Homeschooling: Or Who's Ever Even Home

The Perfect Storm

2012-01-31T05:11:00.000-08:00

Saturday night I was asked for the "who knows how many-th" time how long Haley has been taking lessons, who her teacher is, if she wanted to play fiddle/violin, etc...basically how did Haley become so good at playing? As it is many times, this time it was the mother of a toddler who was looking for advice on when to start her own child and which direction she should take.

"Turn around and run the other way" was probably not the response she was looking for. Ha!

No, seriously, I am always happy to share what worked for us and give people a starting point if they ask. I'll answer their questions and encourage them. Music has been a wonderful thing in the lives of my kids and I feel like I've often had to stumble upon things accidentally...I wish there was a guidebook.

But, I also hold back when answering those types of questions because I know just how much had to occur at just the right time to put us where we are now....kinda like the "perfect storm." There are a number of factors that had to be present to make this work out the way it has so far. It isn't as simple as taking a child to the same teachers or starting at the same age.

Haley
Haley, herself, is the biggest factor. She is a bright kid. She memorizes extremely easily...she was memorizing every book I read to her beginning at 11 months old so learning music and keeping it in her head just became a natural extension of that skill. She extrapolates on what she learns with ease and applies her knowledge to new things. She is extremely mature for her age and always has been. She has an eye for detail so she seems to pick up every little aspect of what a teacher is trying to get her to do. She is determined and she wanted to play violin. This all started because she asked to play not because I had in mind that she would be a violinist/fiddler when she grew up. She likes to practice and will ask to practice if I don't think of it first. She enjoys the time we spend together practicing and she likes to make me happy so she isn't the kind of child who would be resistant to doing something.

Our Family
Our family is another big factor. We were already homeschooling when Haley came along. I was home with the kids and when I worked, their daddy was home with them. Haley is almost 5 years younger than her next youngest brother so she came along at a time when she seemed almost like having a 1st child all over again...her brothers were older and played together well so I had a lot of time to spend with her and could stop whatever I was doing to practice with her when she picked up the violin in those early years.

Music was always a big part of our lives. We listened to different styles on music, I sang to the kids every night before they went to sleep and in the car, and we danced around the kitchen regularly having fun to music.

We also value music education so are willing to put our resources like time and money into the kids' music education. Having a child this involved in music takes lots of time. There are days sometimes when I feel like just forgoing practice for the day but we don't. Haley practices every day for hours unless she's ill but even ill she has always picked up her violin to play something. It is just part of our lives like getting dressed or eating. It takes a lot of time and commitment. We have the ability to put in a lot of time because she home schools so can split her practice time and do it between school lessons. I don't think she would put in as much time if she had to go to school all day then practice for hours at a time after school.

We do without in other areas (house size, new cars, remodeling the house gets pushed back, etc...) to be able to provide the lessons and experiences she needs. I drive a lot transporting her to and from activities and spend quite a bit of time researching experiences for her.

Other People
The finale factors that play a big role are the people in our lives. Haley has amazing teachers. They seem to know exactly what she needs to improve and they each have a wonderful relationship with her. She loves them and works hard for them.

Besides the teachers there are the people who have given the kids opportunities to play their music, the wonderful people who come to see them play, those willing to help them raise money to go to Ireland, people who play music with the kids at sessions and with Haley in orchestra, and friends she has made who also play music. Without the friends she has made, both adult and kids her age, music would not be as fun for her.

Really Busy Day...Part 2

2012-01-30T16:01:00.000-08:00

We had another incredibly busy day on Saturday. It started with a Skype fiddle lesson with Brian at 9am. Afterward, Haley got showered and dressed while I gathered up all we would need for the rest of the day and put it in the car.

We left the house at 10:30am, stopped and picked up our body guard, Grammy, and headed to the city to make the PR*SM call time of noon. The orchestras went through their program in a rehearsal then did their concert for real. They did a great job!

Haley pre-concert

Orchestra performancs

Orchestra performance

After the concert, we grabbed a bite to eat at a fast food joint then drove to Milkboy Recording studio for Haley and Dylan to join the Next Gen kids in the recording of a tune set for a CD being made by Irish Philadelphia as a fundraising venture for the website. They practiced their sets and played other sets together while waiting for the engineers to set up the sound equipment around them. The kids played through their set twice then decided they liked the first take best so that was fast.

Warming up before recording

Next Gen girls

Recording...Dylan is back between those big wooden things.

I then took the kids back across the bridge to Sacred Heart Church for the Celtic Spring Fling, a concert to benefit Heart of Camden which provides affordable homes for people in Camden. The concert was wonderful and afterward there was hot cocoa and Irish soda bread.

While we were busy doing all of the above, Newt was bust wrestling all day and taking 1st in the TriCounty Tournament in his weight class. He also made his 52nd career win as a sophomore. Newt is having a great year so far. He has only been scored on once and that was a questionable takedown. Any other points he has given up this year were from letting kids escape so he can take them down again. The team has a few more matches the next couple weeks and then the post season starts.

Paganini...Moto Perpetuo

2012-01-26T11:27:00.000-08:00

Sunday, Haley performed Moto Perpetuo by Paganini for her teacher's studio recital. She worked really hard preparing because she had decided just before Christmas to play it instead of the Bartok Rumanian Dances she had originally chosen and she hadn't yet learned the last two pages of this piece then a week ago, her teacher had to move the concert up from Jan. 29th to the 22nd giving her one less week. She did a great job and worked really hard!

I did notice that the dress choice was not the best since it kept threatening wardrobe malfunction. Amazing that she memorized all those very similar notes and that she could keep going that quickly and still manage to keep her dress straps and sliding violin from falling off her shoulder! LOL

Really Busy Friday!!!

2012-01-21T17:27:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it seems like everything is scheduled on the same day. The next couple weekends we have days like that because of concerts and rehearsals, etc...

Yesterday was the first of those days. After getting the boys off to school, taking showers, eating breakfast, straightening up the house, doing two loads of laundry, and packing up for the day, we headed off for a rehearsal at 11:30am with the accompanist for Haley's classical concert on Sunday. She played through her Paganini Moto Perpetuo three full times and a number of partial times with the piano. One small brain fart and the piece will completely fall apart so it takes a lot of concentration.

From that rehearsal we headed to the next town over, ate the lunches we had packed and then went to Haley's violin lesson at 1pm. Her teacher did not make her work a lot on her Paganini since she had already played it so much. She played through it once, they talked about the opening, and a spot where she keeps playing F# rather than F natural. Then she put fingerings in her next Kreutzer exercise and worked on the Bartok Rumanian Dances.

Every Friday we go straight from violin lessons to grab some dinner then head over to the city for PR*SM orchestra rehearsal from 6:30 to 8:30. We always get there early and help set up the room. We don't have enough time to drive home and leaving a little later puts us in the middle of rush hour traffic so we just go help.

Last weekend, Haley's friend Paraic asked her to come to a gig he was doing at the Shanachie Pub which is only 15-20 min from where orchestra rehearsal takes place so we headed straight from orchestra to the pub. Paraic, Gabe, and David played tunes and sang songs. They invited Haley to join them on stage and she played some tunes on her own and some with Paraic while Gabe accompanied. They asked her back up in the 2nd half and then again at the end. She had a lot of fun playing with them. She stayed up the whole ride home even though we didn't get home until 1am. I thought for sure she'd be asleep before I even got on the highway after leaving the pub but she talked and sang to me all the way home.

Next Saturday is round #2 of Crazy, Busy Day!!!

Chicken Nachos

2012-01-17T08:10:00.000-08:00

Well...a topic on the WTM board reminded me that I had wanted to put some recipes on my blog. (My plan is to someday get this blog printed out in book form for my kids to have and I think it would be really neat for them to read through and remember some of the things we used to eat when they were young.)

Here's something we eat whenever I am running around and need a quick meal that has a bit of everything in it...not exactly the healthiest meal on the planet but we like it and sometimes make it healthier by eating it on wraps or as a salad without the chips.

Chicken Nachos
Boil chicken (I usually boil a lot and make extra chicken for wraps for the boy's lunch)- shred the chicken into a pan. Season with salt, pepper, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, and cilantro. Once warm add hot sauce to taste (we like Frank's hot sauce) then remove from heat.

Place nacho chips on a plate, top with seasoned chicken then shredded Mexican cheese (your choice). Can add black beans, refried beans, jalapeño pepper slices (fresh are best), or anything else you like. Heat under broiler or in microwave to melt cheese.

Top with any or all of the following...
lettuce
tomato
guacamole or avocado slices
salsa
sour cream
whatever else you like : )

Enjoy!

Back to school....

2012-01-13T05:34:00.000-08:00

After the holidays and a quick trip to Texas, this week was our first full week back to homeschooling. We had managed to fit in some schooling the past few weeks but not a full week so it felt good to have a plan a get it all done this week.

Some changes in our school plan....

Our subscription to Thinkwell Pre-Algebra ran out so Haley started on Saxon 87 a few weeks ago because I am not ready to begin Algebra with her...yet. She likes Saxon. The review and extra topics not covered by Thinkwell will be good review/solidifying of material for her. I didn't feel like she got enough practice with Thinkwell.

She also finished up Best Poetry so I ordered Lightning Literature 7. I have been wanting to do that with her and she is now ready to read the selections and discuss them at the appropriate level to handle the program. Also, her output ability is at a level where she can get the most out of the program rather than just being able to superficially cover everything. She enjoyed the first story..."Rikki Tikki Tavi" (one of my favorite stories) and we are working through the workbook and student guide activities for the next couple weeks.

Haley is interested in doing more music theory so she is going to begin "The Language and Materials of Music" today. She also started piano lessons with a teacher at the music store where Dylan takes guitar. Hopefully a little knowledge of the piano will help her "see" the theory a little easier. She is doing the piano lessons on her own...meaning I am not going into the room with her. (Though I can hear everything that is going on from the waiting area.) I will help her with her practice when she asks but I would really like this to be "her thing."

We are continuing with PLATO Earth Science and other earth science resources and picking up the speed a bit with History of US and the other American Revolution resources so we can hopefully make it at least to the Civil War before the end of June. Other things on our plate include...

Wordly Wise
Rosetta Stone Gaelic and Spanish
Language Mechanics
Mapping the World with Art

Here is Haley's Mapping the World with Art project for the week. She really enjoyed making this huge cookie of Africa with it's sprinkly sandy deserts, chocolate chip mountains, and icing rivers. Crafts are right up her alley. With the rest of the cookie dough, she used her music cutters and made note and violin cookies. (see below)

Violin and fiddle are going really well. Haley is preparing Paganini's Moto Perpetuo for her teacher's studio concert that has been moved up to next Sunday (ah!). Her orchestra concert is the following weekend along with an Irish performance she and Dylan are doing at an area church's Celtic Spring Fling. She has been practicing a lot lately!

Pride January...

2012-01-08T18:31:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we started the day watching Newt pin two opponents at his quad wrestling match. We had to leave before his 3rd match but the other team forfeited to him anyway so we didn't miss much. The team won all 3 matches and is now 3-1 which is a huge improvement over last year.

Haley and I had to leave to drive to NY then went with Brian and another of his students to CT to see a Pride of NY concert. They were amazing last night. The music was great and they were funny and entertaining. The crowd knew the music and "yipped" and clapped along. It was just a great concert.

The band asked Haley to join them on stage though Joanie told her she had to play her worst tunes and not play them her best so she didn't "show them up." LOL She and Haley messed with each other while Haley played which was pretty funny. After the concert, Haley joined them again to play ceili style (ie. fast) for dancers to dance a few sets. (That's what the picture above is though it's difficult to see Haley from where I was standing and I couldn't get in front to shoot a pic because the dancers were swirling around out there.)

Texas for the holidays...

2012-01-08T18:08:00.000-08:00

The Wednesday after Christmas, Haley and I joined Grammy and Poppop for a quick trip to Houston, TX to visit the western half of the family...my sister and her family who recently moved to TX and my brother and family who came from CA for the holidays. Haley had fun being the "big" cousin since her brothers had to stay home for wrestling and school.

The drive took two days but Haley kept herself busy in the back of the car doing schoolwork, reading books, writing her novel, and playing. She is used to riding so does it well. Once there, she had cousins both bigger and littler to play with and she spent lots of time practicing her fiddle. The weather was warm so they played outside, took walks, and even did a little swimming in the lap pool at the house.

We ate out quite a number of times. The older cousins were very excited to go to the "chop, chop with fire" Japanese restaurant though Kendall was scared to death of the actual fire part and curled up in Poppop's lap hiding her eyes. We also had some delicious Mexican food one afternoon. Family style fajitas with a huge metal dish of meat over coals.

Chop, chop with fire restaurant

Mexican restaurant

Before we left for Texas, I had contacted a young fiddler we met at Swannanoa last year who I knew lived in Texas, though not anywhere near where we were going to be. I asked him if he knew where we could find some Irish music. He put me in touch with a nice husband and wife who happened to be having a New Year's party with an Irish session at their home. They invited us to attend. It was a really nice party and we met lots of new Irish music friends. Haley enjoyed playing in the session and played for the whole 5 hours. She learned some new tunes and played some old favorites. There was a young man playing uillean pipes beautifully. He happened to be the principal horn player for the San Diego symphony just visiting home for the holidays.

One day Haley was "Show and Tell" for her cousins Kindergarten class. We took her over near the end of the day and she played some fiddle tunes for the kids who were fascinated by her then she answered their questions. One little girl had just received a violin for Christmas and was excited to let us know. Maybe Haley's playing will inspire her like other people have inspired Haley.

Wren Party 2012

2012-01-08T15:51:00.000-08:00

In the Irish community, St. Stephen's Day is celebrated the day after Christmas with a Wren Party. Traditionally, a group of young lads would kill a wren, put it on a stick, then go around the neighborhood wearing fancy made up hats, singing for their neighbors and threatening to leave the poor dead wren (hence, bad luck) if not given a coin or treat.

Our modern wren party does not involve the killing of any small birds but we do get together, wear funny hats (usually having some pretend bird on them somewhere), and sing, dance, tell stories, have a puppet show for the children, etc... The party is a lot of fun for all.

Each year, Haley looks forward to making her wren hat and joining in the parade of hats and participating in the hat competition. She has taken 1st for her hats each year but I think that has more to do with the many fans of her fiddle playing than any actual hat making gift though she does a good job on her hats. She also dances those ceili dances she knows and joins the band when not dancing.

Wren hats on parade

Catching Up and Christmas...

2011-12-26T04:50:00.000-08:00

I have been meaning to post for a week or two but just haven't found the time so I am going to catch up on all that has been going on with us.

Here is Haley with her good friend, Lily. We have Lily over to play about twice a month. Haley and Lily love to play together and make a horrible mess of the playroom in the basement. You can't really tell but Lily gave Haley eyeshadow for Christmas and this is a photo of them after they made up their faces.

For Christmas this year, Haley learned/relearned about 20 Christmas carols to play for various events. Her classical teacher asked her to play for a senior luncheon at her church and then she and Dylan also played Christmas set for our church's Christmas Eve Candlelight service which is one of our holiday traditions and one of the ones I enjoy the most. I love the way the church looks full of people singing Joy to the World in the glow of candlelight!

This is Haley with her good friend and fellow Irish music enthusiast, Alex. They were attending a workshop given by Irish fiddler Oisin MacDiarmada and this is Haley thanking Alex for a beautiful and thoughtful Christmas gift. She had given him a friendship bracelet months ago at the Fleadh in Parsippany and a couple months later it broke so she gave him another. To thank Haley for the friendship bracelets, Alex picked her out a beautiful Pandora bracelet (he knew she liked his mother's Pandora bracelet) with a charm for friendship.

Oisin teaching at the workshop.

Nothing is better at Christmas time than spending time with friends and listening to Irish music. On Friday night we attended a Christmas party hosted by a couple of Haley's "adult friends" who we know through Irish music. Many of those in attendance were musicians so the evening was full of music, both instrumental and singing. It was a lovely evening.

The hosting couple also asked for donations for the local food bank and animal shelter so the party served a number of purposes.

I really like this photo with Paraic through the harp.

Christmas morning at our house. Lucky for us, our kids are getting older and sleep on Christmas morning. Tinks was actually the one who got me up around 7am because she had to go out. Haley was up soon after and we had to wake the boys. Ritch and I cooked breakfast which we ate as soon as Grammy and Poppop came over.

After breakfast we sat and opened presents. Dylan had already gotten his "big" gift...the bouzouki with a wonderful mic/pickup system. On the left is Newt with one of his "big" gifts. The other was a new pair of old wrestling shoes but he has already been wearing these. We are thinking if college and wrestling don't work out for Newt, he can always join the circus!

Haley's last gift was not under the tree. Instead there was a wrapped box containing a clue which sent her on a scavenger hunt. After following the clues, she ended up in the "man cave" out back and unwrapped a bike helmet with a clue to "Look Up!" Attached to the beams of the roof was this......

She is so glad she will not have to look like a muppet on a tiny bike pedaling 4X as much as her friends on bike rides in Central Park from now on.

After we were finished having fun at our house, we headed to Grammy and Poppop's. Here are a few pics of the kids unwrapping gifts...or waiting to unwrap gifts.

Newt waiting...

Dylan waiting.

Haley's surprise from Grammy and Poppop!

