The Orchestra

I took the kids to a Free Orchestra Concert today. It was in the middle of the day so it was me with all three kids by myself. I was actually surprised we did as well as we did. As soon as we walked into the room and the orchestra was just warming up, Henry put his hands over his ears. There was some wiggling, squirming and "when is this going to be over?". But overall the kids did pretty well. We only had to get up 3 time to get drinks too.

It was a small room and we got really see the instruments and musicians. The kids were fascinated by the big bass. They watched the lady standing there plucking her bass for a long time. They also loved to see the percussionists play their different instruments. Henry loved to watch the tympani player "banging". Ian got excited when he saw someone play the triangle. I was impressed by the Bassoon. The orchestra played a Vivaldi concerto for Bassoon and it really showcased the ladies skills on the bassoon.

This morning we had listened to the Classics for Kids episodes on Beethoven so when the Orchestra played a Beethoven piece. Sophie got very excited. It was the first movement of Beethoven's 7th Symphony. She didn't recognize it so her excitement faded a bit. She really wanted it to be the 6th or 8th since those are the ones they talked about on Classics for Kids that morning.

Overall it was a good experience and Free so really couldn't go wrong.
Ok... it could have but my kids were relatively well behaved.

May Day Thoughts

Hurray it is May!

I always love a new month. I know Summer doesn't officially start until June but May always starts to heat up around here and thoughts change and start to lean more toward playing outside and enjoying the sunshine. (I am sorry to mention Summer already when I know some people just got more snow this week). I recently had to think about what classes the kids would take in the coming months. Do I sign up Sophie for more ballet and tap? Ian needs to start and Sophie could use more swimming lessons. Do I want to renew our membership at the aquarium or get a membership at the tech museum this year instead? So many choices, and I really don't want to do it all. I have to pick and choose what I can handle and what the kids really need and want. I still haven't signed up for anything yet. I am still debating.... maybe the classes will just fill up and that will decide for me.

I have also spent the last week thinking (trying not to scratch my poison oak) about what we were going to do academically all summer. We finished Story of the World, ancient history, last week and I don't feel ready to jump into the next volume yet. We have also finished up what I had planned as far as science for the year. (Except for the garden, that will continue through the summer. We will still be watching our plants grow and hopefully get some tomatoes and cucumbers to eat.) So it feels like our school year kinda had an ending. But I don't really like the idea of ending a school year. I don't ever want to feel tied to a schedule like that. We can start whenever and stop whenever and move on or leave off whenever we feel like it. Plus we always need something that we are studying. We need the structure of having things to do each day.

We have been just playing around this week. I sort of have a FIAR book we have been Rowing but even that hasn't been a bit hit. We just really need a change of pace. So I have decided we will do some American History for a change of pace. We are going to be starting a unit on American Indians. I thought we would read the American Girls Kaya books and read a lot about the native americans. The kids got excited when I got books about horses and indians at the library this week. So I think it will go over alright with them. We will see.

Other than this we will just play a lot outside. Do our Green hour challenges and draw a lot. Sophie loves to draw and I have been getting her how to draw books from the library and she is getting really good!

Sophie also asked who our artist and composer for May were. So we will continue with our musician and artist study. I had already picked the artist, Van Gogh for the month. But I hadn't picked a composer. So I asked her who she would like and she told me she wants to study Beethoven. He has been her favorite for a long time, thanks to Fantasia. I will have to get some books about him and CD's of some of his works from the library.


So anyway... this is what I have been mulling over the last little bit.

Mozart the Wonder Boy by Opal Wheeler

This week Sophie and I, to go along with our study of Mozart for the month, have been reading Mozart the Wonder Boy together. Sophie does the reading. The text is easy enough for her to read herself. I can tell she loves that it is all in story form rather then the usual biography tone.

One of the things I have really enjoyed with this book are the pages of music in the book. Many of them are easy enough for me to play on the piano. But I splurged when I bought this book and bought the CD that goes with the book. So we will listen to the songs played that go along with the story.

I am glad to listen to something else besides The Magic Flute for a change.