The Luck of the Irish

Happy St. Patrick's Day! When I think of this day I think of my friend Gail. She is the only true Irish in my life.  By the way, everyone should have a friend named Gail. Everyone who is anyone has a friend named Gail. 

This beauty and I have had a few lucky turns together. She puts up with the truly obnoxious me; loyal and true, through and through. Why, just yesterday I sent her an e-mail hinting that she may have lost some pieces of a puzzle she lent me.

How can she have lost this many pieces? I did check my floor to make sure I was not the culprit. Well, truth be told, as I was gazing upon this puzzle with all the pieces in, the ones I had left, I  had saw a curious pattern. 

What if I shifted all the pieces over towards each other?

You guessed it! It fit together perfectly. Lesson: Never accuse your friend of wrong doing until you have looked at all sides of the issue.

Happy Green Day!

Genealogy Project

I have many stories of my ancestors which I have collected. I am beginning a new project to publish them on my blog. The first story is of our pioneer ancestor, Johanna Pauline Bettermann Schulz. Find her story here and the story will be added to day by day.

News From The MamaDaughter in Germany

I will be making a trip to Germany soon to see my MamaDaughter. 

The fam went to visit a medieval castle this weekend.

"Ollie, did you see a castle?

"Yes"

"Did it have a princess?"

"Yes"

"Did it have a dragon?"

"Yes........But I am not afraid of dragons.?"

A prince has come to visit them and may just stay. Big Brother M. has arrived.

There is joy in the kingdom because the youngest prince has accepted the older.

The youngest is pretty cute. I hope there will not be an inheritance feud.

While the king is away in battle the princess will fortify her position and keep those princes and dragons at bay. 

No, really, X-man. Princesses rule!!!!!

My First Piano Adventures 7

And the adventures continue.......In a little green house far, far away my MFPA students made great headway in their lessons this week.

My goal for the present will be to help all five recognize and quickly find the white keys by name, the music alphabet. That starts with a sure knowledge of how to locate middle A. My suggestion to them is to first locate the three black bears in the middle of the piano; other wise known as black keys. Starting on the lowest or left side say "Papa Bear, next, Mama Bear then slide off mama and you will be on A. 

The next step in key recognition is to locate th group CDE.

They surround the "twos", black keys, that is. In the lesson book Dallas helps with this as he tries to find the rabbit in his hat. (pg.41. The rabbit is hopping from key to key. Can your child tell you which key he is on?

With the introduction to the FGAB keys I also introduce the sneaky thumbs. The thumbs come out with the rest of the fingers "hiding" in a loose fist. On the piano the right thumb finds F and the left thumb sneaks up to C.

Here M. is showing her sneaky thumbs. 

Now the rest of the fingers "come out" and do you see how this sets up a nice rounded hand shape?

A game I play to encourage my students to learn the name of the white keys is "Guess the Key"

We keep score of who gets points,. D. and I are tied this week. He gets a point if he can tell me the name of the key I point to. I have to close my eyes and hear the key he plays and tell him without peaking what the key name is. He is motivated to learn his key names and I am motivated to practice my relative pitch listening skill. I must always remember that just because a student can do something once, or even twice, does not mean the skill is internalized. That is where repetition becomes the key to progress. Remembering finger numbers is a skill which can disappear from time to time. 

Here is J. making some music glasses using fingers 1 and 2. We can make glasses with 1 and 3, 1 and 4, and so forth. Again, just a way to reinforce skills learned but easily forgotten. I found a quote about reading which applies well to playing the piano. You can tell what your child's independent music playing level is by what songs she can play without help.Those are also the songs she loves. They make sense to her and they are the ones she loves to play. What song does your child love to play? Leave me a comment at the bottom of this blog. I would like to know.

“Fluency develops as a result of many opportunities to practice reading with a high degree of success. Therefore, your students should practice rereading aloud texts that are reasonably easy for them – that is, texts containing mostly words that they know or can decode easily. In other words, the texts should be at the students’ independent reading level.”

The Rhythm of My Day 7

To act or be acted upon; that is the question. In many of the activities we choose in Swingset we act upon the children by defining what they will do; we direct their activity. But in every class we choose something that allows them to act as they see fit. Those are called free movement or free play. 

This week we had a Bedtime theme. At one point we put out the parachute, some stuffed animals and said it was bedtime; time to tuck in their toys. I love seeing how they act. Some older children will immediately pretend and others will watch first to understand what is going on.

Free movement is a mystery. How will this activity turn out?

The balls came out this week. This is such an opportunity to witness social interaction. Everyone wants their own ball but they also want to see the ball go back and forth. What a dilemma.

S. feels such joy when she gets the ball.

We love this time with your children. They make us want to be better adults because of their example. There is no better place than the floor at Swingset Music and Movement.

Our Music Store (Across From Thriftway)

We are so lucky to have a music store in our small town. Karen reaches out to all types of musicians and all genres of music. I go there to pick up piano books for myself and my students.

Here is the Piano Adventures stash. If she doesn't have it she will order it for you.

She is stocking my books for younger students, My First Piano Adventures. I so appreciate knowing that if a students loses a book it can be replaced easily.

There is more here than music books. I collect rhythm instruments for music and movement classes. Karen first introduced me to Boomwhackers.

They are plastic tubes cut to certain lengths to create pitches of the scale. I use them in group lessons and we play songs with colored paper as music scores.

Do you want to try ukulele?

Or guitar? Do you need new strings for your instrument? How about a metronome?

Be sure to come visit whatever your interest. Karen loves music and is such fun to talk to. It reminds me of my local music store when I was young. I spent all my babysitting money on sheetmusic. My piano teacher would cringe when I brought the latest hit to lessons. The rhythm was always hard to count and I improvised most of it, but it kept me playing the piano and I am so glad I did. I have never heard anyone say, "I am so unhappy that my parents made me stay with my instrument". I sure have heard the opposite.

Two Lists About Yoga

In conversation I have talked to a few people about body image. Most people dislike their bodies. I have lived 40 years ignoring my body until it cried out for help. Sitting in my first yoga classes I could only recognize two sensations in my body; feeling good and hurting. The teacher asked questions that I could not answer, such as; what does your body need right now? Where is the tension in your body? Can you feel energy move through your body? What in the heck was she talking about?

My body image is like these new crocuses. They are new and hopeful and testify of the coming of spring. I have a new feeling about my body. It is hopeful that I might be able to respond with love and attention to this body that is mine.

Two Lists:

Symptoms of Having an Unconnected Mind and Body 

1. I breathe shallowly.
2. My thoughts run wild and I feel agitated by things that have not happened.
3. I tense muscles without cause.
4. I can't relax to fall asleep.
5. I don't know what it feels to be hungry.
6. When I exercise I over due because I want to prove that I can do it.

How Yoga Has Helped Me Connect My Mind and Body

1. I have learned to listen to my breath.
2. I have learned to sit still.
3. I have learned to be conscious of my breath and stay with that awareness.
4. I have learned to differentiate between pain and stretching.
5. I have learned to notice muscles that are working when they do not need to.
6. I have learned to relax my whole body.
7. I have learned gratitude for my body.
8. I have learned to block out others perceived expectations in a yoga class.
9. I have learned that my body size does not make me unworthy to move.

These are not complete lists but I liked making them.

This is a good place to show up each day.

For man is ^aspirit. The elements are ^beternal, and ^cspirit and element, inseparably connected, receive a fulness of joy; And when ^aseparated, man cannot receive a fulness of joy.