Oops! One more of Haley waiting.

Just to let you know how serious Haley is about her music...she even practiced on Christmas Day. Not her usual hours of practice but she did do a run-through of her piece for her upcoming concert and worked to fix a couple spots. Ha!

Wrestling season opener...

2011-12-18T04:02:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Newt took 1st at the Pine Barrens Tournament with his first 3 matches of the season. He pinned his first opponent and won the other matches 7-0 (I think, though the final match might have been 6-0). No one scored on him yesterday. It was a nice start to the season.

He did end up with a number of bumps and bruises...including a nice knot on the middle of his forehead that looked like he was growing a unicorn horn all day.

The New "Baby" In Our House....

2011-12-12T04:33:00.000-08:00

Here it is...the bouzouki Dylan has been asking for for over a year. He saved and saved then we pitched in to help him get it in time for Christmas along with a really nice mic/pickup. It was relatively inexpensive as far as bouzouki's go but has a nice warm sound.

Dylan has figured out a couple different tunings and is picking out his tunes on it already. He and Daddy installed the pickup which required a bit of drilling into the body...ugh! that was a bit hairy. Can't wait to hear how it sounds at the next Towheads gig!

Lazy Saturday...

2011-12-10T17:55:00.000-08:00

We get so few days at home with no place to go that when they do occur, I love them and the chance to re-charge they provide. Haley and I were going to go to the Philly P*Ps Christmas concert today but were unable to get the discount tickets we had planned on so we ditched that plan.

Instead, Haley spent 2.5 hours this morning practicing everything she needed to practice so she could have her friend, Lily, over to play for the whole afternoon. Haley decided this week to change the piece she was working on polishing up for her teacher's winter concert from the Bartok Rumanian Dances to the Paganini Moto Perpetuo. She has been messing a bit with the Paganini since spring or summer but had very few lessons on it and had put it aside numerous times to work on other pieces in between. She had never finished the last page until her lesson yesterday when she told her teacher she'd rather work hard and play that for the concert. She has the first 3 pages memorized and learned so just has the final page to memorize which shouldn't be a problem and then she has to polish it all up. She likes to work under pressure. LOL

While Haley played with Lily this afternoon, I got some work done, vacuumed the house, did laundry, paid bills, and finished up the book I was reading...The Geography of Love...definitely a half box of tissues kinda book. Ritch and I made Hot Browns for dinner even roasting the turkey breasts. (click on Hot Brown for a link to the recipe)

The girls played upstairs and downstairs, inside and outside even joining the neighbor children for a game of Red Light, Green Light. Yes, it was rather warm today!

After dinner I killed zombies with my sons and am now lazing in front of the tv. Nice to get rejuvenated for another busy day tomorrow...church, play practice for Haley, fiddle workshop with Oisin MacDiarmada, then a dinner date with my husband and some friends.

Christmas Traditions and, yes, another musical weekend...

2011-12-05T14:13:00.000-08:00

Three Christmases ago, when Haley was playing in the orchestra at Temple for the first time, we started going to the Ritz Carlton one Saturday between Thanksgiving and Christmas for a cup of their wonderful hot cocoa. This cocoa is made with 5 different types of chocolate and heavy cream topped with whipped cream and homemade marshmallows. Yum!

Last year, Haley's friends from orchestra, Mara and her mother joined us. This year, Haley isn't playing with the Temple orchestra but we were still looking forward to having our yearly cocoa so when Mara's mom emailed me a few weeks ago, I suggested getting together with them for our yearly tradition.

We started the day at One Liberty Place where a woman's orchestra including Haley's violin teacher was performing Christmas music in front of a huge Christmas tree. Then we met with Mara and her family after their orchestra rehearsal.

Here's a picture of the beautiful Christmas tree at the Ritz. There must have been a wedding going on there Saturday because there were lots of people really dressed up getting their pictures taken in front of that tree.

This is the best hot chocolate that I have ever had!

Here are the kids thoroughly enjoying their cocoa!

After our indulgence, Haley, Grammy, and I walked a couple blocks to Fergie's Pub for the session there. Haley was excited that Gabe was leading the session and lots of her favorite Philly musicians were there playing...even Paraic showed up after work so she got to practice her strathspeys with him.

Sunday Haley and I went to NY for her fiddle lesson. She listened to CDs and played along most of the drive. After her lesson, she still hadn't had enough Irish music so we drove from NY to Philly for the Irish session at the Plough and the St*rs. It was a really lovely evening. The accordion player who leads the session's father and mother were there having dinner. His father plays in many of the sessions and ceilis we attend so it was no surprise when he came over to play but even his mother came over and played a few tunes on his accordion. Haley thought that was just the best.

Shiner!

2011-12-02T07:02:00.000-08:00

I am hoping this is not an indication of how this year's wrestling season is going to go. Yesterday was the 4th practice of the season and already my son comes home with this lovely shiner and a chipped canine tooth from a knee in the face.

Did my son stop practice and ask for ice to limit the swelling? No, not my son...he kept right on practicing then lifted weights after practice. I had to force him to ice his face when I got home from work...Lovely!

I can't wait to see the colors it turns this week.

Irish Music Fun!

2011-11-28T13:17:00.000-08:00

This weekend was a lot of Irish music fun. Saturday we cleaned house and got out the Christmas tree. It is up, still not decorated but the lights work and the angel is on top. In the late afternoon we collected Grammy and Dylan's friend, Katelyn, then headed to the city for the Irish session at Fergies Pub. Haley had gotten in touch with her friend, Paraic, and he joined her for some tunes. She was excited to show him the Chieftains tunes she learned this past week and play them with him.

I laughed when we walked into the pub and the waitress immediately brought over our drinks without even asking for an order...kinda funny that my 9yo is so well known at a pub, she doesn't need to place and order.

We couldn't stay for the whole session because we had to drive down the shore for the monthly Irish Ceili. The kids love going and learning the dances. It is a great group of people who are very welcoming to beginners and are always willing to dance with whoever needs a partner. The kids play music during the breaks or sing along with the two guys who enjoy performing a funny song. Haley talked one into singing the Unicorn song so she could do the hand-motions with him.

Sunday, Haley had a make-up violin lesson then we headed back into the city for the Irish session at Plough and the Stars. Haley's friends from NY, Jayne and Bram were visiting relatives in the area so they joined us at the pub as well as her friend Alexander. The kids had a lot of fun playing tunes together and with the other musicians.

The evening started with just a few musicians but the number of musicians grew as the night went on.

We stayed until the session ended at 9pm then headed home to bed. We had a full day of school and practice today...kinda nice after having a light week last week with the holiday.

Beautiful Fall Day in NYC...

2011-11-22T18:42:00.000-08:00

This weekend I drove Haley to NY for her fiddle lesson on Saturday then we stayed over and spent Sunday with her friend Sofia and family. We met and drove into the city to ride bikes in Central Park.

Parking was fun in a van with bike rack on back. We had to park half-way then remove the bikes from the rack and leave them on the sidewalk to get the van all the way into the spot.

The weather was perfect. The kids had so much fun riding their bikes around the path. There were a couple close calls with one particular young one who was not quite as competent with steering as the older kids.

This might have been the only picture I could capture of Alik without his tongue sticking out.

We stopped in Sheep Meadow for a picnic lunch. Alik enjoyed laying on the blanket to look at clouds, Anya enjoyed eating, and Haley and Sofia had fun climbing the large tree shading us.

What a cutie!!!

The big girls having a powwow.

Let's see...if Sofia jumps up and grabs the branch then Haley might be able to jump up and reach it.

With a little team work they both made it onto a branch.

Here are the girls! Ready to get back on those bikes.

A quick stop for some yummy ice-cream.

A post-icecream zombie. Grrrr! Gotta love those rocket pops!

Here's the Quidditch match we saw on our way back to the van. We, Muggles, had a hard time figuring out how they play but we enjoyed watching.

After our bike ride we stopped to check out an Irish session in a local pub. Haley and Sofia joined in for a couple tunes. We then got some pizza to eat and headed home.

Video of Smithsonian event

2011-11-15T04:16:00.000-08:00

Here's a clip of my Towheads performing at the opening of the Smithsonian Institution's New Harmonies exhibit at Wheaton Village....

Maryland Celtic Festival 2011

2011-11-14T19:15:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Grammy and Poppop drove Haley, Dylan, and I down to Maryland so we could attend the Maryland Celtic Festival. The festival is held at the Maryland State Fair grounds and has lots of musical performances, vendors, food, and crafts and activities for the kids. Haley and some of her fiddle playing friends took a fiddle workshop with Brian.

They then competed in the Maryland Fleadh instrument competitions. Dylan took 1st in the under 15 accompaniment competition accompanying Haley with his guitar. Haley took 1st in the under 12 solo fiddle competition. Their friend Alex took 1st in the under 15 solo fiddle.

Alex's father took these great photos....a big thank you to him for sending them to me!

Haley competing

Dylan competing with Haley playing melody for him.

Waiting to compete...too bad they aren't having any fun!!

Just a really nice pic of Dyl.

Smithsonian Institution Gig

2011-11-14T19:09:00.000-08:00

The kids were asked to perform for the opening of the Smithsonian Institutions' New Harmonies traveling exhibit on Saturday night. We attended a reception then walked through the exhibit. The kids did a sound check then the concert started. The emcee for the evening was Down Jersey Jim Albertson. He told some jokes and played his dulcimer while he sang some songs. Also playing were Steve Burns who sang blues and played guitar and two other local bands, The Belaire Boys and The Snake Brothers playing Bluegrass style music. We enjoyed all the performances.

The kids performed after the intermission and played a great set. They were really on together Saturday night. They even received a standing ovation! (I hope to add a couple video clips in the next few days.)

Here are some photos of the kids enjoying the exhibit and performing...

Happy Halloween!!

2011-11-14T19:00:00.000-08:00

My boys are now too old to go Trick or Treating with their mommy but Haley still enjoys it. We went back to our old neighborhood so she could go with friends...our new neighborhood is houses spread far apart all with long driveways.

Here's my little flapper...

Weekend in CT

2011-11-14T18:57:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we got up very early in the morning and drove up to CT with a mom and two Irish music playing little girls around Haley's age, Emily and Livia, for a CCE Irish Music and Dance Weekend. We attended morning and afternoon fiddle workshops. Haley's friend Sofia who lives in CT also came to the morning workshop which was a lot of fun for Haley. She had a whole group of friends to play Irish music with.

After all the workshops...four hours of workshops, Haley took an hour fiddle lesson with her teacher, Brian. Then we got diner suggestions from John Whel*n and drove for dinner. It had to be a quick dinner because we had to get back for a concert that evening. We watched the teachers from all the instrumental workshops perform. They asked Haley and another of Brian's students to join them for the grand finale. Livia would've played as well but she and Emily were in a deep sleep by the middle of the 1st half of the concert.

Here are some pictures of the finale of the concert...

Cartwheels?!

2011-11-10T03:15:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago we did a bit of remodeling on the living room. My husband tore out the makeshift computer desk in the corner that we have hated since we moved in and painted the walls then we were able to move the furniture around creating more open space on the floor. Haley has spent a lot of her free time every day doing cartwheels in that free space and....uh, counting them. She not only does them at home but also did them at Dylan's football practices and in Grammy and Poppop's living room.

She keeps a running total of number of cartwheels done and yesterday hit 900 cartwheels...this is in almost 2 weeks! She is hoping to reach 1000 cartwheels. I am wondering what she'll do once she hits 1000. She was a little upset to know that her number cannot be verified and put in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Snow in October?!! and Kevin!

2011-11-02T04:58:00.000-07:00

I cannot remember ever having snow in October around these parts. At home there was just lots and lots of rain but as we drove closer to the city for music workshops, we began to see snow on cars and then snow on the road while sleet came down. Just as we approached the Irish Center, I got a call that the workshops were going to be cancelled due to Kevin and Cal's flight being held up in Atlanta (surprisingly not due to the snow but due to a computer problem on the aircraft. Hmmm.)

They were still expected for the concert later that evening. The kids were not wanting to miss that and I didn't want to have to drive more than necessary in the mess so we hung out at the Irish Center. The kids played some tunes, Haley practiced a bit, we talked to Terry Kane about music and learning Gaelic, and the bartender got us some food so we didn't have to go out.

Closer to concert time, Rosie came with her Red Riding Hood costume which Haley absconded with and she ran around as Red Riding Hood during Kevin and Cal's sound check.

Here they are playing their concert...Kevin Burke and Cal Scott. It was a wonderful concert. They played all Haley's favorites (except Stella's Waltz).

Dylan was excited by Kevin's shadow on the fireplace behind him and tried to capture it with a photo.

By the time the concert was over, there was about 2 inches of snow on our car and about 4 on the ground. Dylan brushed the car off while Paraic hid behind a bush and lobbed snowballs at him. Dylan threw a few Paraic's way but I don't think there was direct hit on either side. The drive home wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it might be. By the time we got out of the neighborhood where the Irish Center is located, the roads were just wet. So we made it home safely in good time.

Fall Festival 2011

2011-11-02T04:45:00.000-07:00

Every fall, our church hosts a Fall Festival. This is a day of fun for the entire community with food, music, games for the kids, crafts, petting zoo, and bounce houses. Everything is free. The church raises money and the members donate items to make it a free day of fun. The number of people who attend is amazing...it really is a great community event. For the past few years, I think Haley was 6 years old the first year, the kids have been performing a bit of Irish music for the event. I don't think it has ever been rained out and this year was no exception. The weather was relatively warm though a bit windy.

Here are a few pics....

Blogging....

2011-10-23T04:42:00.000-07:00

Haley started her own blog this past week. She really loves to write and has been spending a lot of time writing her own novel. I hope, when it is finished, she will add it to her blog. Here is a link to Haley's blog if you'd like to check it out. She'd really love some traffic there... Haley's blog.

House Concert...

2011-10-19T05:49:00.000-07:00

Haley with Andy Irvine

Last night Haley and I went to see Andy Irvine at a house concert in the city. When we originally received the invitation, she recognized his name from her Patrick Street CD and was excited to see him perform.

It was an amazing concert. He sang or played harmonic while backing himself on guitar or bouzouki. Some of his songs made us laugh and others made us want to cry. You know a musician is great when the audience is filled with many of the best local musicians in the area!

The house where the concert was held was in the center of the city and they had a roof deck with an absolutely stunning night view of the city which we took in during the break. Haley lasted the entire night and was so pumped, she also stayed awake most of the drive home at midnight! It is almost 9am and I haven't heard a sound from her yet this morning, though.

Remember When???

2011-10-17T17:42:00.000-07:00

I googled my daughter's name tonight and found a number of interesting things I didn't know existed. Including this gem from the very first public performance Haley and Dylan did together. They were so little then!!!!

Cumberland County DOES have Talent » Haley and Dylan

Celtic fiddle player Haley (5 yrs) and her brother Dylan (9yrs) on guitar. They played “The Merry Blacksmith,” “The Butterfly” and “The King of Fairies.”

Performing with friends...

2011-10-16T18:13:00.000-07:00

Haley, Dylan, and two of their fellow All-Ireland competitors from the area were asked to perform from the Delaware Valley CCE last night. This wonderful group helps all the kids raise money for their trips to Ireland so playing for them is an honor.

The kids arrived a bit early and put together a program with some tunes together then some solo tunes and various duet combinations. They all took a turn announcing their tunes and did a great job playing together.

After the program by the kids, there was an evening of dancing fun. Haley and I enjoyed dancing our favorite The Haymaker's jig. She and a friend danced a waltz together which was a little funny because it was the two of them surrounded by a pairs of adults. They looked to pinballs bouncing off the different groups in the room. Here are a few more photos from the evening...

Haley fiddling.

The whole group including the audience.

Dylan rockin' it on the banjo...awesome!!

Haley's friends had asked her to learn one of their favorite slow tunes, Inishear. So she dedicated it to them. This is their reaction.

Jack O' Lantern...

2011-10-16T18:02:00.000-07:00

This is the site I encountered upon coming home from work on Thursday night. Haley and Daddy had bought a big pumpkin and were happily turning it into a scary Jack O'Lantern. Haley did not want much help and kept asking her Daddy to let her do it herself.

We have a kit so she was using a not very sharp cutting tool to cut around the holes they had poked around the pattern they used.

Picture after Haley asked Daddy to stop helping for the 80th time. Ha!

Homecoming...

2011-10-16T17:58:00.000-07:00

The last day of school in June, Newt had his Poppop cut off all his curls giving him a crew cut. I think he aged 5 years with that haircut. He is such a good kid and a handsome young man.

Newt is a high school sophomore this year and will turn 16 in another 6 weeks or so. So hard to believe the teeny little baby stuck with tubes and wires in a NICU incubator, is already 16 years old. Time certainly flies. Two more years and I will be sending him off to college. Ahhhh!!!

Here's a picture of Newt with his friend and homecoming date Kayla.

Fall Busy-ness...

2011-10-10T05:29:00.000-07:00

Fall is my favorite time of the year. I love the change in weather...cool nights with warm days (though we've had quite a few "not so warm" days lately, too). I love the change in the leaves especially the colors...oranges, yellows, reds, and golds. I love the new beginning with kids going back to school and new sports starting. This year it is football for Dylan.

Not sure if you can see it but Dylan moved his football number into the grass in the backyard. LOL

Newt with his homecoming date, Kayla.

