What I Teach

There are some subjects that if you get me started on them I will probably talk your ear off. Especially if you have a question, they are the subjects that I'm afraid I act like a know-it-all about. Recently in an email to my cousin I went off about homeschooling I then apologized and finished up the email with this sentance, "But I do have a goal to encourage and educate people in my passions: homeschool, music, strings, music theory, and sign language [and yoga.]"

I'm sure I will eventually devote more than a blog entry to each of these, and I know that my opinions still have some room to change on all of them, but to get to know me (and not from my uninformative profile) I think you need to understand my veiws on these subjects. So I'm going to present a paragraph (and only one :) ) on each subject.

Music

This one may be somewhat obvious, with my past blog posts, and since I graduated from college with a music degree and my senior year in high school took 5 out of my 8 classes in music. Mostly I just love music: the challenge, the sounds, the comraderie, the teamwork.

Strings

As a music ed major (which I did not finish) I had to learn to play "the other" instruments, the brass and woodwinds. They're OK, but what really floats my boat is the strings, especially the viola and the bass (yes, I am odd, most people like violin and cello, maybe I just enjoy being different, or at least being good.) Which is one reason why I finally graduated in Music - String Pedagogy. It also has something to do with how much I love teaching and I dislike public schools, but that's for a future paragraph. This love of string pedagogy (or teaching strings) has really hit home in the past year or so as I've had a handful of students. I realize how happy I am when I finish teaching a lesson, or how much I enjoy the challenge of trying to find how to connect with a student, will it be a visual representation, or a kinesthetic sense. And how to get them motivated, excited, and listening. It's like the things I love about music in a new channel.

Music Theory

Anyone who has been a music major will doubt this one. Ask nearly any music major what they're least favorite class is and they will say music theory. But ever since I took my first music theory class at 5 years old, or did theory worksheets with my piano teacher it has been my favorite. Maybe it has something to do with how much I love math or the foundation I was given young. Whatever it is my AP Music Theory Class in high school was wonderful, and we all got 5's (highest marks) on the final test. The only stress I remember having with music theory was when I got to college and I was supposed to take the first theory course even though I'd passed the AP test. I found myself crying in Professor Nielsen's office until he asked me what an f sharp was in the key of C and I said "a French sixth chord." Although it was the wrong answer, with a little prompting I got the right answer and he was impressed that I'd even heard of the first one. So this gift of loving theory is one that I hope to pass on to more children through teaching, and to keep this to one paragraph there will need to be a future post on how I plan to do that.

Homeschool

First of all, I was never homeschooled. My husband was homeschooled for most of his life, with some private schools in there. And at this point my brothers and sisters are as well (I'm the oldest of 7 kids, 4 of them are currently homeschooled.) But the main point of this is I plan to homeschool my kids, even though I don't have kids yet. DH and I have discussed often what our philosophy for homeschooling is, and why we want to homeschool. The interesting thing is that some of it is different than our parents, or others we know that homeschool. But the main point is that we will be homeschooling our kids starting last year (with research, building our philosophies, and our own learning). And I want to share with others and encourage homeschooling, although I feel underqualified at this point, since I have little experience. But I do have experience with public school, and I know that's not what I want for my kids, especially in elementary.

Sign Language

I've been extremely interested in sign language ever since Junior High School, I think it's a beautiful language and I've always wanted to learn more. That's why when I heard about baby sign language it was very interesting to me. So last year I began to research, and I've made a few decisions: It's not as hard as it sounds to use sign language with a baby, its about exposure not teaching. It is exciting and helpful for a family to use sign. An actual signed language should be used instead of a made up language, but it's okay to have some family/home signs if necessary. And part of my children's homeschool will be sign language from the time they're very small, (yes, homeschool starts long before the age of 5).

Yoga

Honestly, this one is mostly for me. I like to do yoga, it makes me feel better. Once I asked one of my yoga teachers if she could ever picture me as a yoga teacher (back to "I love teaching"). She said she could, and I now feel that I could at some point too. But there are a lot of other things that come first (as you can see above). For now, yoga is for me; and my children are welcome to join in. (I'm sure I'll research more on baby and children's yoga, so I can still have yoga and my kids too).

In summary: I love teaching! I'm excited to teach my kids. I'm excited to teach lots of other kids about music and theory. And I hope that through teaching my kids I'll be able to gain the experience and confidence to work with other parents as they teach their kids.