Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Natalie Playing The Violin

It took me FOREVER to figure out how to upload this video. It has been long in coming. Here is Natalie playing the violin - this is the piece she is practicing for her upcoming recital. Minuet 2 from Suzuki Volume 1.


 


Friday, March 19, 2010

How things are going

I haven't seemed to post much lately. I haven't felt as creative in the sharing department I think. The pregnancy is going well. I don't have my official, detailed ultrasound for three more weeks. They couldn't schedule it any other time. In some ways I feel better than other pregnancies. But, I still feel nauseas a good part of the day, and dizzy some and sometimes quite achey. I think the achiness is often related to not getting enough sleep or taking my multi-vitamin. I tried a children's chewable and felt the same. If I get exercise it seems to help. The good thing this pregnancy is I've consistently exercised so far. So that's good and after I exercise I feel better.


I'm frustrated with my OB...not that I think there is anything really wrong with me, but you know I don't think he's a very good listener and doesn't take my personal knowledge to be worth anything. Well, I'm frustrated with at least half the doctors I ever go to, and for a while I worked as a coordinator in a medical residency training program. I just don't hold medical knowlege, especially in today's world, as being something they hold an exclusivity on. They see patterns more than a lay person. But, I think a good doctor (or at least one that I like) will see a lay person's knowledge as valuable.


Here's a picture of my little one after we were given some flowers by a gardener whose yard we were walking past, admiring. I have more photos on my photo blog that I haven't posted here, but a lot of boring Photoshop stuff too.


flowers_2

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Friday, March 5, 2010

Ab-O-Gail's Cuteness

Ab-O-Gail's Favorite Phrases

 Help, Mom. It's Hard.

It's Heavy, Mom.

I said, "No."

No.

Seven. Eight.

I want daughter.  (Water)

Abo find Dachel. (Abigail is finding Rachel.)

I want to see it.

 Abigail's Favorite Things To Do

 Stand on the dining room table.

Stir the dinner skillet.

Put individual toys into about 100 individual plastic bag or plastic baggies.

Stir the cat's food with a kitchen spoon.

Repeat over and over and over again, "I want it."

Balance on boxes.

My Favorite Phrases Right Now

 You leave that alone.

I said, "No."

Don't touch.

Get down.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

To Learn With Love

I'm re-reading "To Learn with Love - A Companion For Suzuki Parents". It's an excellent read for the parent, educator, and home educator alike even if your children are not involved in anything musical. Suzuki had so many insights into the aptitude of children and how to motivate them.


Here are two quotes from the first chapter, that I just love:


First Quote:


"Such statements as "At age three children are unable to...", or "A four-year old cannot comprehend...", caused him [Suzuki] to reject others' opinions and led him to study children directly himself."


"Suzuki observed the learning habits of children. These observations and his reflections on them gave birth to his idea to apply the mother-tongue method to the teaching of music to small children. As his success tells us, he found that children have enormous potential for learning and that poor teaching; poor environment and inadequate adult expectations have been the principal causes of limiting that potential."


Second Quote:


"Growth rates are by no means constant. 'Once a slow learner, always a slow learner' is simply not true. We should not put a tag on the slow beginner. Remember the story Suzuki told in "Nurtured by Love" about the parakeet named Peeko Miyazawa? Peeko had to hear 3000 repetitions of the word 'Peeko' before he was able to say it, but only 200 repetitions of his family name, 'Miyazawa'. 'Ability breeds ability,' Suzuki says."


..."What actually did happen was that Peeko, after learning to say his name, began to imitate everything he heard, even after only one hearing! I'm sure people marveled at Mr. Miyazawa's parakeet. Did he tell them that Peeko was an especially slow learner? Did anyone ever ask Winston Churchill when he learned to talk?...Or ask Jesse Owens when he learned to walk?"


 

Monday, March 1, 2010

Progress My Girls Are Making

This whole pregnancy thing almost has me convinced to do unschooling. I said, "almost."


It really is amazing when you put quality books in front of them and not a lot of digital entertainment, how they seek out learning on their own. I was so worried about my five year old. She's six now. She wasn't reading Bob books. Teaching her the sounds of the letters was one frustration after another.


We've kept plugging away at the phonics cards and doing a little reading here and there. And, mainly, I read to her and her sister. She listened to a lot of third/fourth grade level reading in our narration time. And, I must say that I've done a lot less narration, hardly any really...since being pregnant. Natalie, my eight year old, has been doing reading and written narration, but since being pregnant, I've hardly done any oral narration. I don't know if the timing just worked out, or if it was just the time for my six year old to be developmentally ready, but all the sudden the last few months (as I've been doing less reading), she's had a desire to read. By in large, she doesn't want to read "readers" she wants to read REAL (Living) books...Around The World In Eighty Days (kids edition), Little House On The Prairie. She works through it really slow, but she does decipher the words and read. And, she tells people she meets, "Do you know what? I read chapter books."


Here is a story she wrote recently. I thought it was creative, so I wanted to share it with you. A lot of her letters were backwards and I'll share her creative spelling, but her writing just tickles me.


A Bear and the Pig


A bear heard a pig oinking and the bear startied to followed the oinking. The pig startied to oinking eivn louder. It looked around but the bear ws beihhiend a tree. Win the pig ws not looking, the bear jumt out of his hieddying spot and jumps on the pig. The bear startied (to) fiend his Mom and Dad, but win he caim bak with his Mom and Dad the ham was was not thear. The fammully was sad.


The end


An Interpretation


So, basically the baby bear killed the pig, but couldn't carry him off and went to get his Mom and Dad, but when the bear family arrived to where the pig was, the pig was gone.