Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Happy Farmer cont'd

Hailey had her lesson today and proudly played Happy Farmer for her teacher. She's been begging to play it at the recital tomorrow but I''m not so sure. It's scratchy, and well not at normal recital level. Then again Twinkle, Twinkle has been going on for ever it seems like and listening to her play something else is wonderful. I decided that our violin and viola teacher who happens to unschool her kids and be a good friend of ours would know best. She listened to Hailey's first line of Happy Farmer and beamed. Scratchy or not Hailey will be playing Happy Farmer for the recital along with Twinkle, Twinkle. Her siblings are so proud. She is now wanting to ware her "farm clothes", we'll have to see about this too.

8 comments:

Me said...

Just checking in, saying Hello. Does the lack of posts mean that you had your baby?? Hope you are well.
Brit

momof3feistykids said...

Congratulations, Hailey!

http://tribeofautodidacts.homeschooljournal.net

moominmamma said...

Hi Allison, not sure if you're blogging at all any more, but if you are I wondered if I might pick your brains on something. Have any of your kids outgrown the local music instruction expertise? I seem to recall your eldest being fairly advanced on her instruments. Do you have access to instructors who are comfortable guiding her? We've reached the point where we no longer have a violin teacher for Erin anywhere between Vernon and Calgary. Piano is okay for a couple more years (she's Grade 10, and there are two teachers 90 minutes away who have taken kids through ARCT exams). But we have had to consider just discontinuing her violin studies and letting her play recreationally at her current level. For better or for worse, she's not wanting that -- she wants a teacher and ongoing lessons. With several younger kids, I'm really torn up about how we would make this work. Distance learning is just not an option at this level, or for this particular kid. If you've faced anything similar, I'd love to hear about your thought processes and any solutions you hit upon. ...

In appreciation...

Mirnada

Allison said...

hi all,
Sorry for the extreme lack of posting, life's gotten in the way. Unfortunately the lack of posts doesn't mean our baby was born. Sadly, he didn't quite make it.
I'm going to try to get back into the swing of posting and commenting so there's more coming!
rodrigo-I couldn't understand your post. :( Sorry.

Allison said...

Hi Miranda, Not sure if you're still in need of this info but here it is:
Like Erin, Sarah has reached the limit of the local violin teacher. The best options are a)have lessons in Whitehorse (a 6+ hour round trip) or b)have her play recreationally. For awhile it seemed like playing recreationally was fine with her. Then we went to a concert with an amazing solo violinist and that changed Sarah's mind, she decided she had to take more lessons.
Janet is a harpist and while she is still at a fairly beginner level with a fairly "local" teacher who is certainly able to instruct her Janet hates the teacher. There's a lovely lady in Whitehorse who will take Janet on as a student and if I'm going to be taking her up there while Sarah has her lesson she may as well do something. I'm also going to change piano teachers. My kids are still within the range of our piano teacher but since the lessons are a 2-3 hour drive in the opposite direction we'd be heading for violin/harp I'm not sure it's worth it. If we're heading up to Whitehorse Martin can take art class and in a few years Noah may be needing a new viola teacher (is this a problem with your son). For now Noah and Katherine can stay with either my parents or dh (he'll be working but as long as they don't get in the way he can cope as it's not usually too busy at our store)because they don't travel well. For the rest of the kids there's audio books, music, travel games ect... so I think we'll try heading up there.
I'm assuming you have to take along Erin's siblings. Is there something that would make the trip more fun? Perhaps you have friends that they could visit, a class that they can't take locally, a museum that they love...
I think you should try it, maybe it doesn't work out and you have to stop, but if you don't try you'll never know.

HTH

Allison

moominmamma said...

Thanks Allison. I'm so sorry to hear about the loss of your baby. No wonder you took an internet holiday.

I wonder if you've looked into the situation in Whitehorse lately. I'm not sure what level Sarah's at but it's my understanding that there's no one there comfortable at or beyond the Suzuki Book 4 level. I know this because my sister is being recruited to do some occasional teaching there, and because I've recently got e-mails from parents of Book 4 students asking if I'd be able to do video-tape teaching. And there are no viola teachers. The ladies in Smithers are comfortable up to about Book 6-8. But again, no viola teaching.

Best wishes. Hope something works out.

Me said...

Oh Allison, I am so sorry to hear your sad news. Hugs to your and my deepest condolences.

Allison said...

Hi Miranda,
Thanks for the info. I haven't really looked into the situation there, we only made it to the stage of seeing if it would even be a possibility.
Our wonderful teacher has said she doesn't mind taking Sarah with her to Vancouver (she goes there for lessons herself)but I'm not so sure about it. If this is what we decide to do I'm sure she'd take Noah too when needed.

We'll have to see how it goes.

Thanks,
Allison