Family Inspiration

I love how the internet gives you a little peek into other people's live that you wouldn't otherwise have. Simply Radiant is a blog I found awhile ago when I was googling something to do with children's literature and I was so impressed by the many fun ideas for family activities and traditions shared there. Here are a few of my favorites:

Valentine Exchange Party~
I love the idea of hosting an exchange and I really love all the cute valentines shown- so many would be great gift ideas for my fellow teachers. I'm horrible at throwing stuff like that together so I love seeing photos of so many fun ideas.

 And I love all these posts, "I want to be the kind of mother who...", there are so many great ideas collected there. I would add I want to be the kind of mother who takes cute pictures of her baby each month with the same stuffed toy to show growth.

I love finding blogs like this one: positive and inspiring!

French

This clip from Paris, Je t'aime always makes me feel a little sad. 16 years ago I took my first French class (that makes me feel so very aged!) and ever since then I have wanted, at times desperately, to visit Paris. I took French classes throughout middle school, high school, and college followed by brief attempts at adult education courses in the evenings more recently.

In the past year I've worked my way through half of this:

But I want to organize a more formal plan for my French studies and then, of course, actually follow through with it. In terms of travel, I seem to be stuck in an endless pattern of "maybe next year" but maybe I'll mean it this time.

Here are some other resources I'm thinking about working with:
More Grammar Review Books~
I bought both of these books in the last few months:

French in Action~

Thanks to my lovely sister we have all of the episodes & I do love watching Robert :)

Online listening & grammar programs/resources~

Listen to French
Carnegie Mellon OLI French courses

Watching more French films~

I need to get more of these into my netflix queue:

And I really want to buy these two:

French Newspapers, TV news, magazines~

I was sick of paying for and not reading the magazines I subscribed to, Point de Vue & Marie Claire Idees, but I have tons of back issues I could start reading. And I used to pick news articles to print out and read from Le Figaro and Le Monde as well. France 24 looks good for listening as well.

French books/audiotapes~

I ordered the first Claudine story in print and audio book from chapters in Canada last fall as well as Twilight in print & audio. I'm mixing my high brow and low brow here. And I wish I could find more French music that I like enough to play frequently.

Alliance Francaise or Community College~

I started taking a night conversation class a year ago but then got pneumonia and dropped out. See why being a public school teacher is a dangerous job? I need to try again. And I need to get brave enough to venture to the Alliance Francaise as well.

Subscribe to Champs-Elyssees~

I'e always been curious about this program but never curious enough to pay for it.

At some point (realistically when school is out in June) I want to make a cohesive plan and hopefully start making more progress.

Piano

Young member of the Larsson household does her piano practice while papa paints her, Carl Larsson

During the past few months my school has held rehearsals for a musical play in the music studio afterschool, pushing the piano teacher to my classroom to borrow my old spinet for her lessons. It has been an eye opener for me to eavesdrop on these first and second graders at their first piano lessons while I work in my classroom.  I've been hearing a lot of Beethoven's Ode to Joy done with 5 fingers, lots of C Major scales in 1 octave, and lots of "I promise I'll practice more next week". 

As a child, I loved taking piano lessons for about the first two years then I remember, not hating them, but not caring enough to practice either. Then there would be the stressful 5 minute drive to the piano teacher's house with a horribly guilty stomachache and my own fruitless promises to practice more. A year or so later the piano teacher moved away and my siblings and I wore my mom down with whining for no more piano.

Somewhere along the way as I got older I started to love to play the piano on my own. It was fun and relaxing. I loved to choose my own music. A lot of times that music was this:

Or this:

finished off with some of this:

By the time I was a teenager I was regretting ever giving up formal lessons because I had no knowledge of theory or ability to play more difficult pieces. Ever since then I have taken lessons here and there for a year or so at a time, always tapering off when life gets too busy. Which brings me to this:

Should you force your child to practice? I'm kind of inclined to say yes within certain boundaries. I've read a lot of advice on kids and piano (Munchkins & Music, Parents Magazine, and the Piano World message boards to name a few) and I'm leaning more towards the compulsory side. Obviously this would be taking into account an individual child's temperament and abilities but a lot of early music instruction really is boring, it is repetitive & tedious, it's the drudge work that isn't very fun. You can't play songs that sound like very much and nearly everyone would rather be outside playing.

