Thursday, March 19, 2015

pretty happy funny real homeschooled birthday boy

We are working on the very beginnings of piano. I can't bring myself to get in a car and pay $40 for a half an hour to learn where middle C is and such, so I am teaching him for now. 
He has decided to compose some songs by himself. This is his first piece; it begins with middle C with G being the highest note. I've re-written it onto proper music paper, but I think it is a sweet memory of our creative boy.
I sang and played violin and piano as a young person. Never once did it occur to me that I could write a song. But here he is, a few lessons into learning piano and he is trying to write songs. I suspect the titles are the most important part. I think that "The Flight of the Bee" is the name of this composition. 
Maybe he has the confidence to write music, however simple, because he does not know that he is not ready for such feats. He had some friends over for his 8th birthday, and he played some of his songs for them. All of the songs are just comprised of notes C to G with perhaps a left hand major chord thrown in. The children listened and clapped, even though some of them have much better music skills. 
Homeschooling isn't perfect, and it doesn't guarantee geniuses or angels, but I do believe that my children experience a higher level of tolerance and friendship than I did as a conventionally schooled child.

13 comments:

  1. How wonderful! Ella has inherited a good keyboard (our house is too small for a piano) from her Grandma. I need to sort some things and find a permanent home for it. But Ella plays away on it like a pro. We're doing recorder in 'school' so she is learning to read the music. Soon I'll start teaching her piano too (I know the basics). Homeschool children are SO different than public school ones. We go to skating a few times a month (it's an hour away) and they enfold Ella like a long lost friend. We go to something with ps kids and they look at Ella like she has 3 heads because she dared say 'hello' or ask to play.

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    1. I think having to 'deal' with different age groups is a real benefit to the proper socialization of homeschoolers. My 2 oldest (freshman and sophomores in hs) take college classes and do things like greet their instructors, fellow students- I never did that as a 'normal' college student!

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  2. Good for him! I took piano as a child too, and I never even thought about writing music - I wasted too much time upset about the songs they wouldn't let me play, haha.

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  3. I hope he'll enjoy it. I struggled with piano lessons as a kid, now wish I'd have worked harder at it.
    Thanks for sharing at http://image-in-ing.blogspot.com/2015/03/visiting-saint-kitts.html

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  4. I'm guessing one of the primer books by the Bastiens?

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. I think so- we are waiting for '12 in a day' from amazon- it is supposed to be good and fun

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  5. I tried to teach one of my daughters beginning piano since I could play (I was a pretty mediocre player and didn't keep up with practicing, but I knew the basics). It was a disaster, mostly I think because I was too demanding and our lessons usually ended in tears. I sent her to a teacher and things went much better, although she eventually moved onto the violin. Most of my kids now play violin (lessons are much cheaper in our area - $15 to $20 for a half hour) and they play in our community orchestra. I don't think I'm a natural teacher, which has it's challenges for homeschooling (I thank God for my husband, a great teacher, and online classes). Other mothers often ask me to teach a class on something because "I know so much" or I'm asked to teach CCD because of my theology/philosophy degree. But I'm not great at relating information orally and I'm impatient (although motherhood has helped A LOT), so I know they are better off with someone else.

    We have a lot of writers in our family, so when I brought home a manual typewriter from the thrift store, my 8yo (my baby) began composing a story and typing it out. He's used the computer, but he finds the typewriter more fun and there's something satisfying about the clickety-clacks, rolling in paper and moving to a new line. He says his book is like the Redwall series, full of animals and fighting. He is very confident about the whole thing and doesn't see why it eventually won't be published. And his siblings are all supportive and eager listeners when he reads it aloud. When my older kids were younger, they and their cousins used to cook up all kinds of performances (plays, recitals, recitations) to present to their grandparents and relations. The tolerance of family, friends and relations has helped them tackle all kinds of projects confidently as young adults.

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    1. Kate: we'll see how long I will be the piano teacher- so far, so pretty good! ;)

      That is so cute about son and the typewriter- JK Rowling wrote books at that age (unpublished)....who knows? I think doing things for real heps our kids learn- it is hard to always be practicing for the 'real world'- why not now? Write a book instead of grammar worksheets of disparate content ideas

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  6. Wow, what a skill to be able to pass on to your children! And that is awfully creative of him to be composing his own song!

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  7. Faber & Faber and Alfred were the two piano series I used and still have them in the piano bench.

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