Piano piano

M played Pat a Pan for the choir tonight at the Lighthouse event.  I'm so pleased that she is able to do the work to achieve these goals of mine.  She's gotten good enough that she is able to serve and see how fun it is to be an accompanist.  She played 3 songs for the primary program too.

I'm really pleased with her piano teacher and how she is pushed constantly and also how she rises to the challenge.  I often cannot believe it's my little girl doing all this.  At the same time, when she's doing all this it's hard to remember she's only 11.

She has her first band concert tomorrow.  I'm so excited for that experience.  She's so awesome!  And yet today when the children were playing "Guess what I'm humming."  she kept humming tunes the others wouldn't know because they were her band tunes.  And she also hummed the tune for "ABC" which is also the tune for 3 other songs at least,  and told the children they were wrong when they guessed any of the other tunes...

She does serve and volunteer a lot.  She likes to be tricky too.  Basically she is awesome but is still developing.

Governor M

At our homeschool group M won the election for Governor by one vote.  She ran as a democrat against a republican candidate that promised more lego play time and video game play time.  Nice!

Today I reminded her of kind generous women I knew on both sides of the aisle. 

Her motto was "Keep Calm, climb trees and vote for M!"

Magical Advice

M is trying to learn "Pat a Pan" on piano for the choir.

Tonight lP told her "Don't just run through it, actually practice

the parts you don't know."  M yelled back "I've been taking

piano for 5 years, I don't need your magical advice!"

Tonight we went to a friends house because the mother of this friend is having a class over the next 4 weeks about peer relations and emotional health.  There are 13 girls ages 10-14 and they talked about Fitting in vs. Belonging.  It was pretty great.

Classes

 M is in an astronomy class at the homeschool co-op and got to create this model of a star with a giant rice crispy treat and lots of candy.  Then she ate it.  She did share a lot of the candy with her siblings.

 M loves going to band.  I'm so glad that is working out well.  It's wonderful for her to go off and have these adventures of independence.  This is a mural in the hall at her school.  So fun.

happening

M has started playing the french horn!  This picture was just documenting the dings on the school horn she is borrowing. 

It's so cute!

Competent

Today as we were having the primary program practice M did some good work.  She figured out how to fix the soap dispenser in the women's rest room which had been just giving a tiny amount of soap.  She found a spare soap holder in the supply closet, and figured out how to open the case.  Then she figured out how to line up the bag of soap so that the push bar actually pumped out soap.

She's also going to be playing 3 songs for the program, and singing a duet with her friend H.

I love this girl her competence.

Musician

Watching M in a piano lesson is a thing of beauty.  Mrs. B pushes her hard.  When M is focusing in her lesson her face takes on the expression of eyes wide and jaw relaxed.  It makes me so proud to see her amaze the teacher.  Last week she practiced diatonic 5 note scales.  Then in the lesson Mrs. asked her to do Chromatic ascending, which is hard, then she said eventually she should do descending.  Then M did it!  Mrs. B and I looked at each other like "woah."

Mrs. B runs the lesson so efficiently jumping from theory to technique to technology to real world application and the hour flies by.  M is learning so many great things musically but also for when she has her own piano studio.  I'm so glad she has this amazing ability to put things together in her head and put it into practice.  Mrs. B talks about how M is one of the kids who is going to be able an accompanist for a choir.  I love it.

I'm with the band

M started taking band at the local Jr. High on Friday.  So far she's very excited and loves her teacher.  I'm so grateful the school district makes this easy for us.  We're so excited for M to start her band life.  She said there's a girl at the school who plays french horn in the concert band and piano in the Jazz band.  Sweet!

party in the rain

We had  a party for M at the park Friday night.  The forecast was ominous.  I'd invited so many families that I didn't really feel like we could hold it at our house, and our activity was making slime...
Friends came, it rained like crazy, kids had fun and nobody was hurt thank goodness.  It's fun having a big party.  I'm grateful for fun friends.

 M riding in a single kayak on a trip in the moultrie creek.

 M playing in the giant piece of Lycra that recently joined our family as a swing, hammock, climbing thing.