Honestly, that's not so different than parts of learning to read or to do math... but hopefully your parents and teachers don't let you quit because it isn't fun 100% of the time. I think for me I would approach piano as another academic subject with certain expectations. I wouldn't want my kids to hate it (or to hate me!) but at the same time I've known people who were forced until a certain age (usually about 12 or 13) and by that point they didn't want to quit and it became their own choice. Part of the reason they kept with it is that after 6 or 7 years of lessons and diligent practice they could play interesting pieces that they truly enjoyed. And by "forced" I don't mean chained to the piano legs.

And of course there are ways to try to make practicing fun. I really liked the idea of a Family Concert Night with all family member performing what they had been working on throughout the week. Somewhere else I read about having your child record themselves playing to have a tangible way for them to hear the improvement. Practicing a certain element of a piece instead of practicing for a set amount of time seems like another good idea.

The big one for me is having kids realize that music isn't just about advancing to the next level or playing a more difficult piece. Playing the piano has brought me relaxation, peace, & enjoyment but it is also something that I use in my career (it definitely gave me an edge when I interviewed for teaching positions) and in my church life (as much as I get nervous it does feel good to be able to step in at the last moment to play the accompaniment for the hymns in church meetings).

But then I read this article and blog post and I have a whole new set of issues to stew about. That will have to be for another day because I am off to enjoy school teacher freedom (aka spring break!).

The Brain Drain in American Schools

I really liked reading this article "Creativity in Crisis: the 'Brain Drain' in American Schools". It's something I struggle with in my classroom. To be successful in a group setting my students have to learn to follow directions which leads to a lot of these types of projects which might make people cringe but I can tell you the kids really enjoy doing. I have found that my students like making something and seeing it "turn out" and actually look like something real. The problem is that when they start seeing projects like this they are less interested in doing their own art and are consistently wanting me to give them the "step by step". I like how this quote sums things up:

"Most adults, with our increasingly hectic schedules, assume that at least creativity is alive in our children when we send them off to drawing class or bassoon lessons. Yet most children’s time in the arts is spent either appreciating someone else’s art or learning the skill required to make the art, so that perhaps in the future one could be creative. This training sometimes leads to amazing technical skill. I have met more than a few children who can perfectly recreate a Dragonball-Z character or still-life bowl of fruit, but who struggle so to create an original character, story, technique, or idea."

And here is where homeschooling comes in the winner. If you didn't need to have a themed art project up in the hallways to make the principal and parents feel that things are on track you could absolutely let the children take the lead. That just isn't practical in a public school classroom setting. In my experience, teachers don't have the freedom to follow plans like the article outlines.

That being said even in a homeschool environment I do think there is a time and a place for children to have formal instruction in the arts as well. I just think that for young children their own artistic ideas should be at the forefront. In my classroom I try to strike a balance of both types of activities but I know it is not ideal. I loved this post from Wee Wonderfuls, showing the "dot a dots" her son made in school that she converted into a purse. That is awesome!

"Creativity requires teachers and students to put aside the textbooks and prescribed curricula and authentically engage children in learning." 

Sir Ken Robinson on creativity

About Me

I am a first grade teacher at a great public school in California. I've been interested in homeschooling since 1999 when I first heard about The Well Trained Mind. I am a life long lover of books and of foreign languages so Susan Wise Bauer's ideas struck a chord with me.

I attended public school experiencing the best (my excellent high school French teacher), the average (elementary school), and the worst (living out this book while struggling through new math, no science or art, and pathetic attempts at history and literature) of what they have to offer.

I hope to homeschool my own children someday and in the mean time I feel like I'm playing catch up homeschooling myself. This blog is where I gather resources, ideas, and my thoughts on teaching,learning, and families.