amazingly cute. Here they are on stage, doing their munchkin thing:



One of the awesome parts of the show, for us, was that Benny got to go up on the stage with the magician that was entertaining the crowd between set changes. He was the volunteer assistant from the audience. It was his job, I think, to distract us while the magician was doing magiciany things that changed a dove into a dog. Benny was spectacular -- he danced, he pontificated, he was completely charming. And happy. He got to hold the dove and pet the dog, and when he was doing his wild crazy dance, everyone was screaming with laughter and cheering for him. It was hilarious. He has no self-consciousness, no uncertainy, no embarrassment. Sometimes, that's a hindrance, but sometimes it's awesome.

Sadie's bravery was incredible that day too, fearless little showboater that she was. She stayed backstage with the backstage moms, all through the show after her part, behaving herself on her own -- watching videos and coloring with her friends. And she was a beautiful little ballerina.

This is not the sport that I would have chosen for her -- I've mentioned before about my hesitations regarding ballet. But she loves it so much, how can I argue? She's meant to wear pink floof.

Pirate Homeschool

My son enjoys pirate-related things. He likes pretending to be a pirate. Here he is at his Suzuki Book 3 graduation recital. He is the on on the... left.



This morning I took all of our pirate "gold" and put it into a little "chest." I told him he was a pirate in my employ and gave him a list of jobs he could do to earn his loot, and a list of prices for things he could buy with his treasure.



Payment opportunities:
Math cards: 5 gold
Math on the computer: 2 gold
Latin test: 4 gold
Rosetta Stone: 2 gold
Spanish workbook: 4 gold
Math workbook: 6 gold
Paint: 1 gold
Violin: 3 gold
Piano workbook: 6 gold

Prices:
Spray park: 15 gold
Planetarium: 15 gold
Cookies (2): 1 gold
Watermelon slices: FREE!

Something special. Just for today. He's busily earning his gold, and he asked first to do math workbook. He hasn't asked to do math workbook in months, in fact I had trouble finding the darn thing because he's been doing all his math on the computer. Interesting.

I have been known to do some silly things to motivate him to do school work. For example, the other day I put three little bells in circle outlines on a piece of paper, with the associated tasks written under the bell. When he finished the task, he could ring the bell. Strangely motivating. He wanted to ring them. Schoolwork was finished rapidly without discussion.

When I first started this parenting thing, I found myself sometimes thinking, "I don't want to start that, because I'll have to do it every day/week/whatever and I'm not prepared to do that." That thinking was wrong. It is always worth it to start something, to do something, to try something, even if you don't want to do it every day or every time, because the one time you do it, it'll be great for your kid. And chances are, by the time you would be called on to repeat it, you've thought of something else to do.

I remember thinking once, "I don't want to take this long way around on our walk, because I don't want to walk this far every day." Wrong thinking. There will be enough days ahead where you are too tired, or it's raining, or you think of a different route, or you go bike riding instead, to limit yourself to doing only things you can always do.

I can remember thinking, "I can't maintain this, therefore I shouldn't start this." Can I think of a new trick to play with schoolwork every day, new bells and whistles, new circuses to put on? No, and I shouldn't. But there are plenty of days where we just bang through a short list of work so we can get out the door to the playground, or where we do no "real" schoolwork at all. When we have a full day at home and I want to accomplish a lot of school, it's worth it to put on a little show. I don't have to ever repeat it.

Don't limit yourself to a level you can maintain. Go the extra mile on only one walk, talk like a pirate for only one day, stay at the playground for three hours, take a ride on that escalator, even if you don't want to do it every walk, every day, every trip, every time you walk past. "Just once" is worth it.

Script Frenzy

Write a screenplay in 30 days. Now, teach your 7 year old to write a screenplay in 30 days. Sweet tea for everyone.

Have you heard of Script Frenzy? No?

Have you heard of National Novel Writing Month? No?

Script Frenzy and National Novel Writing Month are online communities where a bunch of motivated people publicly resolve to write either a screenplay (in June) or a novel (in November) in a month. There is no fee, there is no prize, there is no judging, there are no repercussions for failure -- it's just a way to throw yourself into writing in a mad dash, rather than a thoughtful stroll, along with a bunch of other people doing the same thing.

Fun! I have done Nanowrimo for three years now, and last year Benny did it with me. His novel reached 5000 words (he dictated it to me) and was awesome! This is the first year for Script Frenzy, and I thought, hey, why not drag Benny along for this too. So, we're doing it.

I'm leading Benny and his friend Zoe through this process, or rather watching as they go through it together. It's pretty cool! So far they've learned about character roles (protagonist, antagonist, supporting characters, foils) and plot structure, and archetypal plots -- like the quest plot (Hobbit) vs. the return home plot (Alice in Wonderland) or in some cases both (Wizard of Oz). All this discussion has led to some really interesting discussion and dissection of the movies they know.

For example, Benny told me that the initiating action in "Cars" is when McQueen falls off the semi truck, not when he ties in the race at the beginning. He likened it to Alice going down the rabbit hole and you know what? He's right. I was wrong. The initiating action, or the clinch, or the point of no return, or whatever you call it, is when the character's life goes right off the path and nothing can ever be the same again. So Benny is really understanding this plot stuff -- possibly better than I am!

