Thursday, September 3, 2009

Seven Quick Takes

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Check out Jen's place for more Quick Takes.


 


~1~


 



I don't know how, but I made it to Friday! Nothing has fallen apart, the house is still in some semblence of order, and best of all I'm all in one piece. It has definitely been a rough week and I'm still trying to figure out my new schedule as far as time management. Things that worked? Sticking with the menu plan, quick clean up at 11:30, and being ready to start circle time at 9 a.m. Things that did not? Trying to check my work email first thing in the morning, getting lunch together on the fly, and planning chores to be done after I'm done teaching at 7:30. I'm *really* not up to even putting away a load of laundry at that point. Chores have to be done before lunch or they won't be done at all.

 

~2~


 



Ender has been narrating spontaneous stories to me all week long. They all involve an animal of some kind that has no friends and goes out in search of a friend. An animal by the name of Ezra always comes along at some point, so Ezra gets quite a kick out of that. A lot of our recent conversations seem to revolve around friend-making lately and the kinds of things you have to do to make friends, so it's certainly on his mind!

 

~3~


 



I started The Other Queen by Phillipa Gregory the other day and put it down after 3 chapters. It was written in a very "here's the facts of the time period" kind of way instead of the fiction it's labeled as, so I put it away. I rarely give up on books, but this was so bad I just couldn't keep reading. On to Mistress of the Revolution, which has been much better so far.

 

~4~



 

 The highlight of the week came Wednesday night, when Superman came home from work. He came home just for a bit to get a shower and grab some dinner before running off to class, so he came down to the studio to ask me if dinner was ready. I'd been teaching for 4 hours at that point, so I rather politely reminded him that I was working and would continue to work for almost 4 more hours before ending my day. The look on his face was indescribable as he realized what he'd just asked me. The poor man has had an entire summer of dinner on the table at 5:30 each night but now that I'm back to working through the dinner hour 4 nights a week that's a thing of the past.

 

Seriously though- we have to figure out a better dinner plan. Maybe Sunday afternoons will become a cooking fest to prepare for the next week.

 

~5~



We had our first "big blood" accident with Ezra this week. To be honest it's the grace of God that has kept him in one piece this long. He's been scaling furniture for over a year now, so theoretically this accident shouldn't have been as bad as it was. He was sitting on one of his little chairs at his little table. When he stood up he somehow tipped the chair back and it took him with it. He fell against the edge of the other table and cut his head just behind his ear. It bled a lot for such a tiny cut and he wore his "bam-bay" (bandaid) proudly for the rest of the day.

 

~6~



 

Ender has decided that he really likes to listen to books on tape. He's been choosing at least one every time we go to the library. At our library they come bundled with the CD or cassettes together with the book and he *loves* that it dings at the end of every page.

 

~7~



 

In the studio we're having a monthly composer to learn about. This month we're learning about Beethoven. Part of the assignment is to watch a few videos of Beethoven's music and one is of the Berlin orchestra playing Beethoven's Fifth. Check out the video- my students have already commented on how serious the conductor is and his expressions throughout.

2 comments:

  1. Sarahsunshine's Skyler enjoys Beethoven... largely because they share the issue of hearing loss. Lately his interest has been Bob Dylan...OYYY. (Skyler's middle name is Dylan) But I find his comments interesting. He says Gordon Lightfoot is much better than Dylan because he articulates and he can follow the words better.

    When Sarah drives him to school, they alternate days for selecting music choices. Some days Sarah will choose quiet instead, or Harry Potter.

    Skyler is intrigued by the piano at times. Sarah followed a modified Suzuki program when young which was entirely classical music based. Her DH studied no music at all but loves popular folk music. He thinks he wants Sarah to teach them some piano. Sarah hesitates. I watched a strange moment when she tried to teach him Mary had a Little Lamb, at his request. Frankly it was painful. He wouldn't sing it, didn't really know the tune or words, UGH! It took about 20 minutes for him to "hunt and peck" the song so that I could identify it. Yet, perhaps if he shows interest, Skyler will want to follow along too. Skyler plays some mighty interesting inventions of his own. He performed one for me which was quite lovely, though it ended abruptly with no resolution. He then told me it was titled "Reed, Why Are You Gone?" Oh my....

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  2. Gardenbug, I grew up in a suzuki school for violin, traditional study for piano. If Sarah wants some ideas for books to use to help him get started just let me know. There's a really excellent series for beginners called Piano Town by Keith Snell and Diane Hidy that would probably be easy for Sarah to use in introducing the piano to see if Skyler is really interested.

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