Thursday, September 20, 2007

First "official" piano lesson with Mom ...

Ugh!  I am still sick and had almost no voice this morning.  I am going to bed very early tonight!!  It was a great day anyway.  We had our first official piano lesson today.  Tom Sawyer loved his first lesson.  Having cerebral palsy, it was really hard for him to separate a few of his fingers, but he was determined.  His occupational therapist says this will be great for strengthening the muscles in his fingers, and he does seem to love it.  Little Red Ridinghood also gave it a try.  Separating her fingers was much easier than it had been for Tom Sawyer, but she lost interest quickly.  No big surprise there, since she is only 3.  I like the books we are using.  The series is called Piano Adventures by Nancy and Randall Faber.  For each level there are three books: theory, performance, and lessons.  I like how the child is learning to read music, play a fun performance song and get lessons in finger control all at the same time.







In the afternoon my big teen started his out of the home Ancient World History class with four other homeschooled teens.  It is being taught by a college professor who is semi-retired.  He loves it.  To quote him, "The class totally rocks, Mom!"  He talked about it all the way home.  This is only a six week course, and then the teacher will decide with all of us if we want to continue with the next period of time.  It was nice to see how tickled the teacher was, too.  She really enjoyed working with a small group of homeschoolers.  We are her first and she says these teens are more interested than her college students!

While the big teen was in class, I took the little ones to a nearby bird sanctuary.  We didn't see any birds but we did see a bunny, caterpillar, butterfly, ducks (oh! I guess that is a bird), and lots of frolicking squirrels.  We also saw cattails, and the kids really loved those.  Unfortunately, I forgot the camera and the nature books, but we had fun anyway.

Blessings,

Dawn

8 comments:

  1. I took our kids to an animal shelter this week - which was a great free "field trip" - it's so exciting when they have fun at these places....the bird sanctuary is another good idea.


    -Katrina

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  2. I teach my oldest 3 piano too. My oldest 2 (ages 10 and 9) have been taking lessons for 2 years and my daughter (age 8) just started. I want them all to learn...I love the fact that my mom took her time to teach me and my siblings. Even though I griped so often about having to practice :), I'm sooo thankful now! I hope to start my 7 year old soon...once my morning sickness is over! My older boys may be able to start working with the younger ones too...Have a great day and have fun learning piano together! God is so good

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  3. Thank you for stopping by my blog.

    I do hope you are feeling better soon also...sick mom's are no fun ;)

    Have a blessed weekend,

    Christina

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  4. Thanks for stopping by! HOpe you feel better soon!! My daughter uses those same piano books, she is 8. But I don't teach her ;). I probably could have taught her to start, but I wouldn't have even known to use those books. She loves her teacher too, she is a recently graduated homeschooler who wants to teach piano for a living! Hopefully I can afford to keep paying her!

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  5. homeschoolingmommaof4September 22, 2007 at 4:37 PM

    I love the picture of your dd. She looks like she is really enjoying her lesson. Sounds like you had a great day. Isn't it wonderful when the kids are excited about learning something.


    Have a blessed day!

    JoAnn

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  6. Thanks for posting on my blog, I pray we won't have to turn around and move in a couple of months again, but we probably will. It will be fun to have the holidays at our home on the farm before heading somewhere again.


    Your daughter looks like she likes the piano. I just love the zeal young children have for music. It is so inspiring!


    God bless and I hope you feel better. :)

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  7. I wish I knew how to play the piano...or any musical instrument really. My kids would like to play something, but am having a hard time trying to squeeze it in, both time-wise and money-wise. Lessons are expensive!

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  8. Hi,

    I'm actually getting ready to start teach DD (age 6) piano. Her first lesson will be this week. She's very excited. I hope it goes as well as yours did!


    I jumped to your blog from Denise's (denisebp). My daughter was adopted as well. She's such a sweetie. I'd love to adopt more if God allows.


    Have a great week!

    Stacey

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