MLK Day

This morning, the kids played outside for hours. Still high 50s and sunny. When they came in requesting a snack, we munched and then watched Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech. Ted, as expected, was very interested and full of questions. Horizons did a good job both last year and this year discussing the Civil Rights Movement, I think. Tomorrow, he and I will go the Boulder Theatre to watch the Inauguration live. Yee haw!

I thought this editorial cartoon was fantastic this morning. Well done.

And in piano news, Sam had his 2nd lesson this afternoon. He has four new songs to learn, 2 for the LH and 2 for the RH. Way cute. He loved it (I was outside with the others, but Karin said he was totally engaged the whole time.) He is really liking this. Sam got into the van after his lesson and informed me that he had piano "work" to do at home. He is so proud. Cutie!

I'm really excited to "go to the Inauguration" tomorrow. Horizons' 2-3 and Middle School grades will be there, with other sections of students from all over Boulder Valley. Strangely, the 100 "extra" seats didn't sell out (perhaps people, like myself, didn't realize they were available to the layperson) so we got lucky. I'm sure Horizons will do a good job doing activities related to the inauguration, but I really believe being there is the best thing. It's so historic. The next time a president is elected, Ted will be almost 15 (assuming Obama makes it 2 terms, which I highly expect he will). Very exciting!

First Piano Lesson

I just love this picture. So adorable! Today was Sam's first piano lesson with Bestemor. To say it was sweet would be an understatement. And Sam had a blast. Which is the point! They started at the table, tracing his hands and labeling the fingers 1-5, writing LH and RH on them, etc. Then they played some Orff instruments, learning the proper way to put the mallets, or what-have-you, down afterwards (instrument care 101?) and then went downstairs to the piano. She showed him the groups of black keys and had him find all the 2s, all the 3s, then showed him where C and F were (1..2..C...1..2..3..F...) and had him find all those. He was very interested in the recorders so they did that too. Then they went back upstairs and did some more Orff instruments, had a snack and did some more drawing, this time of whole notes, half notes and quarter notes (not that Sam knew what they were, but she showed him how a circle can be a note, a circle with a line can also be a note and a circle colored in with a line can also be a note.) Kewl. When I taught piano, I only ever had 2 kiddos as young as Sam, and it was slow going. But they learned and they liked it. Sam wiggled "his 1's and 2s" etc for the rest of the day. Surprisingly, Ted already knew where C and F were on the piano (?) but was very interested in the finger numbers. I told Sam to teach him. Love it! 

Ted had his 1st Leadership class today, following his regular class. He loved it. They reviewed Songham I (which Ted learned when he was 5...it'd been a while!) and talked about SWAT (can't remember what it stands for but it means they can go into any lower rank class and assist, if they teacher wants them, or they can just do the class for review.) and about their GOALS for the next 90 days. Ted wrote "My goal is to get my Brown Belt by March 5, 2009." That's a very attainable goal! He was so jazzed to be there. Now I'm on a mission to lower the cost of the program. Mr. D agreed that if I could find the same stripe material, I could just sew the stripes on his collar rather than spend $150 on a new uniform. Can you say, heading out to the fabric store tomorrow? hee. We're also going to hold off on the new double weapons (same weapons, different color, and two of them. Why? I don't know.) Anyway, very cool. 

Everyone starts back to school tomorrow. Can you hear the whooping from where you're sitting? I love my children, but I really really cannot stand the constant fighting. No wonder I was an only child. Oy. Welcome back to structure! Hooray!