I also love all the festivals in the Fall. I seem to like them better than the Spring ones for some reason. I like looking at the crafts, hearing the music, etc... The kids have a few very busy weekends coming up musically. They have gigs nearly every weekend and on the other weekend day, Dylan has football games.

This past weekend they played at the Amish Market in the next town over. The market is relatively new there. The basement of the building houses the Amish Market part and the 1st floor has vendors and small eating establishments but is only about 1/4 full. The kids played on a small stage on the 1st floor and the area was huge and concrete so a little echo-y sound wise. They played two sets about 45 min each and drew nice size crowds of people coming and going in and out of the market. It was a little different from their normal gigs where they talk a little more and explain what they are playing. With people coming and going it was more like when they busk.

They played really well together. I wanted to record them but the sound in the huge area was not the best for recording and they were playing with a large window behind them so they looked more like shadows on a recording so that didn't work. I hope to get some newer video of them at one of their other gigs in the next couple weeks.

Banjo

2011-10-04T04:43:00.000-07:00

About a year ago, Dylan's grandparent's neighbors gave him this old banjo from the 1920's. The neighbor's father had used it to perform and when he passed, it was kept in their attic for years and years. She knew Dylan played guitar and thought he might get some use out of the banjo.

Because it had been stored in an attic and not played, it had dried out and was not tunable. We took it to an elderly man in Philly who works on the banjos of various musicians we know and he worked on it for a week or so but was not able to get a good scale on it. (He felt bad about that and presented Dylan with an old banjo he had so Dylan could play that one which was extremely nice. He wouldn't take any money for the banjo or the work he'd done on the 1920's one so we sent him a nice big fruit basket to thank him.)

Anyway, Dylan learned how to play his "new" old banjo and kept the 1920's banjo in his room a wall hook he has for his guitars. A few months ago, he took the banjo down and being Dylan, attempted to play with it. He noticed that he could get it almost completely tuned then took a toothpick and added it to the bridge and... lo and behold! he had a good scale and could play it. We think maybe it soaked up humidity from the air.

The only problem now was that the tuning pegs slipped so he had to tune almost constantly. He ordered new tuning pegs that, honestly, looked too big for the headstock of the banjo. We, his parents, were worried that drilling that much would weaken the headstock, destroying the banjo but Dylan insisted it would work and checked with a couple other musicians who agreed with him. Last week, Dylan and his daddy drilled out so the pegs would fit then tuned up that old banjo. It works! It has a nice sound and holds the tuning. So, cool!

Dylan has been playing it all the time and plans to play it in their upcoming gigs. Dylan is amazing with instruments...he seems to be able to figure out a way to fix most problems he comes across.

Bethlehem Celtic Fest 2011

2011-09-26T05:57:00.000-07:00

Haley receiving her medal.

Friday night Haley, Dylan, and I drove to Bethlehem for the Celtic Classic. It was pouring rain all day and we had looked forward to having dinner then going to see some of the Friday night acts but due to the downpours, we decided to eat dinner then go back to our hotel. The kids played some music together and we went to bed early.

Saturday morning the rain was gone though the skies remained cloudy. Haley with Dylan to accompany her, won 1st in the 12 and under fiddle competition at the festival. Her good friend, Alex, took 2nd.

Thanks to Alex's mom, I have this one photo. I packed my camera but left the battery at home in the charger. Duh!

After the competition we walked into town to have lunch with Alex and family. Bethlehem is a really cute, historic town and even in town there were acts performing on the street including an old time brass band in front of the big hotel.

We went back to the festival after lunch to enjoy the different acts performing. We enjoyed a number of performances of bands whose members we knew like Burning Bridget Cleary and Girsa. We walked around to see the wares of the vendors. The festival is huge with a parade, fiddle and dance competitions, Highland games, vendors galore, and 5 venues with performers.

One of the perks of winning the fiddle competition was that the judge, the fiddler for the band Glengarry Bhoys, invited the 1st place winners of the two age groups to perform a set with his band at the 8pm performance. We arrived back to the stage a little early but there was not a seat available in the venue (a huge tent!). Haley, Cameron (the winner in the under 18 age group), and Darcy worked out a set and then we watched the performance from the back of the stage.

The Glengarry Bhoys are very energetic and the crowd loved them. They called the kids on stage and the crowd clapped along to Haley's jig then gave her a standing ovation. Cameron played his tune then the band joined in and Darcy motioned to Haley to join them. She had never heard the tune before Cameron played it but she picked it up and played along. (Then played it all morning on Sunday and came up with a set around it because she really liked it.)

Here are some pics...thanks to the Celtic Classic photographers.

Haley's friend John Whelan and his band were playing after the Glengarry Bhoys. When he arrived he picked Haley up in his big bear hug, spun her around, and danced with her then asked her to stay and play with him. He kept the crowd pumped by climbing about 2 stories up to the top of the speaker stand with his accordion and playing, running out into the crowd and playing on a chair then playing up on the sound platform with the sound guys dancing along. Haley joined him for his finale reel set.

It was a late night but a lot of fun! Hopefully Cameron's dad will send me a DVD of the performance! We hadn't planned on staying so late because we didn't know Haley would be on stage so I hadn't taken my video camera. Ugh!

A Fourth Grader and a Fairy House

2011-09-26T05:34:00.000-07:00

I love homeschooling my 9 year old. She loves to learn. She works hard on her own and is old enough that she is able to do more of her work independently. I no longer need to sit next to her while she does computer learning to help her input information. She only occasionally needs me to help with technical issues. I can give her a list of work that needs to be done on Thursdays when I work and know it will be done, along with all her practicing, when I get home.

She is absolutely a delightful child and we are having so much fun together. (I know the preteen years are close so I am fully enjoying this time with her.) We have been walking together while Dylan practices football at night. There is a 1.25 mile path around the fields and park so we walk it twice then get done in time to see the last half of Dylan's practice and finish up any schoolwork or reading we need to do. The other day, we noticed lots of cool things while walking so took a bag through the wooded area and picked up bits of bark, pinecones, and moss. We decided to create a "fairy house" as an art project. Haley added on some old yarn and bits of ribbon left over from making her headbands.

Here's the finished project....

Headband Craft

2011-09-14T09:15:00.000-07:00

Haley and Maddie in their dresses from Ireland.

Last week when we took Haley's little cousin, Maddie, to our favorite boutique, Haley purchased some cute flower hair clips. Unfortunately her hair is very silky and most everything falls out which leaves her with headbands as about the only option.

We decided to try to make some ribboned (is that a word?) headbands to slip the flower clips into so they would stay in her hair.

I stopped at the craft store and found headbands and some pretty ribbon along with permanent fabric glue. We decided to make them today by wrapping the ribbon around the headbands and tacking it with the glue. Her flower clips easily slide into a fold of the ribbons.

Here are the finished products....

We had an extra headband so Haley remembered these little treble clef appliques her violin teacher had given her so we glued those on. Cute!

Car schooling...or otherwise entitled Supermom! Ha!

2011-09-13T18:58:00.000-07:00

Butterfly exibit this weekend at festival.

A day in the life....

Today was just one of those days. I was up early 5:30am and couldn't fall back to sleep after Ritch left at 6am so decided to get an early start. I made sandwiches and packed the boys lunch, gave the dog an oatmeal bath (she has been suffering from allergies that steriods keep just under control and the bath helps cool down her skin when she looks red), then checked email while waiting for the boys to get up.

Newt got up and off to school then Dylan. Newt sent me a text message from school saying that his friend was not going to make it to "core" (wrestling workout) so I would have to take him. Ugh! Haley got up after sleeping in a bit until 8am and I gave her breakfast then jumped into the shower. Haley got in as I got out and we both dressed then headed out the door for my yearly gyn appt. (lovely) She read "Peter Pan" on the way and while in the office.

From there we got gas, stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few things for the boys' lunches for the rest of the week, then headed home. I unloaded the groceries and started some beef browning for chili while Haley started playing scales. She brought her music stand in the kitchen so I could watch/listen to scales, Kreutzer exercises, and fiddle practice while I finished putting the chili together in the crock pot.

By the time I finished cleaning up the kitchen and packed a bag of schoolwork for later, Haley had finished those parts of her violin practice and put on a Liz Carrol CD to dance around the kitchen for 10 minutes before I logged her onto PLATO so she could finish up the week's Earth Science lesson and tests.

She finished about an hour later and I gave her a quick lunch before we headed out the door again for her practice with Madi (the young violinist/Juilliard grad) who works with Haley once a week, usually on orchestra material but at this time with no orchestra material to learn, just supplements her regular lessons. Haley likes working with her and I like that she always reinforces the same things Haley's regular teacher is having her work on but sometimes approaches it in a slightly different way.

We went straight from practice to pick Newt up after school and take him to "core." Haley and I waited in the car and did her math, Wordly Wise, and read two chapters in Story of US (Book 3) which Haley outlined and made a timeline for the French and Indian War to put in her history notebook.

Newt finished up, we drove home, ate some chili for dinner, then 30 min. later were back out the door for Dylan's football practice. Haley and I took her violin to a quiet spot out of the way and she practiced for another hour (mostly classical pieces but also a bit of fun fiddling) then she sat and drew while I watched the last half of Dylan's practice. As it got darker, we watched 3 bats flying around the field eating insects. Haley and I talked about bats and she looked up some images of bats when we got home because she was very interested in what they really look like up close.

Once home, I cleaned up the kitchen, ate some of the fresh mozzarella, tomato, basil, and balsamic vinegar Ritch had put together, cleaned up the kitchen, then made pina coladas (virgin, of course) for everyone...I have been craving them.

I helped Dylan finish him homework, typed up this blog post, and am off to stretch the boys because they are trying to become more flexible and what better way than to have your physical terrorist...oops! I mean therapist mother stretch you every night. After that it is off to bed. Hopefully tomorrow will be a bit more relaxed.

Hawaiian Chicken

2011-09-12T13:54:00.000-07:00

Haven't made this recipe in awhile but have been craving anything with pineapple in it so went searching for this...reminds me of the Polynesian Luau in Disney World.

Hawaiian Chicken
Coat 6 boneless skinless chicken breasts in flour, brown in a pan with a light layer of oil. Remove from pan and place in a 9x13 dish. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Sauce:
1-1lb 4oz can sliced pineapple
1 cup sugar
2 Tbsp cornstarch
3/4 cup cidar vinegar
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp ginger
1 chicken bouillon cube

Drain pineapple into a 2 cup measuring cup and add water to make 1 1/4 cup. Add to saucepan with other ingredients. Bring to a boil over high heat and boil for 2 min. Pour over chicken. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 30 min. Add pineapple slices and green pepper. Bake 30 min. more until tender. Serve over white rice.

Enjoy!

Weekend of Festivals...

2011-09-12T05:26:00.000-07:00

Morning session

I love fall. I love all the festivals and fairs held this time of year. Saturday Dylan had his first football game ever. Daddy forgot to take the camera so unfortunately we have no pictures. He did well for his first time playing and had a lot of fun.

Haley and I missed the game because we attended the Philadelphia Ceili Group festival. We arrived a little early, not knowing how long it would take to get there or if any of the roads we needed to take might still be flooded and closed. The morning session was still going on when we arrived and Haley got to join them for a few tunes.

After the session, Haley's fiddle teacher, Brian, gave a fiddle workshop that was well attended. They learned a couple jigs. Haley had a lesson after the workshop (saving us a drive to NY next week).

Next Gen Kids

We got downstairs just in time for her to join the Next Generation Kids for their performance. These kids get together once a month to learn a tune, have a snack while socializing, then sit and play session style for the last hour. Kathy, Dennis, and Chris, the adults leading the group, donate their time so this can be free for the kids. It is a great program!

We ate a quick dinner after the Next Gen performance then went to see the nighttime concert. Runa opened the concert. They were a dynamic group with interesting arrangements of Celtic music. The singer was very good and we liked the different percussion set-up.

The headliners for the night were the men of Pride of NY (they were missing their female whistle player, Joannie). Haley and I have seen them perform numerous times and always enjoy their playing. Haley loves to hear her teacher, Brian, perform. At the end of their performance, they invited Runa, Haley and Alex up on stage with them for a couple sets.

Brian Conway, Haley and Alex

New Notes...

2011-09-04T05:10:00.000-07:00

Haley had her first lesson of the "new" year on Friday. After about a month without lessons but lots of great practicing even while playing hours and hours of Irish music in Ireland, she was happy to be able to put Kreisler's "Sicilienne and Rigaudon" onto her review list and get the go ahead to learn some new notes.

This piece is "heaven" to Haley. Lots of notes played really, really fast. To me, it looks like a Kreutzer exercise and that is probably her teacher's motivation for giving it to her but it is new, fast notes and nothing motivates my kid more than that. She will be practicing it by copying pages 1 and 4 then placing two music stands side by side loaded with music until it is memorized.

To top it off, she got 3 new tunes from her fiddle teacher yesterday...one, "Big John McNeal's," she'd been messing with from a Cape Breton player's CD. He gave her the Irish (Sean Maguire) version along with a tricky little tune to follow then another easy tune to go with her "Dr. Gilberts."

What a fun practice week she is going to have!

Irish Coddle Recipe

2011-09-04T04:45:00.000-07:00

We ate this dish while in Ireland and I tried to replicate it at home. I think mine tastes better than what we had in Ireland. This is definitely comfort food and perfect for a rainy, cool fall day but do not eat if you are on a diet. Ha!

I didn't measure anything so you'll have to go by looks. I used enough potatoes so my Dutch oven was full when everything was added and I had a good mixture of the other ingredients.

Irish Coddle
Cook 1/2lb. bacon. Drain pan of all but a little grease then brown 2 large onions chopped in large pieces and 2 cloves garlic sliced thin. Remove to a bowl.

Take 6 sausages (I found Irish Garlic sausage that worked great but mild Italian would also work) and brown in same pan. Remove from pan and slice into large pieces (1/2 inch?).

While sausages are browning, slice up 6-9 potatoes in thick slices. (I did it with skins on but you can peel if you want.) Also slice up 3-4 large carrots.

In an oven safe Dutch oven (I used a cast iron one I take camping), spray with cooking spray then layer half sliced potatoes, carrots, onion/garlic mixture, and meats then add second half. Pour a container of vegetable stock over (about 2 cans). Add lid and cook for a few hours (2-3) on 325 degrees. Once cooked I added some fresh ground pepper, to taste, and chopped fresh parsley. Serve in bowls!

First Week Back...

2011-09-02T04:43:00.000-07:00

After coming home from Ireland, I had planned to take the last two weeks of the summer and get cleaned up and organized. Summer was really crazy for us with music camp, fundraisers for Ireland, then the trip itself so I had quite a few things that I had planned to get done but didn't. I spent the first week getting organized and cleaning house...a couple days stuck at home due to a hurricane was a big help. Then Haley asked to start school on Monday.

Her brothers were still home and I had yet to get their needed school supplies and some new jeans that fit (they seriously need to stop growing so quickly...Ha!). Plus my sister-in-law and niece are only here for another week so we want to spend as much time as possible with them. So, I knew it wouldn't be the relaxing, Mommy and Haley at home learning kind of week, I had planned for our first week of school but I got out the books and we started anyway. Who am I to stand in the way of a child asking to learn?

Most of the schooling was done in the car during the 2 hours we spent each night watching Dylan practice football but, hey, it was learning. I changed my mind on a few things I had planned back in the summer.

For one, I cannot find Best Poems and think I must have put it back in the basement with the books I returned to bins so that is going to wait for a few months since I also had purchased the Michael Clay Thompson reading program and Haley was keen to start reading Alice in Wonderland.

The other change is math. She really does not like Saxon 76 and seems to dread it. I had her take the Pre-test for Art of Problem Solving Pre-Algebra and she did very well on it so she is going to give that a try along with the Thinkwell Pre-Alg program she has already been dabbling in. We'll see how that goes.

Our week went well. We did a variety of subjects and a few projects. Haley is really liking Mapping the World with Art by Ellen McHenry. She did the Babylonian Clay Tablet project all on her own (see above photos). She did a great job and they tasted good but were about the consistency of an actual clay tablet...think need to dip in milk.

Haley is going to have her classical violin lessons once a week this fall and will start back today. She is looking forward to learning some new notes after a month without lessons.

The boys start back to school on Tuesday. We will take the long weekend to spend time with visiting family who will be leaving us late next week, have a fiddle lesson, and enjoy the weekend then it is back to routine for us.

Ireland 2011

2011-08-28T13:27:00.000-07:00

Our trip to Ireland started with a 6 hour flight through the night to Dublin. We arrived, got our rental car, then drove the 3 hours to our B&B in County Cork. (Note to self...This was not a bright idea...flying all night with no sleep, losing 5 hours with the time difference, arriving at 5am Dublin time, then trying to drive that far.) The lady running the B&B allowed us to check in early so we took a few hours nap then got showers and visited the Blarney Castle including a kiss of the Blarney Stone (only Ritch and I...the kids were a bit scared of hanging upside down over a huge ledge in the pouring rain). We ate dinner in Blarney village at a nice little pub then headed back for the kids to practice and went to bed early.