His movie is called "Benny's Adventures in the Norfolk City World and Beyond the Earth."

I'm writing one too. May we both have interesting months. :D

In unrelated news, here's a picture of Benny with his little sister and one of his favorite dogs:

Strawberries at Three Sisters

The Three Sisters strawberry farm is on Joshua Road in Suffolk. Here's why it's the best place to pick strawberries this week:

1. Organic strawberries. So when your children are rolling around in the plants, and emerging from the field with red juice dripping down their chins, you don't have to say, "NOT UNTIL I WASH THEM!" It's far back from any major road, so there's no exhaust residue, or dust, or anything on the berries. The rows are a little weedy, but that's organic farming. The weeds aren't hurting anything and the berries are BEAUTIFUL. So lovely. Kissed by the sun.

2. Animals.









The nicest, friendliest, child-proofed-est, sweetest farm animals you ever want to know. The first time we went to Three Sisters, we spent three hours there mooning over the animals. Delightful.

3. You'll meet other homeschoolers! This place is a homeschooler magnet. Veronica and I had our four kids, and we ran into two other homeschool families while we were there last time! Homeschoolers know: Three Sisters Strawberry Farm in Suffolk is the place to go!

Fishing? Really?

Another family experience we force ourselves to suffer through, so that our children can at least appear to be normal.

I was against it. My sole experience with fishing was when I was five or six, at a pond in Pennsylvania, during the 4H Fishing Derby, where Curtis Craig put a worm on my hook and then sternly ignored me as I sat next to him at the edge of the pond, in sheer horror at the gyrations of my unfortunate worm. After a while, I was allowed to quit fishing.

Benny decided he wanted to be a fisherman at church. You can guess what the verse was. He asked for fishing gear as his reward for completing the 50 day violin practice challenge. He got it.

I wasn't aware that by dangling a worm from a 10 dollar fishing pole, 12 inches below the surface of the Chesapeake Bay, that you could actually catch something. Apparently you can:







Fishing was strange. We convinced him to release the fish. Here are three conversations that Benny had shortly after catching his fish:

Me: Benny, don't you want to release the fish so that he can be happy and live a full life and tell all his friends about meeting you?
Him: No, I want to kill him and make him into fish sticks and eat him. That's what you're supposed to do.
(And I was worried about his sensitive feelings.)

Me: Benny I'm so proud of your patience! You were so patient!
Him: Do you think God is proud of me?
Me: Yes, of course.
Him: Because I'm a fisherman now?
(I don't think he's going to make a good Episcopalian. He always interprets scripture in a literal way.)

Me: Wow, Benny. Catching a fish is something that I have never done in my whole life.
Him: Is that because you didn't have enough patience?
Me: Well, yes, probably it is.
Him: Don't worry. You gave birth to a son who has patience.
(Hey. Something to comfort myself with.)

The Owl and the Pussycat by Edward Lear

I heard through the parentvine that they make the first graders at Norfolk Academy memorize this poem, so I let Benny have at it. Can't have the Academicians maintaining a monopoly on silly poems about lovesick animals. He's memorized a few others too, nonsense and otherwise, which I'll post as I get them on video. Next time I hope I manage the light better so that he doesn't look like The Phantom of Nonsense Poetry or something. He is extremely tickled by the idea of wrapping money up with money, so thus the giggling. :D



Ah, I just remembered I have a short video of him reciting the first five stanzas of "The Walrus and the Carpenter" at his little acting class at The Hurrah Players. Each of the kids had to memorize a short poem... Benny memorized quite a long one and only had time to recite the first bit.

The End of the Beginning: Prezuki Violin

Sadie's last Prezuki class is coming up. So after two semesters of baby violin education, what has she learned?



She's learned to sit in a circle, wait her turn, and separate from Mommy's lap to interact with her teacher independently.

She learned to give up teaching tools like puppets, instruments, and silk flowers, when that part of the lesson was over, even if she didn't want to put it away.

She learned to hold her "foam-a-lin" under her chin with proper position and walk around the room with it held firmly in place by the weight of her head, without using her hands.



She learned to hold her bow with her thumb bent and her pinky on top, her fingers relaxed, and bow rhythms on her shoulder.

She learned to play the drum in rhythm with a song, and how to sync up with the other kids in the class so that they all played the drum in unison.

She learned to thank her teacher for teaching her and her mother for bringing her to class.

She learned to sing on pitch and she learned the difference between high notes and low notes. She learned what an E string sounds like and what an A string sounds like and started learning to hear fifths.

She learned to distinguish between her different fingers on her violin hand, and did strengthening exercises with each one, to boost those fine motor skills.



She learned how to sing scales, with songs about bugs and pussy willows and other silliness. She learned about ascending and descending by climbing stairs with her teacher.

She learned to concentrate on her teacher's directions, and copy instructions. She was taught to focus in increasing intervals, gently and with patience.

She learned lots of fun songs and dances. She learned to look forward to violin class as an interesting time to play and learn.