 

M asked me to try the Hello Fresh which was 50% off for your first order.  It was fun and an ok value at 50% off.  It came with an instructions card and M made the chipotle pulled chicken and slaw herself.  It's fun letting her have all these experiences. 

M is learning hymns and playing for primary.  I'm grateful for her.  To compensate her having a great attitude about sharing her talents, I'm letting her earn money toward her choir trip next year.  It's stressful to me when she has too much money available.  She wants to buy robot cats.  But having large goals is a good thing.

camera of dreams

M wanted a camera that could print and I thought this was an impossible dream, and foolishness.  She saved up and worked extra.  She got in trouble for bringing it up again and again when she still didn't have enough money for it.  I told her to just keep working and stop bugging me about it.  Eventually she was close and then some birthday money became available.  Now the time to decide which kind to get was approaching.  There are several different types.  The ideal would be a digital camera that had a screen so you could view what you took before printing.  That kind of camera was $200.  As we debated about the different kinds of cheaper cameras I came across this polaroid that was 6 years old but had the screen and SD memory options that made it more functional than just a novelty.  M was stubborn and didn't like it, even though it was in her price range.  Eventually she was willing to consider it and we found one that came with 90 sheets of film/paper.  The paper alone was worth what we paid for the camera.  M has since decided she loves it.  She can print borders on the photos and take videos.  It's a happy ending.

M pointed out to me that this was the same place I had her stand to take a picture of the kindle that she bought with her own money 2 years ago.  Apparently I like the lighting in the kitchen.  I also like how M sets goals that I worry are too ambitious and then she works and compromises to have a good end.

friends

M's friend in the neighborhood is awesome.  When we're out and about she is always open to meeting and including other kids.  Her mom told me that when she was in 1st grade a little girl claimed her as best friend and tried to keep her from playing with other kids.  So PF spoke up for herself from a young age and said she was happy to be friends but was still going to have other friends.

I am so impressed by this because it is so healthy to be open to other friends.  It is also very kind to include everyone in your friendship.  There are times in life for monogamy and keeping confidences.  Friendship should be about including.

We've been able to bring a girl to the Wednesday night activities the last two weeks.  I tell M and lP that their job is to include and help with communication.  This girl can be a great friend, if they try. 

I'm so glad when my children include others.  I want for them to understand that they are in a position of privilege, being able to hear, sign, read, walk, have an intact family, and they have the gospel.  When they focus on including others, they will hopefully not have time to feel like nobody is including them.  It's their job! 

You can only control yourself and if you want to have friends, be a friend.

$1.00 Hymns

M is off for the summer from piano lessons.  Her teacher is on vacation for a month, then we are on vacation for a month.  The teacher handles lessons in a business like manner.  For the summer you can buy 4 or 8 lessons.  I felt like there wasn't enough time to make good use of 4 lessons because of camps, and travel.  I love that the teacher handles her studio in such a businesslike manner.  It is a business and she provides a service for a clearly defined cost.  I hope M will pick up these business skills as well as the piano and pedagogy skills.  She's advanced enough that the teacher talks openly to her about how she will use these resources when she teaches piano.  The teacher understands the value of what she is teaching.  It's great.

So while M was off formal lessons I agreed to pay her $1.00 for each hymn she learned.  M is very motivated to earn money to get a Polaroid camera.  She's had this goal for a long time and done some extra work to earn money.  Today we looked at different options to get an idea for how close she was.  Ebay may be the answer. 

M asked if I would pay her for past hymns she had learned, as they are written, not simplified.  I told her that I would pay her for those 3-4 hymns when she reaches 10 new hymns.  We talked about carrots and motivation. 

Having M able to play hymns has been our main goal in having her play the piano.  I'm excited that she's reaching the skill level to be able to do that.  Her teacher said she is good enough to play hymns now and that learning simplified versions is actually frustrating because the muscle memory has to be re-learned.  I'm glad to have admonition to go forth and do the work!