The next morning we had a lovely breakfast, said bye to our hosts, and headed to Killarney in County Kerry. On the way we drove through the city of Cork, and visited the Drombeg Stone Circle and Timoleague Friary. We arrived in Killarney mid-afternoon and checked into our hotel then drove into the city for dinner and then tracked down a pub with an Irish session so the kids could play.

The next day we visited Muckross House, Muckross Abbey, Muckross Farms, and Torc Waterfall. The farms was really fun for the kids with people baking bread in the little farmhouses, people working the farms, and animals to pet. We went back into the city that evening. The kids wanted to try busking after seeing a number of performers on the streets. We walked past a small group of teens putting their instruments away then decided to go back and try the spot they were leaving. They walked up to us and asked if Haley had been in Cavan last year. They happened to be a group of teens she had played a session with in Cavan last year and remembered her. The kids busked for about 20 minutes then we went for supper and found a different session for them to join in with later that night. We met 3 people from Australia in that pub who'd seen the kids busking and Ritch and I talked to them while the kids played.

Our next stop was Doolin Village. On the way we drove around the Dingle Peninsula. Talk about beautiful...mountain passes, water, cliffs, summer flowers all over the place. Also talk about scary driving...the pass from one side of the peninsula to the other had segments where only one car could fit at a time. On one side was the mountain wall and on the other a shear drop of the cliffs. We had to look along with mountain to see if a car was coming because there weren't any turnoffs so if the cars met, one would have to back up to let the other pass. To top it off there were lots of bikers as well (why anyone would want to bike up those mountains, I have no idea) on the roads barely wide enough for one little VW Passat.

Our B&B in Doolin was very nice. The farmer who ran it told us about the pub where we'd find a real Irish session. We took the kids there for the session at 9pm and the pub was packed with tourists. The kids had a great time meeting the other musicians and playing with them.

Doolin session at O'Conner's Pub.

Sunday in Doolin we took the ferry out to the island of Inisheer. The water was very rough with huge waves and the people running the ferry were passing out barf bags left and right. The island had a castle, a WWI tower, and a monestary from 500 A.D. The kids also enjoyed the playground on the island while we waited for the ferry to take us back. We were supposed to take the ferry from Inisheer to the bottom of the Cliffs of Moher but because of rough seas, the captain decided to go back to Doolin first then see if it was safe enough to go to the cliffs. Haley was feeling a bit sea sick so we decided to get off at Doolin and leave the cliffs for another visit. (The second time we have tried to see those darned cliffs and not been able to. LOL)

O' Conner's had an early session on Sunday from 5-8pm. We were hungry after our boat ride so went in at 4pm for dinner. While finishing our food, in walked Qristina Bachand. She and her friend just happened to be on vacation. Haley recognized her immediately. We had "met" her virtually through youtube when she commented on a video of Haley playing at 5yo then we met her at Tullamore where she and her brother were performing at a concert during our first Fleadh. Haley went over to say 'hi' and was happy that she recognized her. The kids enjoyed playing with her and the other musicians at the session that night.

From Doolin, we drove to Sligo. We stayed in the same B&B we had stayed in last year. We stopped in the city, found a tourist office for a map, did a little shopping at Monsoon (Haley and my favorite children's clothing store), and found a music store to look for bouzoukis for Dylan (there were none in the store).

That night, while looking through pamphlets in the B&B, we found a Michael Coleman museum. Michael Coleman was a fiddler who moved to NYC during the time when recording was being invented. He recorded his fiddling which was then sent back to Ireland and kept the tradition alive. Haley has heard so much about Michael Coleman because his teacher's fiddle style comes from the playing of Michael Coleman, handed down from fiddler to fiddler. So, the next morning we set off to the museum. Haley was most excited to see the fiddle Michael Coleman played. We toured the museum then a man drove us out to a replica of the home Michael Coleman lived in. It wasn't open but he opened it up for us and talked to the kids about all the artifacts and how people lived in those days. He then took us down the road a little ways to show us the ruins of the home where Michael Coleman was born.

Mullaghmore

On the way back to Sligo city we stopped to see the ancient passage tombs at Carrowmore. They were very similar to those we'd seen last year at Newgrange and Knowth but there were so many mounds in this area. There were cows eating around one of the tombs in a field which was a little funny to see. We also dropped a weeks worth of clothes at a laundry then drove out to our favorite little fishing village of Mullaghmore. We couldn't find a pub that allowed kids in late at night so ended up back at the B&B and to bed early.

Wednesday morning, we picked up our laundry (washed, dried, and folded) then headed to Cavan. It was only a 90 minute drive so we arrived around 1pm. We drove straight into town, parked behind the library, then headed toward the Fleadh Offices to get the schedules and information booklets. On our way, we passed a small stage and the man running the stage saw the kids' instruments and asked them to stop and play on live webcam. He was so impressed with their playing, he told them to come back everyday if they wanted. We stayed around to watch fiddler Anton NicGabhann play then went to the offices. From there we headed into the heart of town to pick up t-shirts and just see what was around.

The kids wanted to sign up for the Street Seisun (basically busking) competition so we got that done and found out the details...younger age groups busked Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 5-7pm and 3 groups would be chosen for the finals on Sunday afternoon.

Haley, Dylan, Jayne, and Bram busking.

The kids started busking and their friends, Jayne and Bram from upstate NY saw them and asked to join in. They had a lot of fun busking together. After busking, we all went to dinner then found a session in a pub for the kids to play in.

Our next few days in Cavan kind of followed the same plan. We drove into town from our B&B early enough to get parking, the kids played on the webcam stage, we walked about town, they found someone to play with in the hotel, they busked, dinner, then night sessions. Friday, Haley had a quick lesson with Brian to check her competition tunes. A lady from RTE radio heard her practicing and asked the kids to come to their truck to record a few tunes for the radio later that day.

One evening we saw Anton fiddling in the street so stopped to listen. He saw Haley in the crowd and called her over to join them for a few tunes.

The competitions were Saturday morning. Haley played her best but didn't end up placing. She was a little upset because she knew how well she had played but she bounced back quickly. Dylan also played very well but didn't place. Only pianists placed in his accompaniment competition.

Saturday evening we ran into their friends, along with a new Scottish friend, Benedict and all the kids played in the streets together. They had a blast learning some Scottish accent and teaching Benedict to talk American.

They were joined a little later for a few tunes by Brian and Heather.

Sunday Haley, Dylan, Jayne and Bram competed in the Street Seisun finals, a televised event on the "big stage." They were really good together. They hadn't had time to rehearse so came up with a couple sets and went out and played amazingly well together for kids who see each other twice a year. The judge said, "When you are asked to judge an event like this, coming out and seeing an act like that makes it all worthwhile." He went on to comment at how he liked Bram's dancing and how well Haley and Jayne were in tune especially with Haley on a half size fiddle with very little room for error as they shifted into 3rd and 5th positions. The kids ended up winning the under 15 age group!

Kids at the Molly Malone statue.

Monday and Tuesday, we spent our time in Dublin. We saw the bog bodies at the natural history museum, walked to the Guiness factory but ended up not paying the money to go in (37 euro for a family!), saw the oldest pub, and checked out Monsoon there. Ha!

The kids played in Gogarty's pub on Monday night. The people playing remembered Haley from last year. We tried to meet the retired fiddler for the Chieftains but were unable to coordinate our schedules and we had turned in our rental car so had no way to get out to his home anyway. He did talk to Haley on the phone and said a few things that made her feel better about the competition. Hopefully we will be able to meet him next year.

Haley and Dylan posing outside Ireland's Natural History Museum.

Football

2011-07-30T05:38:00.000-07:00

Dylan has been asking to play football for the past couple years. Since the boys homeschooled we always seemed to miss signups or had too much other stuff going on to do football practice every night.

This year, we finally found out when sign-ups started and our schedule, except for things like trips to Ireland, will allow someone to be able to take Dylan to practice at night. So, we signed him up and practice started on Monday night.

It was hot...really hot and they worked the boys hard. Dylan was sore for a couple days but he did everything expected of him at practice. I am really proud of all his hard work even in the incredible heat.

He likes it.

I'm not sure what he likes about it. He doesn't know all that much about the game though he is asking questions and finding out what he needs to know. I think the thing he likes best, what he talks most about, is the uniform. Even I have to admit, he does look pretty tough in all those pads. He does need to work on his "mean face" though. Ha!

We spent 2 hours standing in the hot sun last night, sweating and waiting for the boys to get their uniforms. I didn't mind so much because I saw how careful the men were being about making sure everyone had a proper fit. I understand the importance of that. Wrestling uniforms are a whole lot easier to give out..."here's a singlet, see ya!"

I'm not sure how football is going to fit into our otherwise very busy schedule. We will be doing a lot of divide-and-conquer this fall. I do not think Haley will be doing both orchestras so our Saturdays will be free to watch Dylan's games. We will find a way to make it all work.

One of those days...

2011-07-23T17:05:00.000-07:00

Did you ever have one of those days where you needed to plan everything perfectly for it all to fit and you knew if just one thing went a little off....?

Today was just such a day. Newt has been in Fargo, ND all week at a national wrestling competition with the NJ National Team. I had to pick him up at the airport today. His plane was supposed to be in at 11:58am. The airport is 1 hour 45 min away from our house but only 45 min from Haley's fiddle teacher in NY so I figured I'd pick Newt up then drive both kids the other 45 min. for Haley to take a lesson, saving me a 3 hour drive tomorrow.

Sounds good, eh!

So, the day starts off innocently enough. I get up, spend some time checking email, get Haley some breakfast, then go upstairs to get a shower. No sooner do I flip the light switch in the bathroom and I hear a loud POP! outside and the house electricity is off. (We have frequent transformer problems in hot, sunny weather....lost lots of refridgerator and freezer stuff last year in the 5 times we lost electric for whole days at a time.)

So, I manage to get a quick shower with the little water left in the water heater. I decide to take Dylan to Grammy's house where there will be air conditioning on all day (104 in the shade here today) and where he will not be tempted to open the fridge thereby hopefully saving our food.

I also needed to use her computer to check Newt's flight status. He was supposed to fly Fargo to Chicago landing at 7am then take off at 9am for Newark. I see that his flight is now delayed and will not be taking off until 10:45am. I decide to take Haley to NY for her lesson, cut the lesson to 1/2 hour then go pick up Newt after. Since we had spent quite a bit of time deciding what to do and checking flights, we make the 2.5 hour drive and arrive just in time for her 12:30pm lesson.

A quick call to Grammy tells me Newt's flight is further delayed and not due in Newark until 2:43pm so the lesson can be an hour. Haley takes her lesson which went very well then we hop back in the car to drive to Newark. Just as we are getting off the exit for the airport, Newt calls to tell me he's landed and waiting for his luggage. I drive around and wait at the terminal pick-up zone for about 10 min. (at the most) before he comes out to us.

Someone had to be watching over our schedule today...there is no way I could have taken what seemed to be a mess and had it work out any better than that.

Swannanoa Pics-Part 2

2011-07-19T03:17:00.000-07:00

While at Swannanoa, Dylan was interviewed by Sharon, a reporter with The Living Tradition magazine, who was covering the Gathering and happened to be in a couple of Dylan's guitar classes.

She also took some photos of the kids and sent them to me via email. She was incredibly nice and said I could publish them as long as I gave credit to the magazine. So please check out the The Living Tradition magazine!

Dylan in guitar class

I love this last one but could not for the life of me figure out how to get it rotated the right way up. Any hints? Since it is downloaded from another program, I can't edit it like I do my other photos. Hmmmmm?

Swannanoa Gathering 2011

2011-07-17T19:03:00.000-07:00

Not sure if I will be able to cover everything that happened this week in one blog post...but I'll hit the highlights!

We spent the week at Swannanoa Gathing in the beautiful mountains of North Carolina. It was our 3rd year attending and every year just seems to be better than the last. I can't even begin to put into the words the amazing musical opportunities a camp like this provides my kids. They spend their days taking classes from some of the best performers/teachers on their instruments and their nights listening to concerts, going to dances, and playing their music into the wee hours of the morning with those same wonderful musicians and other gathering attendees. In the photo to the left the kids are playing in a session with Brian Conw*y, his sister R*se Flannagan, Pat M*ngan, and Kevin Burk*. The performers at the gathering are all so very approachable and seem to love passing on their skills to the next generation.

Dylan jamming. He was a much sought after backer for the other teens at the camp. A good guitarist is hard to find.

Haley fiddling along with Brian and Pat...a teacher flanked by his student and former student.

One of the highlights of the week for Dylan was meeting John Doyle, his absolute favorite guitarist ever. Dylan took four different style guitar classes for the week and a few of the teachers even gave him some extra time following lessons. Dylan even gave some lessons himself.

Haley up close...I love this picture.

Dylan had received a scholarship to attend the camp this year. The scholarship is only given out to a child once. Haley had gotten one the first year we attended. Here's Dylan getting his scholarship certificate during the concert on Wednesday night.

Dylan jamming after class with a guitar instructor.

The first year we went to camp, there was this huge swing attached to a large tree. Last year we were disappointed to see the branch that held the swing was gone along with the swing. Imagine our surprise and delight when we saw the swing had been restored! The kids loved to spend breaks on the swing and Haley especially liked to practice near the swing and get a big push after completing each segment of her practice.

One of the great benefits to attending camp is meeting other musicians from all over the United States and Canada. Dylan made friends with these brothers from Texas who were amazing on fiddle and banjo and flute. Here they are rehearsing the set they put together for the student showcase the last night of camp.

Haley and Dylan received a standing ovation for their performance at the student showcase.

The final night of camp at about midnight, I was sitting listening to my kids play with a large group of musicians while a couple dancers danced to the music and one of the performers, who usually plays guitar, accompanying the group on piano and I thought...what neat experiences my kids get to have. Amazing!

I said above that one of the highlights for Dylan was meeting and taking class with John Doyle. The biggest highlight was the evening he and Haley were joined by John with his bouzouki. Haley played melody while the guys jammed along with her. John's daughter sat on his lap some of the time. They joked about her taking care of moving the capo for him but she needed to grow a few more muscles to be able to move that. John played a number of sets with the kids and sang Haley her favorite song...The Hare's Lament. He said Haley reminded him of Liz Carroll and Eileen Ivers while Dylan reminded him of himself. You can only imagine Dylan's delight!

Haley with Martin Hayes...her fiddle teacher for the week.

Haley and Dylan with their friends from home, Emily and Livia.

Haley's new friends on the swing.

Hershey Park

2011-07-17T18:21:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, July 6th, the Towheads performed at Hershey Park with their dancer, Francesca. Overall it was a great day! There were a few things that might have gone better...it was really hot, the park people were late getting them on stage to play (try holding back a group of 6 kids when there are rides all around them), they didn't have a sign or the kids on a schedule telling people who they were or when they were playing, and did I mention, it was really HOT!

Initially the kids were to play on a larger stage that was covered but that stage was set back and did not get much traffic so they moved the kids to this open stage right in the main path...so lots of foot traffic but the stage was not covered and was broken up into small stage levels so our dancer had to do most of her best moves on the ground in front of the stage.

The kids played very well. The sound system was pretty good and they drew a steady crowd. Luckily they only had to play for about 30 min. otherwise they would have melted like chocolate bars in the sun. After they played we rode the rides and went to the water park. We hadn't been to Hershey Park before as a family so it was a fun day overall.

The Towheads and friends!

Why one might want to get a violin from a luthier.

2011-07-06T03:24:00.000-07:00

We have had quite a few "dramas" over the years with violins. There have been suddenly unravelling strings...of course that only happens the day before a big performance. There was the time we tried to change the strings ourselves and ended up with a strange buzz. Each time we drive to the city and he fixes whatever the problem sometimes even staying open a little late so we can get there.

We had the big "fall on the violin causing the bridge to break into two pieces" episode. Yes, Haley was climbing up and down on a chair to change CD songs then climbing down to play along with her fiddle at 10pm at night and when climbing up, slipped and fell on her violin. The bridge flew off in two different directions. My husband was the hero in that one using Gorilla glue to glue that tiny bridge while my daughter cried her eyes out because she might not get to practice the next morning as she looked at her violin and said, "She looks so ugly!" (insert howl here!)

This past weekend we had another equipment drama. Haley was just playing with the ceili band on Sunday and came over with the metal end of her bow in her hand. It has just popped off.

Now, I have to tell you that this bow has been trouble from day 1. During the winter when we first got it, I thought it was just the weather causing it to be difficult to tighten and loosen then I kept putting off getting it checked out and kind of got used to its idiosyncracies.

So, I popped the metal end back on and it seemed to be tight but on Monday it popped off again. Of course, I had to work late yesterday and then we are leaving early this morning for Hershey Park and the next morning for camp for 10 days so no way to get to the luthier. I just figured we would take it to camp, pray for the best, and take it in when we get home.

Haley had her violin lesson and her teacher suggested I call the luthier because a woman who works in his shop has a son who takes viola with Haley's teacher. The teacher thought this wonderful lady might be able to bring a bow home with her which I could pick up after hours. I called and drove to her house after work, traded bows, and now Haley has a working bow for camp!

Practice...

2011-07-05T05:32:00.000-07:00

Because Haley is a Suzuki violin kid, plays Irish fiddle, and during the school year plays in a couple orchestras, a big part of our lives is practice. She practices every day. I cannot remember a day when she didn't practice. She has asked to practice on holidays and her birthday. She takes her violin on vacations. She has practiced, actually a lot, when in the car going somewhere, on the beach, at campgrounds across the US, and some other pretty funny places. (She thinks it is cool to find different places to practice. Even when she isn't feeling well, she'll ask for her violin...like she misses it if she doesn't play it at least a little every day.

