Adding Homeschool

I'm adding posts about homeschooling now....   starting with things I had written elsewhere.  I'll be pre-dating it to when I wrote it.

Song of the Wind Exercises

Another lesson with Mrs. J, and Delta is starting the "Hopping 3" exercise with finger 1 down on the E string, that is used in Song of the Wind.    Mrs. J was really pleased with the progress Delta has made on Lightly Row.

Lightly Row!

Well, Delta is now officially learning Lightly Row!  His twinkles still need a lot of work of course, but we have been singing the fingerings for Lightly Row for a week now.    He has been working on his "hopping" 2 finger as well.   Well, at the lesson yesterday, Mrs. J and Delta went through lightly row very slowly, with her telling him the fingers to play.   There are also a couple of phrases that we will be practicing 5 times by itself.

Unfortunately, Delta is sick today....   as about all he will be eating today is crackers or banannas, he will be excused from practice today.

Change in Practice

So, just before changing teachers, I ordered "Step-by-step".  It is a book and CD that help make the practice more productive.   Well, although Delta did pretty good with practice (but they were super short) most of the time - it made a big difference having the book and CD.   I printed the chart off, and listed the things he would need to practice.   I made the main theme for the week being "Happy Practice".   Anything he did happily got a smilie face on the chart.  If he didn't do it happily, he still needed to do it - and would just get a checkmark.   The first day, he got 3 smilies out of about 9 that he could have earned - so I made it a "race" or challenge - could he beat himself tomorrow and get more.  Within a couple of days, he was getting ALL smilies - and a star at the bottom of the chart.   What a difference!    He still sometimes doesn't do things happily, but most of the time he does because he wants the star.

This system has worked well with the new teacher, as her requirements for practice are to do the same things they did in the lesson.  So I write down what the teacher did on the sheets, check the CD for appropriate accompaniment music, and that is what we do.   The CD with the book has the music at various speeds, so we start with the slow speed, and work our way up.

Concert Last Night

So, we had the year end concert last night.   It went quite well.  Delta was set to play with the pre-twinklers because he has only been a twinkler for a few weeks - but he also played the twinkles when it got to them.   

It was a good evening.  Charlie watched Echo while I went with Delta to get his violin tuned.  Foxtrot (the almost 1 year old) was in the snugli, which of course ended up being hard on my back eventually.   I had fun keeping Foxtrot quiet, but had come prepared with a sippi-cup of milk and some Nutrio's.  The other two enjoyed the music, although some was long.  They enjoyed the music best once they got to the songs they listen to a lot.

Delta was one of the students that got a trophy for 100 days of practice in a row.  Echo actually earned one too - I arranged for one to be bought for her, even though she isn't in the program yet.  Delta had his given on stage - Echo got hers afterwards in private.   I am very proud of them.  Actually, we haven't missed a day of practice since January 1st!

Update

Well, it has been over a year since I posted - and there is a very good reason.  Besides being very busy having a new baby (who is almost 1 now), there is the issue of how often can you post that things are not going well?

Delta just didn't work well.  We spent almost a whole year of him refusing to do things for his teacher, having tantrums at practice time, etc.   Actually, we eventually got so that most practices (which were very short) went fairly well, but Delta pretty much balked at lessons whenever his teacher wanted to teach him something new, or wanted him to play with "fingers".   He did learn "The monkey song", and eventually in group learned the fingers for twinkles - but mostly refused to play them even for me.... I think he played the first variation maybe 4 times total.

Eventually, about 6 weeks ago, I decided that a change in teacher would make a difference.  His teacher didn't think so, but had run out of things to try, so we agreed that we would try a single lesson with another teacher.

Well, Delta did the whole lesson happily, and played (fairly well too) 4 of the twinkles, and learned something new.... I think it was doing an exercise with playing with his 3rd finger apart from the others.

So, obviously we have switched teachers.   Delta can play all the twinkles now (well, is still working on "Mommy, and Daddy, and"... and has just started singing the notes for Lightly Row, and is playing the first phrase slowly with me reminding him which notes.

Oh, our practices are longer, and more effective too.   Another post coming on that.

And, I plan to change this blog to include our homeschooling....

[I have since added (and dated the appropriate dates) stuff I had written in other places....]

3rd Lesson with Mrs. J

We just had the 3rd lesson with Mrs. J (who has been his group teacher this whole year....) - and Delta is now playing (slowly) all the twinkles except Var. B ("Down bow and Up bow   and", or "Mommy - and Daddy - and").... and has started work on it.  Although this is probably a mommy's pride here, he CAN play them very well (he doesn't always choose to though....).   Mrs. J is gently correcting his technique, but uses a different method of correction than Miss A did - which seems to be making a difference.   The main thing is that Delta is willing to work with her.   

The overall difference in Delta is amazing.   Along with the changes I made in our practices (which turned out to be great - as the changes ended up matching more with what we needed to do with the new teacher) - he seems a lot happier.   He isn't always happy to do the whole practice - but he knows what is expected, and will do it without the complaining and whining that we had last year, and early this year.   When I practice (a few songs ahead of him), he will often choose to play along on open strings - and astonished me the other day by playing the A major scale with me WITH FINGERS with notes right on....  and I was playing it fast (well, very fast for him - pretty fast for me - Step-by-step CD track 43 or 44....)....   He has a couple of times picked up the violin just to play (and plays one of the twinkles, instead of just "noise").... and one day when I was wasn't feeling well, and was starting the day with a shower, he told me that he would practice while I showered (and although he didn't do everything he is supposed to practice  he did play a few of the things - and hey, it was self-directed.... so I wasn't complaining!)

I am just so thrilled with the difference!   I know that there will be more struggles and hard times at some point - but the last year and a half had been SO hard, and so different from the happy experience that gets painted about doing suzuki that if I wasn't so convinced about it, and so determined, and had a husband who was supportive even though he thought I was crazy.... I would have ended up quiting, I'm sure of it.