She learned to respect her classmates and help them, work together with them to accomplish the teacher's directions. She learned to listen and respond.



She learned that music is fun!

When she starts her "real" violin lessons with her actual violin, she will know exactly what to expect and how to behave. What a wonderful experience Prezuki has been. Thank you Mrs. Ford for another excellent class!

Phi Bensa Zoe Academy

We invented new Greek letters. But we had to do it.

My friend Veronica and I each have two kids. Between us we have two seven-year-olds, a three-year-old and a four-year-old. They have been playing together for three years now. Their little conflicts have been worked through, their little power struggles have been settled, and now they play happily, kind of like cousins. Yes, problems arise, but they all know each other very well and they're getting adept at avoiding trouble.

Both of our families have been in search of a co-op to supplement our homeschooling efforts, but haven't found one just right. The closest thing we hit on was the Renaissance school, but that's a looooong way from here, and there are the little ones to consider. We decided to try making our own, tiny, insular co-op, once a week. We started almonst two months ago. She takes the older ones while I take the younger ones, then we have lunch, play, and switch.

We call it, with tongues firmly in cheek, the Phi Bensa Zoe Academy, making pseudo-Greek letters from the kids' names. The pictures you see here are of our first meeting, where we were just figuring things out and we took it very easy. Our second meeting, Veronica began teaching Latin to the older kids (using Minimus) and I am teaching them microbiology -- cells, bacteria, microscopes, etc. I'm teaching the little ones phonics and writing, and Veronica is teaching them science and social studies in mini-units.

I have to say, and I have cautiously waited to blog about it until now, because you never know how kids are going to adjust to these arrangements, that it is working out GREAT. The kids love it, and it gives us a chance to do games and activities that make learning fun, but that you just can't do with only one child. It also helps with the age difference, so that the younger ones aren't always upsetting delicate science experiments, and the older ones aren't always giving the answers before the little ones can work it out for themselves.





How can it possibly work out, having a co-op so small? Well, there are down sides. We can't put on a school play. We have only ourselves to rely on for expertise -- so we have microscopes being operated by an English major, and so on. But we can sing together, play our violins and piano together, do book reports and demos. We're flexible -- if someone is sick, we can move the day, or if someone has an appointment, change the time a few hours forward or back. We can follow our whims -- if we feel like a bike ride first or we really need to eat a snack, we can accommodate that without putting anyone out.

While the children do get a tiny bit of competition, to put a gentle urgency to their answering of questions and completing of assignments, they also can receive the pacing and attention geared to their specific needs.

I have been often confused by people who put their kids into a very school-like environment, after taking them out of school. I understand everyone has different needs and differnet reasons for homeschooling, but for me -- one of the reasons I took him out of school was to avoid the classroom. Our little "academy," for now, is giving us exactly what we need. Structure, accountability, and competition, but it still feels very much like homeschool. I'm grateful to Veronica for being such a kindred spirit!

Watching them jump in the trampoline yesterday, all together, co-operating on how to take turns and protect the littlest one from getting jumped onto her head, I was very happy. It's a good thing, for these children, at this time. I highly recommend it. If you can find one other family, with a similar teaching philosophy and children close in age, try it! See if it works for you.

Family Day at the Opera

"Pirates of Penzance" is a funny show, but a lot of the humor is wrapped up in complicated wordplay, and a lot of the plot twists require a mature understanding to follow and unravel.

Yes, it's in English, and no it's not Fidelio, but it's not the Doodlebops either. Nevertheless, throngs of children and their optimistic parents packed the Harrison Opera House last Saturday to see a family-friendly production (that is to say, an abridged version) of the GIlbert and Sullivan classic. Did they understand every double entendre and every complicated rhyme? No. But they did have a good time.

The last time we were at the opera house was when we took Benny to see Agrippina. I assure you, the mood was very different on that night. Tired, angry elderly people shushing each other, and then falling asleep on their armrests. Serious citizens paying dire close attention to the stage. A hush. A lot of furrowed brows. Saturday was more like the mood you hear about when attending theater was a more popular pursuit. Rowdy.



If it bothers you when a silent moment on stage is interrupted by at least five kids asking to go to the bathroom, commenting on the state of someone's boogers, or complaining that their sister is touching them, then Family Day is not for you. But if you like looking around the audience during a big scene and seeing herds of children actually enraptured by what they're seeing -- leaning forward, clutching their programs, laughing out loud, urgently pointing and explaining things to their little brothers, then Familiy Day at the Opera is an experience you should enjoy. I have to say I totally loved it.

The production was raucous but not racy. The acting was hilarious, the and the props and sets were ingeniously made. Yes, it was a tiny bit disappointing when the Pirate King was a Jack Sparrow clone, but my kids loved that. All in all, brilliantly done. And we loved the little "commercial" for the Virginia Opera that was inserted into "I am the very model of a modern Major-General." Cute!



As a bonus, the lawn of the opera house had a carnival feel, with boucy rides and Radio Disney on hand to MC. Don't miss this event next year -- it's a great chance to expose your kids to the opera without exposing yourself to the haughty glares of the typical opera crowd.