People often ask how long Haley practices each day. I know it may just be a question they think they should ask or what they ask when they can't think of something better to say but I think that particular question has the wrong focus. It isn't how long Haley practices but how she practices that makes a difference.

When she first started playing violin, I left her instrument where she could reach it and whenever she brought it to me, I practiced with her for 10-15 min. Practice then was all fun and games. We used toys and stuffed animals and whatever we could find to help her learn the small parts of techniques she needed to reach bigger goals. I got really, really good at figuring out how to break a larger task into something she could easily accomplish (this skill has been invaluable to me in my work with developmentally delayed kids as well).

We still break up her practicing throughout the day. Her attention is longer but if she goes over 60-90 min at one time, her focus and attention begin to diminish and practice isn't as effective. Homeschooling allows her the freedom to be able to practice throughout the day so we get her when her attention is best.

As she gets older, we still use games at times like if she plays _____ with ______ technique correct, she gets a point or if she doesn't, I get a point or playing ____# repetitions for a chocolate chip. The games don't involve so many props but a little bit of a challenge to help her focus works wonders on those days when she isn't as "into" practicing or she has something she considers difficult to focus on. Oftentimes she is now focused on the playing itself and enjoying what she is playing and doesn't need games and other times she asks to play a certain game.

Haley's teacher often asks her to play a small bit of a piece, a measure or a certain shift, 100 times. I know some Suzuki parents might think she is kidding but we never did. Whenever she said that, we did it. We got the abacus and did it 20 times a day or more until we had done it at least 100 times...oh, yeah...that meant 100 times correctly, not just flying through 100 times to get it done.

Now Haley often choses her own little bit to practice 100 times or more and it is amazing how ingrained something becomes that way. She will find the difficult passages and take them out of the piece and work on them focusing on smoothing out a shift or keeping her fingers tall or whatever it happens to be that she needs to help her play it better. Sometimes she needs help with breaking things down and some days I just sit and watch her practice or we play a game where I try to figure out what technique she is working to improve.

We don't consider playing through a piece to be practice. It might be a small part of the practice...for Haley, playing through the entire piece is her "treat" after the actual practice and she tries to put what she practiced back into the whole piece.

I am so grateful to Haley's violin training for teaching her how to practice. She knows that anything she finds difficult can be made easier with practice and I am sure that knowledge and the skills of knowing how to practice effectively will make a huge difference for her in her all areas of her life.

How long Haley practices would not make much difference in her playing ability if she practiced mindlessly. playing through entire pieces without focus on improving something. It is the deliberate focus on improving something every day, no matter how small that something might be, through practice that makes the difference.

Irish Music Weekend!

2011-07-04T18:19:00.000-07:00

We had another busy Irish music weekend. We had to wake up really early on Saturday morning to drive Newt to the NJ State team wrestling practice in North Jersey (about 5 min from NY so really, really north). From there, I took Haley to her fiddle lesson then we went back and watched the rest of Newt's practice. When his practice was finished, we drove back to her fiddle teacher's house then to a session.

Haley had fun at the session. Her friend, Alex, was there. We know him from the kids' Irish session in Philadelphia and he and Haley both compete in NY and Ireland. She enjoyed seeing him. It was the first we've seen him and his family since the Fleadh in Parsippany on April 1st.

After the session, we had a late night drive home which was pretty neat because in a number of places we drove past, there were cool fireworks. There were even fireworks going off as we crossed the Tappan Zee Bridge.

Sunday started out with thunderstorms and rain. It dried out and we headed to the South Jersey Irish Society picnic. We had a nice time. Haley swam, played mini golf, joined the ceili band with her fiddle, and did the water balloon toss.

Whacking the pinata! Boy! Was that hard to break!

Water balloon toss.

The ceili band.

Haley reading off the 50/50 winning number.

After the picnic, we decided to check out a session about 5 miles away. A number of people had recommended the session but it is a far drive for us normally. The place was half of a duplex and inside it felt like we were stepping into a pub in Cavan Ireland...really neat with lots of character.

There was only a piper and a bodhran player playing when we arrived and they welcomed Haley immediately. Soon after a guitarist joined them and 9yo twin girls with fiddles who also were good little dancers. So, it ended up being a nice session with a great crowd. Not sure if we'll make it back there anytime soon but if we are ever in the area again we'd stop in.

Plans for Homeschooling 2011-12

2011-06-29T17:20:00.000-07:00

After speaking with my homeschooling friend Kate, I got a burst of energy and decided to get our plans in order for the coming school year. So, I cleaned book shelves and went through bins of homeschooling curriculum and materials I have in the basement. I had ordered a few items already but had most of what I needed left over from homeschool years past.

Here are the plans for Haley this coming year:

Math: Finish up Saxon 76 (hopefully this summer but we may have a few chapters left) and get serious about Thinkwell Pre-Algebra. Not sure yet if we will do Saxon 87 or another Pre-Algebra program after.

Language Arts:
-I am planning a poetry study for the 1st half of the school year. We will use Best Poems from Hewitt Homeschool and then use what we learned to study poems of our choice from various poetry books we have around.

-Spelling Power
-Wordly Wise 6 and Word Roots Level B Book 1
-Selected activities from Writing Strands Level 4, Writing for 100 Days, and Writing Power
-Book Club with friends on Skype using Deconstructing Penguins

Science: Our spine will be PLATO Earth Science
Additional Materials:
DK Rocks and Minerals
Magnetism by Peter Riley
How the Earth Works by John Farndon
Just the Facts: Earth and Space Science by Jennifer Sinsel
Usbourne Rocks and Fossils
Science Experiments: Earth Science by Tammy Williams

History: Our spine will be History of US by Joy Hakim with the Study Guide (Books 3-10 We did books 1 and 2 this past year)
Additional Materials: (for the beginning part of the year)
American Revolution: National Park American History Series
Everyday Life: American Revolution
Struggle for a Continent
How Would You Survive in the American West
Daily Life in a Covered Wagon
Everyday Life: Civil War
Going Along with Lewis and Clark: Unit study
George Washington's World
Abraham Lincoln's World
Mutiny on the Amistad
Civil War

Geography and Art: Mapping the World with Art by Ellen McHenry
Artistic Pursuits Grades 4-6 Book 1 (Meant to do last year but didn't get to it)
Various art resources and project books

Foreign Language:
Rosetta Stone Spanish
Rosetta Stone Gaelic (if we get the laptop fixed)

Music: Violin/Fiddle lessons and orchestra
Piano at home

We'll see how it goes!

Big Birthday Bash!

2011-06-20T04:48:00.000-07:00

How's that for alliteration!

Saturday was Haley's fiddle teacher's birthday party. We drove up for a lesson then stayed for the party. It was a very musical event with some great Irish musicians attending and playing. There was session-style music going on in some form or another from about 4pm until after we left at almost 10pm. Haley played the majority of the time.

Haley with her buddy, John Whelan...one of the best box players out there.

Birthday Session

Irish music all day = one happy kid

I don't know if Haley realizes just how lucky she is to be able to make music with all these great Irish musicians and listen to them play live. The social aspect certainly makes learning music a lot of fun for her.

That is one thing I think is missing in her classical studies...the opportunity to "play" with other people. Sure she plays in orchestra but it is very serious business and the kids only get to socialize for short periods of time either before/after/or during their 10 min. break. Also, the music is already written out. There is no changing it or ornamenting it...no place to improvise.

At a session, they play a tune set, talk and joke around for awhile, then play some more. They improvise while playing and she learns new tunes from the other musicians. Sunday Haley and her brothers spent almost all day playing Irish music. They busked in the park off and on for a few hours fundraising then wanted to go to the Plough session where we had to pull Haley and Dylan away 3 hours later because the rest of us were tired.

Haley and Dylan were laughing and joking around with the adult musicians the entire time. Haley and the accordian player, a different one from the photo above, kept doing little things in their playing to "shock" each other...adding ornamentation to the tunes in different ways or improvising a bit on the tunes. Dylan passed guitars back and forth with other guitar players and they shared ideas on backing the tunes. I can see why they love it so much!

Fundraising

2011-06-17T16:07:00.000-07:00

Travelling to Ireland to compete every year tends to be a bit expensive especially with airfare increasing every year and a horrible euro exchange rate. If you are a girlscout, you sell cookies. If you are in a sport, around here you either sell candy or stand in the middle of the street at an intersection asking people to throw coins in a container.

The past couple years, we've had a wonderful group of people helping us raise money for Haley to go to Ireland by holding a ceili. This year Haley and Dylan will be competing and another little girl from our area, Emily, will be competing on harp.

We are planning a large ceili (Gaelic for dance) next month. Some local musicians will come help play live music and area dancers plus some friends and family who have never attempted Irish dancing will come out for an evening of music and fun. The kids will play during breaks between dance sets and we'll hold a Chinese auction with donations from area businesses.

Next weekend, all three kids are going to play at a local restaurant for tips plus the restaurant has kindly offered to give them a percentage of their profits for the evening. Besides that they have done some busking in a city park and my own kids have had a few local gigs. The kids are working hard and seeing the results of all their hard work. Hopefully they will raise enough to offset at least half the costs.

Hummingbirds!!

2011-06-17T15:55:00.000-07:00

I love hummingbirds. They are amazing tiny creatures. We were a little late putting our feeders out this year due to work being done on the outside of the house. One morning I saw a hummingbird just hovering and looking in our sliding glass door, almost like he was saying, "Hey! Um! I'm here. Where's the food?"

I quickly filled one feeder and set it out but didn't see any critters for the next couple days. They came back though. We've counted up to 8 at one time. They feed all day long but go on a feeding frenzy in the early morning and evenings. We hear them come buzzing in like large bumble bees. Sometimes they chirrup at each other or hover facing each other like they are having a turf war. There is one beautiful red bellied male who sits close to the feeder and quickly flies in to chase away any other who has the nerve to try and eat.

Weekend Fun!!

2011-06-13T11:35:00.000-07:00

This weekend we were invited to visit with Haley's viola playing friend, Sofia, and her family in CT. Sofia had planned a fundraising concert with some friends and asked Haley and Dylan to come up and join them.

Then about a week ago, Sofia's mom found a fiddle contest not far from their home so we signed all the kids up to play. Saturday morning was rainy and gloomy. We spent the early morning at the competition hiding under tents trying to keep ourselves but mostly the instruments dry. The rain slowed a bit while the Junior/Junior (12 and under) competition was under way then stopped completely for the Trick & Fancy division (open to any age).

Haley with Dylan accompanying her competed in both divisions. She placed 1st in the Junior/Junior. Haley's friend Sofia fiddled on her viola and her brother "fiddled" with his cello...each was a bit unconventional but both played very well. Sofia's hornpipe sounded really nice with the pianist accompanying her.

After a recall due to a tie, Haley took 2nd in the Trick & Fancy. She played her favorite tune Mason's Apron with some added left hand pizzicato and extra fancy bowings blindfolded. Ha! There were people of all ages competing in that division with everything from fancy costumes to fancy tunes with lots of chopping. One girl hula hooped while playing, another boy fiddled with his fiddle upsidedown, and a teen boy played Czardas a little extra fancy.

We didn't find out about Haley's place in the Trick competition until this morning because we had to leave the competition to go to Sofia's benefit. They had put together a very nice concert with kids playing everything from Witch's Dance to Bach Sonatas to fiddle tunes. Sofia gave a little presentation on the charity she wished to donate to and the kids ate snacks and arm wrestled afterward.

Sunday we drove to NY for Haley's fiddle lesson then hung around so we could attend her teacher's Irish session at Mickey Spillanes Pub before driving home. It was a late night.

Hiding under the tent out of the rain.

Dyl at Mickey Spillanes Pub

Arm wrestling competition

Haley and Sofia enjoying snack.

Classical music...

2011-06-06T04:24:00.000-07:00

It seems like I am always writing about Haley's Irish music "adventures" and rarely her classical. She has many more opportunities to perform her Irish music. Yesterday her classical teacher held her end of year recital. Haley had been hoping to be able to play the Bach Concerto in E Major but her teacher asked her to revisit Meditation from Thais.

They spent the last month going over every note and phrase, every dynamic change, and every subtle nuance of bow control. I didn't know there could possibly be that much to discuss on one piece of music...Ha!

Here are the results of all their hard work...

After playing like that, we drove into the city so she could fiddle for another 4 hours at Pl*ugh and the St*rs. She had so much fun "playing" with her adult friends.

Summer Plans...

2011-06-03T03:44:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to figure out exactly what Haley will be doing for school through the summer. I don't like to let the kids' brains turn to mush so always have a few educational ideas for each to break up the down-time. A couple hours 2-3 days a week for school is about all I plan on.

The boys are now in public school but, even so, I plan for them to do a bit of math- Alg review for Newt since he spent the last year doing Geometry and will be doing Alg.2 in school next year and Pre-Alg review for Dylan. They will also have reading...summer reading for school and do some vocabulary building activities.

My plans with Haley include continuing through Saxon 76 and Thinkwell Pre-Alg. We used a number of supplements this year to slow her down so still have a little less than half the book to finish but she seems to be moving more quickly lately like some things have clicked. The other possibility, because Saxon teaches a concept then adds to it later, is that she already understands the adds to it later parts from learning it the easy way the first time...that whole parts to whole learning style she has going on.

She will also be reading and working on her Artists lapbook. She is doing a unit on poetry at the moment and is enjoying it so we'll continue. It is a warm up so she can do the Best Poems book we have that goes a little more indepth into poetry but we'll wait to start that in Sept.

We have finished most of our readings on Colonial America...yes, it took us the entire "school-year" to do American History up to the Revolutionary War. We did a lot of activities and extra readings and followed many "bunny trails." My plan is to not get into the Revolutionary War until Sept. but to finish up the Colonial Times lapbook we began.

We are also going a bit more indepth with the Human Body at Haley's insistence so will continue working on that for the summer.

Other than that, we have some arts and crafts projects in the works. She is going to have violin lessons only once a week for the summer, most weeks anyway. I think her teacher will let her do repertoire only for the summer as well which she always loves...none of those technique books to worry about. Fiddle lessons will continue to be regular to get ready for the All Ireland in August.

That's our summer....lots of swimming at Grammy and Poppop's pool, cousins coming to visit (including the new baby twins), Celtic music camp in July, and Ireland in August! I love summer!!!

Ceili

2011-05-29T16:38:00.000-07:00

The word "ceili" is Gaelic for "dance" and going to a ceili is one of the best parts about the kids playing Irish music. There is a monthly ceili in a shore town not too far from us and we try to attend as often as possible which means whenever we don't have anything else interferring.

The people there are very friendly and don't mind if you are not the best dancer in the world or are just trying to learn. They always welcome the kids and everyone dances with everyone else so no one feels left out. Haley and Dylan sometimes dance and sometimes play with the band. They always play during the rest periods for the dancers.

Last night we went to the May Ceili. The man who runs the dances...and calls them for those of us who are relative beginners...had some family there including his granddaughter who we'd met once before. She is almost 8yo and a good little Irish dancer. She and Haley hit it off whenever they see each other and being the only people their size tend to have a lot of fun dancing together. During breaks, Brenna and Francesca, the girl who dances for the kids at some of their gigs, danced to Haley and Dylan's playing.

I only had my small camera so just shot some pictures and this one little video which is really cute with the girls trying to learn a dance...

Here are some of the pics I took of the evening...

Haley and Brenna stop long enough to pose.

Dancing the Military Two Step with Ed.

Francesca, Haley, and Brenna

Haley and Brenna dancing.

Haley, Dylan, and Brenna ready to dance the Haymaker's Jig. (a favorite!)

The is the best I can do for a shot of Dylan...the rest have his hands on his face.

Who's Who?

2011-05-27T18:57:00.000-07:00

I frequently visit the Well Trained Mind message boards for inspiration, curriculum ideas, and to commiserate with fellow homeschooling mommies. One poster on the forums suggested linking our blogs in a blog hop, a sort of Who's Who for homeschooling, blogging moms....

On the left is Haley. She is my only child still homeschooling and I imagine with her lifestyle will homeschool until she heads to college or conservatory whichever she decides on. Haley is 8 years old...only one more month until she is 9! We tell people she'd be in 3rd grade if she were in school because it is way easier than explaining the different grades she is for each subject. Words I'd use to describe Haley...funny, intelligent, mature, talented, self motivated, and snuggley.

Haley's Favorites:
School subjects: Music, reading, and writing.
Color: Lime green
Book: "Out of My Mind" by Sharon Draper
Sport: Swimming
Activity: Playing violin and Irish fiddle...hanging out in Irish pubs with her adult, musician friends.
Movie: Old Yeller
Game: Life

Haley's brother, Newt, is in the middle. He entered public school last year and this year is a freshman in high school. He is 15 years old and will be 16 in November (Ahh! Driving permit on the horizon! This is fair warning to all drivers out there.) Words I'd use to describe Newt...determined, strong, a leader, hard worker, and sometimes goofy.