Brave

2 years ago we were super into Sarah Barellies "Brave".  We sang it and listened to it in the car all the time.  I got a piano arrangement for M and it was all we could do to sort of play it between the both of us.  M now has the skill and I'm really excited for her to start busting out with that.  Yay!

friends and fun

M is blessed to have an abundance of friendships.  Her neighborhood friend is lovely and they spend hours together each week.  They go to choir then jujitzu together on Tuesday.  Sometimes she goes out to eat with her friend.  It's a wonderful time for her.

Today at the recital for her new teacher M was able to see a lot of other kids her age and older doing really challenging pieces.  I think M did a great job on her piece that she learned with Miss A.  She's had such a fun the last 2 months with the new teacher.  But she has an awesome foundation and technique thanks to Miss A. 

Singing in the choir has been very fun for M this year.  She's got friends in the choir and today they had a party at Adventure Landing.  I'm so grateful for this group and the music and group skills M is learning.

new piano tools

M is taking lessons with a new teacher for piano.  It's really exciting as an educator to see the methods and materials this teacher uses.  I feel like I'm back in college going around and seeing what different master teachers do in their classrooms.  M's teacher for the past 5 years is amazing and prepared M so well for this next level.  And that teacher is doing an incredible job of keeping lP motivated.  She is so kind and patient.

The new teacher has M learning more theory and composition techniques.  I'm really happy to see her getting these skills.  So far M is motivated to plow through the increased assignments and 1 hour lessons. 

forever young

I'm so impressed with M's ability to navigate this tenth year of life.  She's really taking the time to enjoy being a kid still.  She and lP play with mud and ride bikes and do crazy climbing stunts.  These years pass so fast and I love to see her enjoying it.  M has such a positive attitude and helps with the dishes and with lP's school work too.  She is very patient and uses a positive outlook to motivate lP along. 

Sometimes M is actually grumpy and whiny but that just makes me more grateful that in general she is a delight and able to think through hard times.

best of both worlds

Today M and I went on a river clean up trip with the county.  They brought kayaks and we paddled up the river with a group of 10 other volunteers to clean up trash. 

 M and I found 2 big pieces of trash.  This big thing and what appeared to be the 

door of a mini fridge.

M loves to take care of animals and be out in nature.  This trip was really fun.  It's always fun to be in the water and have conversations with the coordinators and other volunteers.  I'm so grateful to live in this gloriously beautiful area.

new friend

We learned that a family new to the homeschool group lives in our neighborhood.  They moved here almost a year ago and were just waiting to either start school or not, but we didn't know about them until they joined the homeschool co-op.  They have a daughter 8 months younger than M.  M's 10 and allowed to go around the block by herself.  So hypothetically she could go visit this friend all the time.  She's never had that kind of access to a friend.  I hope they can be friends but I also hope they can each stay true to their families ideals.  Having a neighborhood friend can be awesome but it can also be tempting to be best friends when you're actually just friends in proximity. 

I hope M will be a good friend.

Having fun

 This is M and mom at cousin T's house.  M had a great time and didn't freeze to death on the trip.

 In fact she returned to Florida to use dad's impact screw driver to help build the shed.  Good girl.

This picture is from a few weeks ago in G-town.  The park we are in love with installed massive canopies.  They are attached to these comically large pillars.  Actually the pillars are probably/hopefully designed to withstand hurricane force winds with those canopies catching wind like sails.  M found that she could shimmy up these pillars as easily as she climbs a normal 3 inch pole.  Just another day of M having fun.

M has taken a new tack in on practicing the piano.  She was told by a veteran teacher that she needed to practice longer.  We brought this up with her teacher who assigned her specific minutes for each part of her lesson.  This was further motivating to M when I told her that I'd grant her double that amount of time on the computer.  She has drastically increased her practice time.  And with that extra time she's diving deeper into her pieces than ever.  Dynamics and articulation are happening.  Mom yelling "Do it again slower and with a metronome" has gone extinct!  It's really great to see.

Tonight as the girls and I were listening to recordings of their piano pieces we came across some great examples for M's piece "Rage over a lost Penny".  We has been impressed by a young girl playing it.  Then we found a cool tutorial that showed the music and view of the keyboard very slowly so you could watch the fingering.  Then we found a video of a professional pianist playing.  Wow.  I'm so grateful to live in a time where the kids can watch musicians so easily.