Delta has been having some up and down weeks. Last week, his class went great. Since then though, he has been refusing practices except for a couple of favorite activities. He had managed to hold his box-violin for the whole Twinkle song (but it was hard work!) But now he will hardly touch it!
But that wasn't the big tears! The big problem was during group class. I had Echo with me as well - which is hard enough.... but Delta wasn't doing anything he was supposed to! He was crawling under my chair, giving me hugs, or just generally refusing. And so between the 2 of them, I was so frustrated, embarassed, etc.... that I just started crying! Later a few of the mom's checked on me.... and the next day the group teacher called. We have a plan of attack for the next week. It has just been frustrating.
The group teacher is great though - even with Delta in that mood - she did get him to do a couple of things... One of the things that she did was teach them the dynamic symbols (pp - pianisimo p - piano f - forte ff - fortisimo) I never would have thought that you could teach kids that young the concept, but they got it right away.
Anyway, I have called Miss A - so she has a couple of ideas to try for this week.
I just wish it wasn't such a roller coaster at this stage!
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
More lessons, and the Group Lesson!
Well, things have been going pretty good. Delta is not being as co-operative with some parts of the lesson - mainly putting up the violin. We have backed off on that, and the lesson yesterday,Miss A had him "be the parent" and put the violin up for me. He seemed to like that! She also gave us a little plastic ghecko, that loves violins. So we are going to practice balancing the ghecko on the violin. We are just going to work on him helping me unless he wants to try it himself again.
We had the first group lesson last Saturday. It was pretty interesting. There are 7 kids in his group class, so that isn't too bad. Most of them were 4 (or looked 4.... I didn't find out for everyone...) - but there are 2 seven year olds in the class. It also looks like there are 6 boys and 1 girl in the class. I always felt that violin was a "girl" instrument (probably because my sister played it) - but had heard that it is a "boy" instrument - and it does kind of appear that way! Of course anyone can play it.... instruments don't really have a gender. The group lesson was a bit long - 50 minutes! Delta and most of the 4 year olds were losing attention after about 35-40 minutes. It was still good. They practiced doing a bow (parents clap if the all do it at the SAME time....), and they did their clapping patterns, and practiced putting up the violin, and a bunch of stuff. Delta did enjoy seeing the other kids. I think he was relieved that they were all about the same stage as him - I think he thought they would be able to play!
This is sure a long process! Delta hasn't even touched his pretend bow officially, or gotten even close to getting to use his real violin! I am seeing progress though, and I can see how some of the things they do will be used later. He does know all the parts of the violin, including the name of each string. He is starting to get a couple of the clapping patterns, which are used in the "Twinkle" variations when they learn to play them. He can sing the "A" note pretty much right on pitch. He has a cool bow, and is learning how to handle his "boxilin" better. He also for the most-part enjoys listening to the CD music. It can just be discouraging when we go to a lesson, and he isn't behaving that great. Miss A is fantastic with him though.
Charlie (Delta's older sister) went with us to his lesson yesterday - and played photographer. She took a few pictures, and a bit of video with the digital camera.... so that is helpful.
Well, gotta go!
We had the first group lesson last Saturday. It was pretty interesting. There are 7 kids in his group class, so that isn't too bad. Most of them were 4 (or looked 4.... I didn't find out for everyone...) - but there are 2 seven year olds in the class. It also looks like there are 6 boys and 1 girl in the class. I always felt that violin was a "girl" instrument (probably because my sister played it) - but had heard that it is a "boy" instrument - and it does kind of appear that way! Of course anyone can play it.... instruments don't really have a gender. The group lesson was a bit long - 50 minutes! Delta and most of the 4 year olds were losing attention after about 35-40 minutes. It was still good. They practiced doing a bow (parents clap if the all do it at the SAME time....), and they did their clapping patterns, and practiced putting up the violin, and a bunch of stuff. Delta did enjoy seeing the other kids. I think he was relieved that they were all about the same stage as him - I think he thought they would be able to play!
This is sure a long process! Delta hasn't even touched his pretend bow officially, or gotten even close to getting to use his real violin! I am seeing progress though, and I can see how some of the things they do will be used later. He does know all the parts of the violin, including the name of each string. He is starting to get a couple of the clapping patterns, which are used in the "Twinkle" variations when they learn to play them. He can sing the "A" note pretty much right on pitch. He has a cool bow, and is learning how to handle his "boxilin" better. He also for the most-part enjoys listening to the CD music. It can just be discouraging when we go to a lesson, and he isn't behaving that great. Miss A is fantastic with him though.
Charlie (Delta's older sister) went with us to his lesson yesterday - and played photographer. She took a few pictures, and a bit of video with the digital camera.... so that is helpful.
Well, gotta go!
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