Newt's favorites:
School subject: Gym
Color: Yellow
Book: "The Outsiders" by S.E. Hinton
Sport: Wrestling (can you tell by the busted up nose in the photo?)
Activity: Wrestling and lifting weights/training for wrestling
Movie: "Ace Ventura"
Game: Candyland (Jokester, my son)

On the right is Dylan. Dylan went to school for the first time this year. He is in 7th grade. Dylan is 13 years old and will be 14 in October. Words I'd use to describe Dylan...creative, talented, sweet, laid back, and cool.

Dylan's favorites:
School subject: Science
Color: Blue
Book: "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules" (Not so sure if he was being serious)
Sport: Football
Activity: Playing guitar, banjo, or mandolin and trying out other new stringed instruments then asking me to purchase them.
Movie: ?
Game: Cranium

WHAT?

Haley uses a variety of curriculum. We follow the Well Trained Mind history and science rotations for the most part though we did take a detour this year and do American History which we will continue next year using Joy Hakim's History of US as a spine with some lapbooking and extra readings thrown in for fun.

Math is Saxon with some supplements like Hands on Equations and Thinkwell. For biology this year we used PLATO science as the spine with tons of additional books, a little dissection, and experiments.

For language arts we've also used a variety from MCT Grammer Town level to Classical Writing to Best Short Stories. Haley loves to write so she does so often on her own whether it is a report on some subject she is interested in to her own short stories. She uses Spelling Power for a few months a year but is a natural speller so it is mostly just to make Mommy feel better.

For foreign languages we use Rosetta Stone and Destinos. She did Hands On History lapbooks for music and still working on artists this year as well as geography using the books like Minn of the Mississippi that came with a study guide and maps.

WHERE?

Ha! Funny you should ask. As the title of my blog suggests, we do a lot of driving mostly to Haley's violin lessons, orchestra rehearsals, Irish pubs, and fiddle lessons. (The car we purchased in February has 10K miles just to give you an idea of what I mean by a lot.) Some of Haley's school work is done in the car. Some is done either at the computer in the living room (Thinkwell and PLATO) or laying on the floor in the music room/school room. The rest is done sitting in waiting areas while Newt has wrestling practice...this is Haley's best work environment. She tends to be a night owl, preferring to spend her days practicing her instrument or working on her writings.

WHEN?

Some of the when is above in the where section. Ideally we homeschool 4 days a week (they might not always be weekdays) from the end of August through June. We then cut back to 2-3 days a week through the summer concentrating on math, finishing up history and science, and doing fun things like art.

HOW?

I am eclectic homeschooler. My homeschool has looked different for each child. Haley is a very motivated kid and has definite ideas of what she wants to learn. I loosely follow a classical approach in that we cover a wide variety of topics to make her well rounded but we do it in an unschooling kind of way meaning I am more a mentor to her. I suggest curriculum, keep a wide variety of materials on hand, and help her along the way. We work on her schedule often just because we can...she's the only one home and it's just her and I. We've become more structured over the years but she's kind of led the way with that as well.

WHY?

I started homeschooling because Newt started reading right before his 4th birthday. He was a teacher's worst nightmare in preschool...running out of the room, climbing tables, and talking constantly. He was not a mean kid...he was a nightmare in the sweetest sense of the word (LOL)...he was just bored. He has a late birthday for school enrollment so would have had to spend another year in preschool or I could have put him in the expensive private school early for K (but it was way too expensive).

I had no idea what to do so I started reading and researching. I hit on the idea of homeschooling and figured we had a year to use as a trial so we started. It wasn't easy. I went to school, excelled, and loved school. I wasn't the kind of person who went against the grain so to speak. But we jumped in and never looked back.

We took it year by year because it just worked with our lifestyle. I figured I would give the kids a good solid foundation, not only academically but within their own selves so they would be better prepared to handle the pressures of growing up. When Newt hit 8th grade, we knew he'd have to enter school to wrestle in high school so we put him in a year early to learn the ropes. He was accelerated academically so, academically, school was not a challenge but he made the transition well and I had never planned on him graduating early anyway.

This past summer, Dylan asked to go to school so we let him. It was the best choice for him. He has never been my most motivated learner and tended to be difficult to get to work but now as a school student, he comes home after school, does his homework, and takes pride in his work and his grades. The peer pressure was actually a good thing for this one.

Haley practices her music a lot every day and she is very accelerated academically, moreso than Newt was. I can't see her ever "fitting" into a school environment or "fitting" school into her lifestyle. I have plans to continue with her indefinitely.

Cape May Music Festival 2011

2011-05-27T12:55:00.000-07:00

Last night Grammy, Poppop, Haley and I attended the first evening of the 2011 Cape May Music Festival in the beautiful shore town of Cape May. It is my favorite place shore town and we used to camp there every year before we began making yearly treks to Ireland. Haley's first fiddle teacher and her husband (McDermitt's H*ndy) opened the concert with some songs and tunes then the featured act Pride of N*w Y*rk, a group consisting of All Ireland winners Joannie Madden, Billy McComisky, Brendan Dolan, and Haley's fiddle teacher, Brian Conway took the stage.

Each member of the group is an amazing musician in their own right but putting them all together is magic. I was so happy to see the church packed full of people there to see them. They were gracious enough to allow Haley to come up on stage with them for some tunes. (She has this bad habit of stealing the show with her cuteness.) She played a couple reels on her own then Brian surprised her by adding a few more and joining her. I love the parts of the tunes they play together with their bows moving in stereo.

At the end of her tunes, Haley received a standing ovation right in the middle of the concert.

Taylor guitars

2011-05-27T12:43:00.000-07:00

When the owner of the music store where Dylan has been taking guitar lessons for the past 5 years and where we purchased his Taylor guitar heard Dylan qualified to compete in the All Ireland on his Taylor, he asked Dylan and the rest of the Towheads to make an appearance at his other store for a Taylor guitar event.

You can't tell from this photo but Dylan is extremely excited to be there. The kids opened the show...with Dylan turned up a little louder than usual to showcase his talents then also played again at the intermission/petting zoo time.

The event was very informative. The dealer talked about the different guitar body styles and tone woods used and another man demonstrated on each guitar the differences body style and tone wood makes. He also had a guitar cut open so the inside could be seen and talked about the electronic components.

At the end of the demonstrations and lectures, they did a drawing. Everyone's name went into a hat...for us that was 7 people with our family and Grammy and Poppop there. Some people hadn't made it through the two hour demonstration so that meant everyone left received a prize.

Since none of the rest of us play guitar, Dylan came home with a T-shirt, 3 sets of guitar strings, a couple packages of picks, and some Taylor guitar stickers. He was one happy boy!

Orchestra and more Irish Music...

2011-05-27T12:34:00.000-07:00

Haley's second orchestra PR*SM had it's concert last weekend. All I can say is "Wow!" I wish I could post the videos I took because they were absolutely amazing...but I won't in the interest of other people's privacy.

After the January concert, the conductor asked a few of the orchestra members what they thought of the music they had just performed. He received replies along the lines of "easy" and "no problem" which kinda got his dander up so when he chose pieces for this spring concert, he made sure to pick selections that would challenge the best of them.

The pieces consisted of a Handel piece for the side-by-side with PR*SM Young Artists (what Haley refers to as "the younger kid orchesta...um...they are all her age or older), Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings," three movements of Felix Mendelssohn's "Sinfonie in D," and three movements of Antoin Dvorak's "Serenade in E." For the Mendelssohn and Dvorak, I am not talking about versions of the pieces adapted for young orchestra's but the actual works written by these great composers.

When Haley first received her music and I looked at all those notes on the pages, I thought Chinese might have made more sense to me. I didn't see how Haley could ever learn it. The music seemed more difficult than any she had ever learned before. But she rose to the challenge and with some help from her teacher and her practice partner, she learned it and as the mother of the concertmaster noticed, memorized it.

What an amazing experience for her to be able to learn and play such beautiful orchestral music! Listening to the concert brought tears to my eyes.

Back in the fall, I wasn't so sure about this orchestra. The conductor wasn't a "Suzuki-friendly," touchy-feely kind of man. He expected the best from the students every rehearsal and they worked hard for him. He picked difficult pieces and never simplified the fingerings or bowings because they were kids but challenged them to play at a higher level. The sectional rehearsals were demanding and Haley was exhausted every Friday night following 2 hours of intense rehearsals. Some kids might balk at challenge like that but I think all those things made Haley love it even more. I can definitely say she is a better reader and a better player because of the experience. On top of it all, she made some wonderful friends whom she emails and texts (from my phone or iPod now and then).

We are looking forward to a few months of less driving and a different focus to daily practice without two orchestras worth of music to work on but Haley is ready to go right back to it come next fall. Not so sure about the "two orchestras" part but we are keeping our options open.

Milestones...

2011-05-18T04:56:00.000-07:00

When our children are babies, we measure their progress in milestones...sitting, crawling, eating solid food, walking, talking, etc... In my work in Early Intervention everything is based on milestones. People write books that parents read then add to their worry about milestones and development in babies and toddlers. As the children get older there are still some big milestones like first day of school (or homeschool), first lost tooth, first day starting an instrument, concerts, etc... but the milestones for each child become more individualized to that child and family. Every child has different interests and often the milestones are more abstract or there is no set time when they should happen. In Suzuki violin, there is a set repertoire so each piece or book can be thought of as a milestone but as you move out of the Suzuki repertoire, it is more difficult to "see" where they are going or where they have been.

Those big milestones are exciting and fun to document in pictures and blog posts but sometimes what I like best are the little "milestones," those things others would never notice or pay attention to or that we might take for granted if we didn't think about them. In our house some of these include...

-the first time I realized Newt had outgrown his teen angst stage and was no longer such a pain
-when Newt gained the maturity to work daily to improve his wrestling
-when Dylan began to take ownership of his guitar playing and started really enjoying it and practicing without me telling him to
-when Dylan began to really "hear" what chords he needed to play without anyone telling him
-when Dylan began improvising and adding his own touch to his tune accompaniment
-when Haley was able to practice a bit on her own
-when she became more careful in how she practiced so rather than just playing through pieces, she was picking out small bits to perfect before moving on
-when Haley sat and watched a Pre-Algebra lecture on computer, stopping it and taking notes then doing the problems without help from me

These are still rather big things but sometimes there are smaller "milestones," things I almost miss when they happen and don't realize until later they have been passed like Haley fixing some small detail in her technique, Dylan learning and adding new chords to his repertoire, or Newt incorporating a new move into his live wrestling. Sometimes with Haley's violin playing I don't realize until I haven't mentioned a certain detail in the past few practices that it is even fixed and could almost just forget it was an issue. The other small things are like that and I might look back a few months later and think..."Wow! Isn't it neat how he/she can do that now!"

I don't want to miss anything in my kids' lives. I want them to know that I do notice when things change for them. It's part of the reason I like to blog.

Recent events...

2011-05-15T05:23:00.000-07:00

We've had lots going on the past week so I thought I'd do a little photo montage to summarize. Haley's Temple Prep orchestra had its Spring festival last Saturday. It was held in a beautiful church in the city near R*ttenhouse Square. The kids played wonderfully. I am always amazed at what they are able to accomplish working one hour a week for 3 months. So the first couple pictures are the before the concert pics.

Haley and Dylan

Haley and Tinks

Temple Classic Strings

Haley with her conductor...the nicest man ever!

Since we were right there at R*ittenhouse Square for the concert, the kids decided they'd like to do a little busking. They have been working to raise money for their trip to Ireland and it seemed like the perfect spot. They drew a nice crowd and did very well. The little children were adorable. There were some who went right up to their instruments looking like they were trying to figure out how they worked, others danced, and some didn't want to leave when their parents were ready.

She looks like she is more interested in the tip jar but I just missed her standing inches from Dylan's guitar fascinated with him playing.

Playing for the dancers

Last Sunday, the kids played down in Atl*ntic City at Trinity Pub. What a neat pub and great food! They played a couple 45 min. sets, ate some lunch in between, and had a lot of fun. Their new friend, Francesca came and danced for them. I know, Dylan doesn't look like he's having "a lot of fun." I think he has to have his serious face on to play as good as he does.

Haley fiddling

Francesca dancing

Newt at the beat box

Yesterday, the kids were the musical entertainment for V*neland's Founders Day celebration. The morning was very overcast but the rain held off until after the kids' set though they did play in a bit of drizzle with Mommy and Daddy holding umbrellas to protect their instruments while the May Pole dance was done.

Getting ready to dance around the May Pole.

A concert, a lesson, American Girls, and a session...

2011-05-03T19:04:00.000-07:00

AG luncheon

Haley and I had a wonderful girly weekend while the boys were divided and conquered (ha, ha) amongst Poppop and Daddy doing boys things like wrestling tournaments and crabbing.

I had driven Haley up to the NJ Folk Arts Festival to join the Next Gen kids in their performances. We were planning to drive back to Philly for the last Temple orchestra rehearsal before continuing on with our weekend but she wasn't feeling her best by early afternoon (she has been getting headaches now and then sometimes with an upset stomach...maybe a migraine but they seem to go away with Advil but just in case...so as not to expose other kids to anything so close to the concert we skipped rehearsal) so instead we drove straight up to New York, our next planned stop.

Busking musicians

We had planned an overnight with Haley's fiddle teacher so she could have an early morning lesson then we could meet her friend, Sofia, for a trip into the city to visit the American Girl store. Her fiddle teacher had a concert scheduled for Saturday night with his group Pr*de of New York so we went to the concert with him. They allowed Haley on the stage during the 2nd half of the concert to do a set on her own then a set with her teacher. She received a standing ovation from the crowd. I always think adults must be a bit brave to allow a child on stage with them. I told her teacher he could at least take credit for her skills unlike the other band members who do it because they are just really nice and like to see the tradition living on in the next generation.

Haley took an early lesson in the morning then we met Sofia, her mom, and baby sister to take the subway into the city. It was an absolutely perfect day, weather wise, and we had a wonderful time. The girls rode their scooters around the city rather than walk so they didn't get tired from all the walking. They did their American Girl shopping (actually had a personal shopping assistant check them out while we sat on cushy couches), had lunch in the cafe, then we walked near Central Park where the girls busked for a few minutes before we headed back to the subway.

After the NYC trip, Haley and I headed back to her teacher's Irish session so she could play for a bit before we headed home.

Words of warning...or if your child wants to keep a bunny...

2011-04-27T11:10:00.000-07:00

If your son finds a tiny baby rabbit in the yard while mowing, your husband will let him bring it inside rather than leaving it alone.

Once inside the house baby bunny is so cute and little and likes snuggling up with your puppy so you let the kids put it in a box filled with soft cloths and tell them they can put it back outside in the morning.

Once inside the box the bunny looks so little that your son does not think he needs to take precautions like putting a lid on the box and closing his bedroom door.

Since the lid is not on the box and the bedroom door is not closed, when you wake up in the morning and look into the box, you find it empty except for all those soft cloths.

Since the cloths are all that is in the box and the bedroom door is open and you have absolutely no idea how long said bunny has been wandering in the house, you have no idea where to even begin looking.

Since you have no idea where to start looking, you figure upstairs would be the likeliest choice so you grab a flashlight and begin tearing apart each upstairs bedroom looking under every piece of furniture and moving every item on the floor.

Because the baby bunny is nowhere to be found upstairs, you take you flashlight downstairs and start moving things around and looking under furniture there.

Looking under furniture, you just might find a tiny little bunny in the music/school room cuddled against a stuffed animal that was stuffed in a corner under a bookshelf.

Once you find the bunny and because it is still early in the morning, you send your son outside with the bunny and release it back into the wild where it belongs.

Practice partners...

2011-04-27T06:35:00.000-07:00

For the past few days whenever Haley practices her "Melodious Double Stops" technique exercises, Tinks starts to howl. We think it's the cutest thing and have been trying to catch her on video but since Tinks is afraid of the video camera and runs when she sees it, I had to be really sneaky to catch her. We can't tell if she just really hates it or is trying to help with the music. Haley thinks it must be the first option because she doesn't like it very much either.

Photography

2011-04-26T09:08:00.000-07:00

Dylan has a new interest in photography. I had purchased a small digital camera for myself for Christmas so I let him use my nice SLR digital camera. He has taken quite a few of the pictures on my blog recently.

I really like this one. The moon looked so neat a few nights ago...full, low, and orange with clouds covering it.

Easter 2011

2011-04-26T09:05:00.000-07:00

We had a nice quiet family day for Easter. The whole family went to church...a rare event because we so rarely get Daddy into a church.

On the drive to church, as we passed a Catholic church close to our house, Dylan asked why we didn't just go to that church since it was closer. Haley's response, "It's a Catholic Church. You don't want to go there. You have to tell the priest everything you do wrong then he smites you."

It took me quite a while to stop laughing. I mean, who uses that word? I did explain to Haley about confession to clear up any misunderstanding she had.

After church Haley hunted Easter eggs at Poppop's house then we went home and Haley and Dylan decorated eggs. They made some really funny eggs!

I spent the rest of the afternoon cooking and listening to Haley practice while Dylan and Newt helped Daddy and Poppop in their respective gardens.

We had a steak dinner on the grill and homemade apple pie. Not our usual Easter fare but it was a beautiful day and I hadn't had anything on the grill since early fall. Poppop ate with us then we spent the evening reading books and watching a movie.

Palm Sunday Ceili

2011-04-19T05:44:00.000-07:00

Haley helping out her buddy, Olivia with tuning.

