Music

I never took music or art when I was in school. I was always on the engineering tract for my father and didn't have time for those interests. So when Larissa's dance teacher told me that she hears music and I caught her walking around singing all the time I decided to look into music lessons for her since that is not something that I can home school. I had a friend recommend someone who goes to the home. We don't go to our home because of the chaos, we meet at my shop.

I am not an expert on music but I have always thought that Larissa could sing well. Michelle is in the choir and I can tell the difference in their abilities. While discussing music for Larissa we decided to include Michelle. She hasn't really found that thing that she has a passion for. She did enjoy choir and I thought that when we asked her what she would want to take for music I thought she would say voice. However, she chose the keyboard.

Last week they had their first class. Michelle did very well with the keyboard. She caught on very quickly and remembers the chords well. He told Michelle that she was very bright and she loved it.

Next he worked with Larissa. He wants her to do the keyboard as well as voice. I was surprised to listen to her at the keyboard. She pressed each key and could sing to that pitch quite easily. Her teacher was surprised as well. He had her sing some songs and he played with the keyboard. I had no idea what he was doing. He told me that even though he changed the pitch, she didn't change with it, she hears the pitch in her head. He told me that he thinks that she has absolute pitch. Huh? I had no idea what that was (had to go look it up). I don't know, I guess time will tell. Either way, she does well with voice. She struggles with the keyboard. She has a hard time remembering the keys and really struggled to do the keys backwards. I could see some of her educational challenges surfacing at music.

Sometimes I wish that we could get Anthony interested in something. He says that this was his last year in dance which is fine. But we want him to get involved in something. He didn't want to do band and when I asked him about private music lessons he said no. At one time he was passionate about art but that has really diminished. I had him come and participate in one our our painting sessions. It was painting guitar pictures. Everyone has the same guitar shape but everyone designs their own. Lots of people come to that and we get lots of interesting guitar designs. However, Anthony didn't paint anything. He couldn't think of anything and just sat there frozen. It was as though it was just too much for him. I had him take it home so he could do it whenever he wanted but he has never done it. It was very odd.

Emma has decided to go back to dance. I wouldn't be surprised if she wanted to go towards the cheerleading one day. She is not into any type of competitive sports and that is fine. I wasn't either.

Sometimes I wonder about all these extra curricular activities. I know that I never did any when I was growing up. We moved frequently and they were never encouraged. This new generation of kids seem to be different. They aren't running the streets until dark like I did. They are being shuffled from one activity to another instead. Around here there are no kids running around the neighborhood playing.

I am not against these activities. We do try to limit them because of cost and time that they take. We do try to encourage the kids to develop whatever interests that they have. Sometimes that doesn't mean paying for activities. Michelle loves to read so we are going to the library and I just bought her The Wrinkly in Time series of books. I can understand the love of reading, I loved to read as a child. Michelle can read a book a night, I used to do the same. I ignore the fact that she has a little light on to read late into the night. I understand that passion.

I am curious, what activities are your kids involved in? Do you limit these activities or go from one to the next all week?