Team Gray!

Happy February, people! I just took this picture this morning, and it was an unexpected study in profiles.

Don’t you just Love Thursday?

Most piano teachers I talk to say you can’t teach your own children. Something about how they don’t listen to their mother and need a professional teacher. Since I homeschool, I must reject that logic, but I have found that teaching my own children piano is challenging. I gave five children piano lessons yesterday. I am learning something about each child by teaching them piano.

Yanni: a very musical child. She has perfect pitch. Woa unto the poor unsuspecting person who sings a song in the wrong key. Yanni will definitely let you know about that! In piano, Yanni plays by ear. She is working on perfectly reproducing her favorite video game music in her free time. She was stuck on her Bach minuet because she couldn’t remember what the middle section sounded like, and was at sea trying to read the music. She was visibly relieved when I showed her what to play, breaking it down into two bar sections, where she copied me.

Xay: very logical in everything, you can feel him thinking when he’s having his lesson. He thinks in fingerings, unlike any of the other children, so I can sing the melody with the finger numbers, and he knows what the heck I’m talking about. That frustrates Yanni and Imani. Xay has no patience for illogical fingerings, and music that seems to go on and on. I have such hope for him during a lesson, because he grasps the concepts so well, and I think he can even read music, at least rudimentarily; again the logic of the notes on the staff clicks with him. He just has zero interest in it, and thus only practices when forced to.

Imani: goes after piano with her heart. She is very determined and deliberate in her approach. Even though Imani has small hands, and her feet dangle when she sits on the piano bench, she goes for learning a piece of music with everything she has, and she eventually conquers the music. She is the only child I have that is interested in finishing the book. So, when she learns one piece, she’s eager to learn the next one, and she retains what she learned playing the last one, too. I can see when she comes to a mental block; a place in the music where she’ll have to stretch and grow in order to learn it. It is exciting for me, because I know that Imani will do what it takes to learn that music!

Joyous: playful to the core, Joy’s music lessons must be more like a game. I will play a part of the song, and she’ll copy me. We do this until we’re finished with Twinkle Twinkle. I don’t worry if she doesn’t copy the rhythms perfectly; I just want her to stick with it until we’re finished. At 4, her attention span is a little small to expect much. . .

Then there’s Esteban, who isn’t even getting regular lessons. Yesterday he wanted to do just what Joy did. It was adorable to watch his stiff little hands coming at the keyboard with the proper fingers. I wonder how long it will take him to learn twinkle twinkle. . .

Curtis and I worked out this great arrangement. He watched the little kids while I snuck out with the big kids.

What had started out as an outing with Yanni to break in her new sled turned into a whole escapade with Xay and Mel and Joy, too. So, the family sledding event with 7 people to two sleds was replaced by an outing with 5 people, 4 sleds, one innertube, and one snowboard.

There was no waiting to get down the hill!

After a warm December, some people thought we might miss winter altogether this year. They should’ve known better. Just because it didn’t start in November didn’t mean we’d miss January, February, March, April, and possibly May! So, it’s been a white January so far, and the kids have compensated by building a snow fort and having as many strategic snowball fights as they possibly could.

And the hill down the street was full of people taking advantage of the fluffy lake-effect snow shower we had Sunday.

I mostly used Joy’s sled. My first thought while coursing down the hill was, ‘how do you steer this crazy thing?’ I veered to the right and fell off after spraying my face with freezing snow. Yanni thought I looked very funny falling down the hill in ‘Daddy’s big ‘ole coat.’ She described my look as scary, what with the big bulky coat, etc, and the smaller physique. ‘Is it a man, or what?’–my look evoked. With a closer inspection, one could see my Sunday make-up still in place, including red lips and full mascara and eyeshadow. It gave me flashbacks to 6th-8th grade, when I wore men’s coats from the Army surplus store. It made me look tough.

I was also wearing Xay’s last year gloves, which he’d seriously outgrown. They were a little short for me, wrist-wise, but they fit in the fingers. My first fall gave me cold wrists, and cheeks, but I was raring to run back up the hill for another try.

Yanni’s sled gave a smooth version of Joy’s sled’s ride. How do you steer those big plastic sleds? I rode with Xay, and I caused us both to fall off. We looked like synchronized swimmers as we hastily dismounted, mid-ride.

The *25 cent* innertube we’d taken with us was in need of inflation as several children at the hill pushed it down and carried it back up the hill before I picked it up and carried it to Yanni. Neither she nor Xay had wanted to blow it up when we’d arrived at the hill; too excited. I couldn’t even open the blow up part in the chilled air. Yanni had no problem blowing up the innertube, and she was down the hill in seconds flat. Joy and Xay claimed a ride on it before I could blink, and I got the fourth ride down on the tube. I was surprised at how smooth it was, and, low and behold, it was my first trip down the hill without falling off!

Joy told me to ride her sled backwards for better steering. This and praying worked very well. I was able to go farther than anyone in our group during our races.

Mel told Xay he was crazy for standing up on his snowboard a few times down the hill. The rest of us thought he was smmmooooooove. He looked so tall and confident gliding down the hill on his snowboard. He was unhappy with his crash landings, however. He’s scheming on opportunities to practice this skill.

I hadn’t thought I’d be able to hang with the kids for the whole outing; I usually get so cold sledding, but that wasn’t the case this time. Multiple trips up and down the hill make your circulation work; you’re even sweating a little by the end. I’m all for anything that’s fun and makes you sweat!