Sunday we attended the Palm Sunday Ceili which is a fundraising event for a local urban scholarship fund. How's that for overgeneralization?

The kids' group Next Generation played during the intermission and Haley and Dylan had fun dancing and playing with friends the rest of the time. (All these photos are of Haley because Dylan requested that I not post any of the photos I took of him.) He made faces or hid his face during most of them anyway. (Ugh! Teenage boys!) Dylan brought along a female friend and introduced her to Irish music and dance. Haley had fun playing with her friends, Emily and Olivia, and also had her dance card filled. She has dancing buddies at every ceili.

Haley and friends playing. I should have fixed the evil eyes.

Haley, Emily, and Olivia.

Dancin'!

Clap, clap!

Bet those adults loved having to duck under Haley and Ed's arms!

Spring Is Here!

2011-04-19T05:26:00.000-07:00

The salad is coming up. (Salad bits are smaller than they appear.)

Strawberries are flowering.

Here come the potatoes. Pop!

Apple trees are in bloom!

Mommy blue bird keeping watch over her 3 eggs.

Tinks enjoying the sunny day!

Doesn't she look cute with a flower in her fur?

"Take a picture of me like this!"

Warm enough to do school outside! I love homeschooling!

"Play" dates...

2011-04-17T04:46:00.000-07:00

Fergies session...Dylan covering his face.

Haley may be 8yo but don't tell her that and don't tell her she's smaller than everyone else.

This is the child who, when at 5yo or 6yo fiddling with a group of adults at a session, never wanted to have a chair where her feet might reach the floor because "then everyone will know I am little." (Uh, what??!! Like they can't see that anyway??) Her feet are still swinging but if she sits on the edge of a chair and points her toes, they now reach the floor.

Haley has fun whether she is playing toys with friends or adults at an Irish session. It is all the same to her.

Yesterday, she wanted to go to an Irish session near her orchestra rehearsal but she really wanted one of her favorite fellow fiddlers, Paraic, to come. He only shows up at this session occasionally. It isn't a given that if we go he'll be there. So, she texted him to see if he could "come out and play with (her)."

He texted back a few minutes later saying he'd be there then came out in the pouring rain to play with Haley. I know I've said it before but I just love Irish musicians. They are some of the nicest people ever!

Spring?!

2011-04-12T05:05:00.000-07:00

I don't know what it is about warm weather that makes me have so much more energy. Haley and I were so happy it was almost 80 degrees yesterday.

Last week, I started getting up early in the morning to run with my boys. I have to tell you that 5:45am comes very quickly when you are really tired but I make myself get up, go run, and feel better afterward. I am shooting for 3-4 days a week and need to build my endurance back up after a winter of no exercise.

We are back into our routine of Mondays and Tuesdays at home for the most part. We cram in a lot of schoolwork and a lot of practicing.

Schoolwork for yesterday included....
-two lessons in Saxon 78
-a lesson in PLATO Biology on Genetic Engineering complete with test
-pre-reading for a lesson in Best Short Stories with writing assignment
-reading two chapters in History of US (we are almost to the Revolutionary War after spending all year on Colonial Times...there is just so much cool stuff to do)
-started a project for Artists lapbook
-coloring in history coloring books
-reading for book club...currently "Out of My Mind"

Practicing included...
-Orchestra...They got two new pieces to learn for PRYSM. Not very difficult pieces...one for the side-by-side with PRYSM-Young Artists. She worked on the new pieces and practiced half of her already learned pieces for both orchestras.

-Fiddling... She has two new tunes this week, a reel and a slipjig, plus part of the reel she is learning for All Ireland. She's heard all three tunes so can already play them (shhhh! don't tell Brian...he wants to teach her the Ireland reel himself) and is just working on bowings and phrasings. She went back and played some of her older tunes for review.

-classical music...scales and arpeggios, shifting exercises, double stop exercises and current pieces in progress. "Meditation from Thais" and Bach E Major Concerto. Thais is in practice mode and she is learning the Bach bit by bit trying to perfect each bit before moving on. She has a little over a page to learn in the Bach then the last couple pages are repeat of what she already knows.

We had Poppop over for a nice chicken cacciatore dinner. Delicious!

Then we took Newt to wrestling practice. Newt had a great weekend wrestling. He took 2nd in the MAWA regional tournament so will wrestle in the national tournament in three weeks. Haley and Dylan had a fun Sunday playing Irish music with Next Generation then spending the evening playing at Pl*ugh and the St*rs. I didn't think they'd ever want to leave. They played and had fun from 5-9pm and were still going strong. I finished an entire book while sitting listening to them.

Fleadh 2011

2011-04-03T14:39:00.000-07:00

Meet the 3X MidAtlantic Regional Fleadh under 12 solo fiddle champion! Haley placed 1st for the 3rd year in a row. She gets to return this huge trophy to its spot on her shelf for another year. Her name will be the only one on it for the third time and she still has 3 more years in this age group.

She performed beautifully. Her teacher said, "Perfect!" She definitely blossoms under pressure.

Here is her brother, Dylan, who placed 2nd in his first ever Fleadh in the under 15 Accompaniment competition. He plays guitar but was the only guitarist competing against mostly pianists and a couple harpers.

Both kids qualified for the All Ireland so we get to travel back to Cavan, Ireland for the Fleadh in August!

Haley played for Dylan in his competition and together they are magic. One of the judge's comments, besides the glowing comments about maturity of chord use, chord progressions, and rhythm, was his ability to get along with his fiddler. (He should come to our house and see how "well" they get along. LOL)

Haley was asked to play on the festival stage later in the afternoon before the presentation of trophies. As soon as Dylan came down from the hotel room, she called him up, introduced him to the crowd, and they played a couple sets together.

For the past few years, the competition has been held in a school with competitors staying in various area hotels. This year, the festival was held in a hotel which was much better and more festive. There were sessions and ceilis (dances). The kids swam together and played music well into the nights. It was wonderful to see all these kids who compete or have competed against each other making friends, playing music, and hanging out. Even if my kids didn't place, it would have been a great musical weekend.

Haley and Dylan on stage.

Playing session style with friends.

Friday night kids' session

The One Who Started It All...

2011-04-01T04:06:00.000-07:00

This man is the reason my daughter is fiddling. When Haley was 4yo, we were in the library one day and I happened to notice a poster on the events board advertising a local concert with Kevin Burke and Cal Scott. I thought it would be nice to introduce Haley to a different kind of "violin" music and for her to hear live music.

We went to the concert and sat in the very front row. She was enthralled...sitting in rapt attention, tapping her feet, clapping her hands. At the intermission, we walked over to the table where there were CDs and a How to Play Celtic Fiddle DVD. She begged me to buy that DVD. The lady selling the items told her it was something for older people but I bought it anyway. We also bought a CD and we listened to it all the way home.

The next day, I put the DVD on, handed Haley her fiddle, and went to catch up on email. She came in a few minutes later playing a tune. The next day I did the same thing and she learned another tune.

A couple weeks later we were attending a Suzuki Institute and one day Haley and I were the first in the room for masterclass so she was fooling around with her fiddle tunes. A mother and daughter walked in and the little girl said she knew the tune so she and Haley began playing it together. The mother told me that her daughter's Suzuki teacher does fiddling with her group class once a month. That sparked the idea to find Haley a fiddle teacher.

When we got home, I found the local Irish society on the internet and someone gave me the name of a local fiddle teacher...it happened to be the lady selling the CDs and DVDs that night at the concert. She wasn't sure about starting a child so young but after we met her and she heard Haley playing her Kevin Burke tunes, all her doubts were resolved and she taught Haley until about a year ago. She is also one of the leaders for the Next Generation kids Irish session so we still see her fairly regularly.

We attend every concert within driving distance if Kevin is playing...actually any live concert we are able to get to no matter who's playing. Haley learned every tune on his CDs and on youtube videos, she emails him now and then and we also attended a summer Celtic music camp so she could have workshops with him. This week he and his guitarist (also a songwriter/composer whose music I could listen to all day), Cal Scott, gave workshops Wednesday and a concert Thursday with a local string quartet so they could perform their Irish Session Suite. It was lovely to hear it live...so much different than a CD.

At the workshop, Kevin told Haley he "hates" to have her in his workshops because she knows all his tunes and he always teaches something she knows already especially this time because there were a number of people there who'd never played Irish music and it had to be something fairly easy to grasp. At the end of the workshop when someone asked him to play something he had written he asked Haley to play Across the Black River with him and she was thrilled.

Cal had only two adult guitarists and Dylan in his class. He said Dylan helped him teach the class and was very positive about the advances in Dylan's playing in the part year. He went to dinner with us and a couple other families and sat next to Dylan talking guitar. Haley had a blast playing with the other kids who will all be going to the Fleadh this weekend and are now fast friends.

Look How Much She's Grown...

2011-03-29T18:07:00.000-07:00

Haley came down from her bedroom a couple minutes ago proclaiming that something horrible had happened to her fiddle. Now we've had horrible things happen to fiddles at times like a broken bridge, unravelling strings, etc...at times when it has been extremely inconvenient to drive into the city for a fix so she did have me going...until I looked at her. She was carrying her first fiddle, a tiny 1/16 or 1/32 size violin (we aren't exactly sure of the size because we bought it as a 1/16 but when trading up to the next size at a different luthier found out it was an entire inch smaller than any 1/16 fiddle he had so she ended up going from this fiddle to "another" 1/16 size) and telling me her fiddle shrunk. She found it in the top of her closet though I am sure Dylan helped her get it out. I couldn't bear to get rid of it. Notice the blue moleskin on the chin rest with padding underneath to make it more comfortable for her "sensitive" self and the finger tapes. Her tiny bow still has moleskin attach as a "pillow" for her pinky and another bit for her thumb.

We thought it would be fun to see how much bigger her current 1/2 size fiddle is so we put the two together and discovered that her first fiddle is the size of the body of her current fiddle.

Fiddle, fiddle, and, oh yeah,...more fiddle.

2011-03-29T17:39:00.000-07:00

It seems like every post lately has been about fiddling. Actually all we've done lately has revolved around Irish music but I think that is mostly due to the fact that it is March...the busiest month on the Irish calendar.

This past week Haley and I attended two different concerts featuring fiddle/accordian duos. The first duo was Oisin MacDiarmada and Seamus Begley playing at the home of Haley's first fiddle teacher. It was a lovely concert playing a nice variety of music with some very funny stories and jokes thrown in by Seamus for good measure.

Haley was asked to play for them during the 2nd half of the concert. I hadn't taken her fiddle with us...note to self to keep it handy from now on. So, Oisin offered her his full size fiddle but when she realized it was tuned in E flat (to match the E flat accordian tuning) her teacher went and got her fiddle (also full size) for Haley. Haley played a couple tunes then they asked her to play with Seamus so she played Oisin's full size fiddle tuned to E flat and played a tune she'd only just learned. (Not quite sure how she does that...hmmm!) Granted her intonation would have been better on her own fiddle where her fingers would have been able to reach and her left arm wouldn't have been completely straight. LOL
Saturday, Haley opened for the other duo...Matt Cranitch and Jackie Daly in North Jersey. They mostly played polkas and slides because they are from Sliabh Luachra area of Ireland where those types of tunes are played. It was also a very nice concert followed by a well attended session. We were out very late and spent the night with a friend before going to Haley's fiddle lesson in NY the next morning bright and early.

Sunday, Haley had an early morning lesson (well, 10am but we were 1.5 hours away so had to get up early to drive). After the lesson we went to the nicest mall we know to look around then drove to Cornwall, NY for Haley to join her fiddle teacher, Brian Conway, and a number of his students in a library concert. From the concert, we went to her fiddle teacher's session where Haley played for another couple hours before we made the long drive home.

Haley spent a lot of time fiddling this weekend and a lot of time in the car. Much of the car time was spent practicing her classical and orchestra music with her music propped up on the open glove compartment. I am not so sure she'll be able to do that when she moves up to a full size fiddle.
We have another very fiddle filled week this week and weekend then things should slow down a bit.

PT Mom

2011-03-24T16:56:00.000-07:00

A few people have asked me what the "PT" means in my blog name. A couple asked if it meant "part-time." LOL Not quite sure how one can be a part-time mom unless you are a stepmother or something. Anyway, that is not it.

The PT means physical therapist. I work once a week as a physical therapist for developmentally delayed kids 0-3 years old. I love my job, though I miss doing the homeschooling on that day. I meet many interesting families and love the kids I see. I get to set my own schedule, make a bit of money, and help families. I love watching the kids I see develop their skills. It never ceases to amaze me when a little one takes their first steps. Whether they are 9 months or 33 months old...I still cry in happiness right along with their parents.

My job also has it's share of sadness...kids in sad situations or with heart-breaking diagnoses. I always remind myself that I am there helping the family deal with whatever they are going through and it makes those times more bearable.

Fiddling with friends...

2011-03-21T05:25:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the kids did their last St. Patrick's Day gig at a nursing home's St. Patrick's Party. They have done it for the past 3 years. Until this year, Haley's violin teacher had a once a month concert there that we called Fridays at Four. The name kinda describes when the concert took place. Anyway, Haley has missed seeing the people there and was happy to go back yesterday to play for them.

After the concert, we went to Con Murphy's Pub for Haley and Dyl to join their buddy Paraic for his last weekly gig there. She always tells Paraic he looks like Winnie the Pooh so she wrapped up a scarf she had with Pooh on it and gave it to him.

Take my picture up there!

I love the view from up here!

St. Patrick's Day...

2011-03-21T05:15:00.000-07:00

Ha! All their faces look suspicious of that flash!

The kids had a busy St. Patrick's Day evening and even had to turn down a couple gigs because they were already booked.

They started the evening right after the boys got home from school. We went over to a local restaurant owned by Newt's orthodontist, set up the sound equipment and they played a short set for the few people already eating. One couple said they'd seen the kids perform on Sunday and came especially to hear them again.

We left the sound equipment and drove to the next town over for them to play for a group of elderly (and some not so elderly) people who meet in the basement of a church for a covered dish dinner and fun together. My husband's and my high school Spanish teacher was there. We really enjoyed seeing her and getting caught up on the years. She was one of our favorite teachers. We enjoyed dinner with the group then the kids played a set for them.

Then it was back to the restaurant for another short set. The bar area was completely full by this time and loud. They did stop and listen a bit and when they finished, the kids met the owner's girls. Haley and his 8yo daughter immediately made friends and went off to the kitchen area to make their own pizzas. We took Haley's pizza home and shared it for an evening snack before bed. Yum!

Decisions...

2011-03-21T05:02:00.000-07:00

Last week, Haley's violin teacher gave her her choice of which piece to work on next. She recently started Meditation from Thais and though she wasn't initially thrilled...since it is a slow piece and all, she has learned to like it. Watching a youtube video of Sarah Chang playing it beautifully helped a lot.

Anyway, Haley's teacher told her to go home and listen to the Bach Concerto in A Minor (the middle piece in Book 7) which she already knew and has been listening to and messing around with for about 6 months off and on since hearing a young girl play it in a masterclass and Bach Concerto in E Major. Her teacher said both are at about the same level technique-wise so she didn't care which Haley chose.

I could have placed money on the A Minor because she has been dying to learn it for so long and her teacher has been using it as a carrot for doing some not so fun technique work.

So, we went home and listened to the E Major. She thought it sounded happy and started fooling around with it almost immediately. Though she wants to learn both and hated having to decide, the E Major sparked her interest and she decided it was the winner.

That meant we had to order the sheet music. When the music arrived, Haley was even more excited to have actual "big kid" sheet music rather than music photocopied for her or out of a book like all her other pieces have been. An added benefit! Ha!

Playing with the Chieftains*...

2011-03-16T05:29:00.000-07:00

Haley with Paddy

On Tuesday I got an email message for a fiddling friend in Philly, Paraic (whose father used to fiddle for the band but has since decided to spend more time in Ireland), asking if Haley would like to play with the Chieftains*. She was reading over my shoulder because we thought the message was about a gig Paraic does that he often invited Haley to sit in on. Her response was a squeal of delight!

Last night was an incredible experience for her. We didn't have too much information going in...be there at 5pm (concert at 8pm) and ask to see Paddy who will be expecting you. So, we walked in a door people seemed to be coming and going from and told a woman we were expected. She asked us to wait a few minutes then came back and asked, "Are you Haley?"

She took us into the house where we saw Haley's friends, Jayne and her brother Bram waiting. (Both are students of the same fiddle teacher and we've spent lots of time with them on our different trips to Ireland. They have played with the band over the years so were able to teach us the ropes.) We waited a bit then watched the sound check. I was able to get a few pictures then because I wouldn't be able to during the show. Unfortunately I couldn't get any actual pictures of Haley on stage that way. After the sound check, Haley and I followed the band backstage.

Chieftains* sound check

Sound check with band and pipers

We introduced ourselves to the tour manager, got the ticket situation taken care of for the boys, Daddy, and Poppop, then Jayne found the guitarist who came and went over what the girls would be playing for a solo and his accompaniment to it. A little later, Jon Pilatzke*, one of the fiddlers (and also an amazing dancer) came in and asked what they would be playing. Jayne went over what she was doing then Haley said, "Dr. Gilberts" and he looked a little shocked then, jokingly, said, "Oh, only that easy tune."

