Monday, July 20, 2009

200 Practices

Wow, Delta and Echo have practiced 200 days in a row now!

A few were pretty inventive (ever have to do a violin practice in a car... with no violins? - we sang fingerings, and named violin/bow parts....)

Most have been good, solid practices.

Friday, July 17, 2009

Flying

Ok, I just re-installed our MS Flight Simulator on the computer, and went for a "flight". Wow, that was fun. I sure miss flying - but I don't remember flight simulator being as much fun as it was tonight.

Oh, on the suzuki side - we just had our 200th consecutive day of practice! WooHoo!

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Gratuitus Practicing

I never really thought this day would come - and certainly not with him at the age of 5.

I woke up this morning to the sound of...... Delta practicing the violin entirely on his own. I even heard him practice his scale.

Who would have thought?

When I mentioned it this morning, he just said that he wanted to play the violin.


Thursday, July 2, 2009

Memories of Learning to Ride a Bike

Ok, I admit it. This is a shameless entry whose topic has been selected soley because I want to win a Balance Bike for one of my kids from http://www.5minutesformom.com/. However, it is a good topic, so I don't mind.

I am going to admit right now that my memories from childhood are a big fog - So I'm not sure that I totally remember my first bike ride - but here is what I do remember.

I remember that I first learned to ride on a hand-me down bike from my sister that was a little too big for me. I think I was around 6 - I'm not sure. My dad didn't think too much of training wheels (although my sister apparently had had them - I know this from another story. Don't know if my brothers ever had them or not.) So - I remember my dad running behind me a lot. I do remember falling a fair bit - although I did get good enough to manage. I remember having to start by a curb, and having to get close enough to a curb as I stopped.

When I was around 7, my school had a bike event of some sort after school - I think they checked your bikes out, and tested you on being able to manuver on the bike: going straight, going through cones, going on a circle. I think you got some sort of little prize if you did it all well - maybe a bike license plate or something - the main thing I remember was being very embarrassed and dissappointed. I don't remember what the problem was, whether I didn't do well with the steering etc - or maybe I wasn't even allowed to participate at all because the bike was the wrong size. I didn't ride my bike at all for a long time after that.

Another bit that I remember, but I'm not sure exactly if this was before or after the memories above - is not riding a bike when my friends all were. I had a very large trike, so I sometimes rode that with my friends for a while.....

Over-all, with all that, I started to hate bikes.

Around the time I was almost 9, my mom (my parents were seperated by then) bought me a bike that actually fit me. (my sisters was still too big - I'm wondering how huge it must have been?) It was used, and a boy's bike - but with it being the right size, I could ride it well. I was quite a tom-boy, so it being a blue boy's bike didn't bother me, and to me it was much better than my sister's old bike that I had refused to ride for so long. At that point, I remember riding around the neighbourhood a lot, and the freedom that a bike gave me.

Anyway - Delta, who is almost 6 now has a two wheeled bike. It was a used girl's bike that we have painted blue (it was pink). It does have training wheels still, but he does enjoy it. Echo is 3 and has a tricycle that she likes. It has a push handle so I can push it.... although she can pedal it depending where we are. (At a program we go to they have other trikes that she can pedal very well; I'm not sure why she has such a hard time with ours.) Foxtrot, of course, is only 1 - so she doesn't have anything yet.

I hope you enjoyed the memories!