Learning a tune with Jon and Jeff

She played it for him and he mentioned something about being out of a job soon then asked how old she is and who her teacher is. He went over when and how the grand finale would go. Everyone would play a tune over and over but between times through the tune, different people would play their own solo...whatever they wanted. Haley didn't know the tune they would be playing together so he played it for her then told her she could just play notes around G but she picked up her fiddle and played it back to him, shocking him a bit. The kids then had some time to eat a little. There was a large spread of food. We met Paddy Moloney* and took some pictures. He was a bit excited to finally have to bend down to have his picture taken with someone.

It was close to show time so Haley and I went out to find the men and take our seats to watch the first half of the show. The band plays such a variety of music with singing and dancing. It is really a wonderful show. I was so impressed with the harpist's solo...it was absolutely amazing. The female fiddler, a bluegrass player, also played a fabulous bluegrass solo.

During intermission, we made our way backstage. Haley felt important knowing the code to get backstage. I had written it down but, of course, she remembered it and was keen to punch it in. We gathered up her fiddle and headed up the spiralling metal stairs to the stage area. From there we watched...during the second half they had guest dancers and a pipe and drum corp join them. The band dancers and the fiddling dancer did an amazing dance sitting on chairs where their feet moved so fast and in perfect time.

When it came time for the grand finale, Paddy introduced Haley then Jayne and Bram onto the stage as a special treat. Haley stood next to Paddy with Jayne next to her. Bram sat a little behind them to play his bodhran in the seat Paddy had used to play his uilleann pipes. They began playing the main tune and taking turns doing solos. As band members played solos, the other members would pretend to yawn if they went too long or do other silly things. The fiddler placed his mic on Haley for her turn. She played a great Dr.Gilberts. Most of the band hadn't heard her play before. The fiddlers both pretended to slam their fiddles on the ground and walk off stage. The crowd roared when she finished. They loved Bram's dancing as well. He's so cute!

Everyone briefly left the stage and a number of them congratulated Haley on her playing. They all went back on to play the An Droh, a tune Haley loves to play, for the snake dance...the pipe band joined them and all the dancers danced the snake dance through the crowd picking up audience members to join in. That was the end of the show.

Haley, Jayne, and Bram with Paddy

We had to go backstage afterward to get our things. We thanked Paddy and the tour manager for having her. Paddy invited her to play with them whenever she'd like.

Celtic Celebration...

2011-03-13T18:39:00.000-07:00

Last spring the kids were booked by Down Jersey Jim for his Celtic Celebration. It seemed like it would be forever until today arrived but time flies.

The kids were the "headliners" of the show performing right after the intermission. Whenever I question whether or not I am making the right choices for my kids, I only have to see them on stage to know that is where they seem to belong.

For Haley... the bigger the audience, the better. She talks to them, makes up little comments on the fly, and plays her little heart out. Newt got the audience clapping along and his version of Galway Girl was a hit.

Dylan during sound check.

Dylan was wonderful in his choice of chords to back Haley. All three of them play better in front of a crowd than anywhere. Today they were so "on" that I sat in the audience with tears in my eyes thinking, "Wow! Those are MY kids!" They were incredible!

The audience loved them. They spent about a half hour after the show signing autographs on their CDs or programs and having their pictures taken with other kids.

I still find this whole situation a bit surreal.

Newt waiting for sound check.

Always questions but no answers...

2011-03-11T05:10:00.000-08:00

Being a parent is difficult. Having a child with a talent (or children with different talents) just adds an entirely different dimension and completely different concerns to those the majority of parents have. I am constantly questioning...

How to allow my child to still be a child but at the same time give her opportunities to explore her gifts?

How much to allow her to perform and which venues are best?

Which people in our lives are good for her and which do I need to steer clear of?

How do I keep her mentally healthy...not allow her to think too highly of herself and become a monster child but at the same time keep her confidence high? I love who she is, that blend of confident and sweet, and don't want her to change.

Then there are the other members of the family and their needs to consider. Life cannot be only about the one child getting all the attention at the moment.

Sometimes my insides feel like they will explode thinking about it all. Every decision I make has a consequence. It seems like every opportunity Haley has leads to another opportunity like a snowball on a huge hill rolling down getting bigger and bigger. Thank goodness for those times when we hop off and things are status quo for a bit.

The good thing about most of the opportunities lately is that they involve all the kids playing together so it is more a family thing. I feel better about that.

We are very lucky/blessed to have wonderful people in our lives...Haley's teachers, friends, and others we have met in the music world who seem to have all my kids' best interest at heart.

Haley's violin teacher said some very wise words to her the other day when we were discussing opportunities. I'll paraphrase a bit... they are wonderful, exciting, and great at the moment and the anticipation before but don't think of them as turning points or let them change who you are as a person. If people comment about you or your playing saying you are "great" or "amazing", you are still the same person and the same musician with the same talents and challenges. Those comments don't make you any better. The same if they don't notice you or pick you to win a competition or chose you in an audition...you are still the same person and the same musician. It does not make you less in any way. (Don't know if Haley understood the significance of those words but hopefully they will be in her head.)

There have been a few people along the way who have promised things we weren't ready for or tried to get involved when we didn't think it best but those instances have been rare so far. I am not a "good" stage mom...not good at promotion but I am a pretty good judge of character and tend to be more suspicious than not in most situations.

Things are a bit crazy right now so I am questioning and worrying more than usual. Haley and the boys have a number of different opportunities and possibilities coming in the next month...March is a big month for Irish musicians.

I don't know the answers to my own questions so we are just taking it one day at a time, one decision at a time. Hopefully I will make the best ones for my family.

Homeschooling

2011-03-07T18:42:00.000-08:00

We had another busy weekend. March is a very busy month for Irish musicians. After orchestra rehearsals Friday night and Saturday afternoon, we travelled to North Jersey for a Hooley at the IAANJ. Haley enjoyed joining the musicians, singing songs, and eating treats.

Ceili band

The full band playing for dancers

She's not angry...just thought this would be a cool picture.

We spent the night with a friend then drove to NY for Sunday afternoon fiddle lesson followed by a library concert with Brian, then the evening at his session. Haley really enjoyed the session because her homeschooling, viola playing friend from CT, Sofia and her family were in the city and joined us. Haley loves spending time with Sofia. The girls sat and played with session. Poor Sofia had to try and keep up on her viola, shifting up crazy high to make up for her non-existent E string. She did a great job!

Sofia and Haley

We had a scary ride home in pouring down rain through the city with flooded roads. We made it home safely but very late. Today between violin, fiddle, and orchestra practices, we finished up the last three geography lessons using Paddle to the Sea. We got the program and books as a hand-me-down from Haley's violin teacher who was also a homeschooler. They had used the map to Paddle so we did our best making our own.

Haley was inspired when learning about Niagara Falls so she decided she'd like to try painting her version of the Falls. This is the result of her work.

We finished the day with some reading, a spelling lesson in which we finished up Level H of Spelling Power, and she worked on writing her part of the story project her book club is currently working on.

Our other project for this week is to keep track of her practicing. One of the orchestras issued a challenge to the kids part as a fundraiser and part to get them to practice the new, difficult material. They keep track of how much time they practice the orchestra material then get sponsors for whatever amount each minute or hour. Since we have to do that, Haley and I decided to keep track of all her practicing this week. Her violin teacher promised her a prize if she practices more than 3 hours a day. I am curious how much she really does practice each day since people are always asking and I end up guesstimating an answer. I'll post the results this weekend.

Fiddling Fun!

2011-02-28T16:39:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a long day but a lot of fun. Haley's fiddle teacher, Brian Conway, asked her to play a couple sets with him at a library concert. So we drove up early to meet him at the library for a lesson. Then she and a couple of his other students played during his concert. Brian played a great concert with a variety of tune sets and gave a bit of history about Irish music along with information about the different tunes he played. Haley's solo set is in the video above. Brian and the kids also played a few sets together.

After the concert the kids had fun selling Brian's CDs and talking to the audience members as they came out of the room.

Can you tell my kid loves a session?

We drove straight from the concert to Brian's new session at Mickey Spillane's in Eastchester, NY. What a neat Irish pub! They even had the good butter we fell in love with while in Ireland. We ate an early dinner then Haley joined in the session for the entire 3 hours. She loves sessions with Brian because he plays lots of tunes she knows so she can play for most of the 3 hours. She also likes making faces and having staring contests with Finbar, another of Brian's younger students while playing. Our friend Patricia was there singing a song here and there. I didn't know she had such a great voice! We'd never heard her sing before, only heard her on guitar.

The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat...

2011-02-19T19:38:00.000-08:00

Newt took 3rd today in the district championships and qualified to move on to the state regional competition this week. He has had a great freshman year with a 26-4 record, most of those either pins or tech falls. He won his final match today 7-2.

Prior to that win, he had a very difficult loss (3-2) in the semifinal match. As a mother who knows just how much work her child does and how many sacrifices he makes for his chosen sport, it is so hard to see him lose an important match. The reality is that there are lots of other boys working hard and sacrificing as well.

It would be easy to blame a loss on a bad call by the ref, or an injury or illness but sometimes it is just two equally talented kids out there on the mat and one has to lose. Maybe one makes an error in judgement and the other takes advantage or the roll of the coin gives one a slight advantage...doesn't really matter the reason. The nature of wrestling or any sport is that one person wins and the other loses. It must be easier in a team sport...there is always somewhere else to place the blame.

As a mom, sitting in the stands, you want your child to do his best and you hope it ends with a win. You know how much it means to him and you want him to be happy so your stomach is in knots watching. I hate that moment as the clock ticks toward the end when you realize there is no way he can pull it off. How different that moment is when yours is the one with the higher score!You almost wish to turn back time for him...give him another chance but you can't so you give him a few minutes to himself then give him a hug and assure him that it is just one match and time will go on.

I often think it is better mentally to leave a match with 3rd than with 2nd. Either place is determined by one loss and is only a matter of whether the loss was in the semifinals or finals. At least with 3rd you go home on a winning note! : )

The slate is wiped clean this coming week and the wrestling goes on. As I said in the beginning, he has had a great season. The rest is icing on the cake!

Warm weather!

2011-02-15T10:18:00.000-08:00

After months of temperatures below 40 degrees, yesterday's temp above 60 was wonderful! There is just something about a warm , sunny day that gives one hope for spring and makes me feel like getting things done.

The house was a mess yesterday morning because we'd not been home all weekend between wrestling matches, orchestra rehearsals, and Irish music sessions. I spent the early morning straightening up, doing laundry, and cleaning. I did bills for the month and scheduled a few patients for work. I also got Haley's latest fiddle lesson downloaded from camera to computer and listened to it...deleting anything extraneous and marking things she needs to work on this week.

Once the boys were off to school, Haley and I showered then she did her Suzuki review practice.

Afterward, she did schoolwork...
Level H Review Test 4 in Spelling Power
Vertebrates lesson with PLATO science including tests (our goal for today is to make charts of all the different kingdom classifications)
Started Writing Strands Level 4...lesson 1 days 1-4
Thinkwell PreAlgebra lesson
Destinos Spanish lesson 8
Best Short Stories Unit 5...read The Tell Tale Heart and did review questions
Read a chapter in Unit 2 History of US (we have a DVD on the Revolutionary War we really need to watch)
"Paddle to the Sea" lesson #5 (geography)

In between schoolwork she did her classical music practice...scales, theory books, reading, and current piece. We ate lunch and read a chapter of Anne of Green Gables together. Then she did her orchestra practice for both orchestras, did some research on the computer to answer questions from her Paddle to the Sea lesson, and practiced her fiddling.

After picking the boys up from Poppop's where they worked out after school and wrestling practice, we ate dinner, Haley wanted a piano lesson so she got one then she worked through about half of a piano theory book she found in the piano bench. She made a scrapbook for her American Girls then played Barbies while I read until bedtime.

Websites I love...

2011-02-07T13:41:00.000-08:00

I was recently introduced to http://www.learner.org/ because I was interested in finding Destinos, a Spanish immersion program, for Haley. There are so many resources on that site. I haven't even had the chance to look through it all. Haley and I have been enjoying Destinos, though.

I also love http://www.homeschoolbuyerscoop.com/ Haley has not been liking Saxon 78 very much. She does it without complaint but prefers to do Singapore Challenging Word Problems or Hand On Equations. So, when Homeschool Buyers Coop came up with a discount on Thinkwell courses, I decided that if the discount went far enough, I'd get PreAlgebra for Haley to try. She is really liking it, though she laughs at the man giving the lectures.

Pneumonia

2011-02-07T13:14:00.000-08:00

First Newt and now Haley with pneumonia. Spring cannot come quickly enough for us. We're having a rough winter illness-wise.

Haley seemed to bounce back quickly last weekend but that cough never stopped. Friday she was healthy but she came out of orchestra rehearsal saying she wasn't feeling well and lo and behold! a fever 102.6 when we got home. Saturday morning she seemed to be healthy once again...maybe the room was just too warm on Friday night?

She went to orchestra rehearsal in the afternoon but we decided to not take a walk to Fergies for a session though both of us would have liked it. Saturday night, she's complaining of a headache and again, 101.9 fever.

Sunday she woke up healthy again, excited for the drive to NY. She couldn't wait for Brian to check out her new fiddles and give his opinion. We drove up with her doing a days worth of schoolwork and a bit of violin practice in the car. About halfway through the lesson, Brian leaves the room to make himself some coffee and Haley says she isn't feeling good. She fell asleep during the ride home and had a 102.6 fever by the time we got home and a pain in her chest when she coughs.

So, off to the doctor today. A quick check then off for an x-ray. Diagnosis...pneumonia.

Decisions, decisions...

2011-02-07T12:10:00.000-08:00

Even though it doesn't seem like it, Haley is growing. Her violin teacher suggested it was time to move up to a 1/2 size fiddle.

Wednesday we went to David Michie's Violins. David brought out eight different instruments for Haley to try and she quickly narrowed down her choices to these three.

She spent her hour lesson on Friday, playing the different instruments, listening to her teacher play them, then closing our eyes and listening to them being played. Haley initially had her heart set on a 1928 instrument but we discovered that there was a newer one she played better. On Sunday, we took them to her fiddle teacher to give his opinion which was basically the same as the violin teacher's.

So, she will be getting the darker, reddish instrument on the left of that photo. The difference in sound from her 1/4 size fiddle is amazing.

Sick

2011-02-03T11:56:00.000-08:00

I cannot remember a time before this week where the entire family has been sick with the same illness at the same time. This past week, it happened. All five of us down and out. We fell like dominoes...Daddy, Haley, Newt, Dylan, and Me. Headaches, fevers, fatigue, no appetites, coughing, aching...the flu? maybe? or a virus?

Haley and Dylan slept for two days and bounced back quickly and it took me three though we all have residual coughing.

Daddy ended up with severe bronchitis.

Newt, of course, the one who always gets everything much worse than anyone else in the family just got diagnosed with pneumonia today. He got sick Friday night but didn't want to miss TriCounty Championships so went and wrestled anyway medicated to keep his fever down. He won his first 2 matches then lost 1-0 to a boy he'd beaten earlier in the season due to a bad ref call...should have been a stalemate but ref called stalling and gave the kid a point. (So even as bad as he was feeling he didn't get scored on but he had no energy to score either.) We had a nice laugh at the boy's interview with the paper saying he hadn't wrestled his best the first time he wrestled Newt....wonder if he knew he couldn't even score on a kid with the flu. LOL

Newt was feeling better on Monday and Tuesday. Yesterday he began feeling bad again but went to school then wrestled while feeling horrible last night...he did win anyway but it was not pretty. So, now he is out for who knows how long. Always during wrestling season and always close to championships. Hope he can get healthy and get his strength back quickly.

Beethoven for Beethoven?

2011-02-02T05:02:00.000-08:00

Yesterday as Haley while playing her review pieces, she decided she must play Beethoven's Minuet in G for her betta whose name just happens to be Beethoven. He sat looking at her while she played but I think he was just waiting for her to drop some fish food in his bowl. Hmmmm.

Wrestling...

2011-01-26T05:59:00.000-08:00

The problem with having a good wrestling season is that when you are beating kids you weren't supposed to beat, other kids and their coaches begin avoiding you. The boy Newt tech falled from one team moved to the next lower weight class the next time they wrestled that team. Another boy attempted to avoid him by wrestling in the next weight class up but Newt's coach knew that might happen so was able to bump Newt up to wrestle the boy who he defeated 7-4.

On Monday, Newt had a match and the team's 119lb wrestler just forfeited to him rather than go on the mat. I don't understand that way of thinking at all. The team loses 6 points if they forfeit, the same number of team points they'd lose if the wrestler lost by pin so it really makes no sense to forfeit if the wrestler is not going to wrestle later that night (meaning the 119lb wrestler did not move up to win at the next weight class...he just didn't wrestle that night).

I believe any wrestler can be beaten...you never know when you might catch someone in a pinning move or a wrestler could just have a different style of wrestling that you find difficult to defend against. Even if you believe you will lose, you are still getting practice by attempting.

I live with a kid who isn't cutting weight (he was certified to go 112lb but we won't allow him to cut)...is actually eating a ton of food to keep his weight up, is moving up to wrestle the tough wrestlers, and keeps wrestling even when losing a match. I have a difficult time understanding the "I can't win, so I won't even try mentality."