On April 5th I played a solo recital after the Priesthood session of General Conference at the home of Alan Edwards. My accompanist was Diane Bastian. She is an amazing accompanist.
The program was:
Violin Concerto No. 1 in a minor -Allegro Moderato by J. S. Bach
Sonata Op. 120 No. 1 -Allegro Appassionato and Vivace by Johannes Brahms
Ave Marie by Franz Schubert
Suite in G Major -Prelude by J. S. Bach
Suite in C Major -Gigue by J. S. Bach
Arpeggione Sonata -Allegro Moderato by Franz Schubert
Where Can I Turn For Peace by Joleen Meredith Arr. By Marie Feinauer & Marilyn Olsen
I played a violin piece because it is the piece that I need to pass off through a video with the Suzuki Association to continue my Suzuki training on the violin. I was planning on doing all of my Suzuki Training on viola, but when the opportunities present themselves, you need to jump.
I think one interesting thing is that none of the pieces were originally written for viola. The Brahms was for clarinet originally, the Bach Suites are for cello, the Schubert Sonata was written for an instrument called the Arpeggione. The joys of being a violist.
I haven't yet figured out how to edit a video excerpt to put here from the video that was take of the recital. But I'm glad that video was taken, hopefully I can give myself some lessons from watching it and practicing.
It was a very good experience to play for an audience again, and I feel like I've gotten back to my "I'm not too nervous" attitude. I was excited and wanted to do well, but also confident and felt good about who I was sharing with.
A lot of my family that was not able to come to my college senior recital were able to come to this one. I enjoyed being able to play for my friends and family in a more formal, but still relaxed setting.
JP bought an orchid that afternoon so we were able to display that on the piano. It is beautiful and still blooming. When the host of this recital, Alan, found out JP liked orchids he gave us a book to read called, "Making the Impossible Possible: One Man's Crusade to Inspire Others to Dream Bigger and Achieve the Extraordinary" by Bill Strickland. We've begun reading it and are really enjoying it. It's about a man who helped inner city youth by bringing beauty into their lives. And one of the beauties was growing orchids.
It's taken me a long time to do this post because I wanted it to be really good, but I couldn't decide what would make it stand out. Especially since my mom had already posted about this recital on the family blog. But I'm glad to keep a record, and once I get this post finished maybe my ideas will begin flowing again for what else I want to write about.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Performing Mahler's 5th
On the 15th of March I performed in Mahler's 5th Symphony with the Salt Lake Symphony in Libby Gardner Concert Hall at the University of Utah. Although it was a very hard piece of music and a challenge for me, I'm glad that I had the experience and took the time to play this piece.
The thing I want to comment on is our director and how amazing he was at bringing the orchestra through this experience. I first must disclose that we didn't perform this piece perfectly. We were far from it. And while most directors would be extremely stressed, pushy, and possibly even downright grumpy, Dr. Baldwin had a great attitude through the whole thing.
I especially noticed all of this during the dress rehearsal. The first thing we did was a complete run through! Now that may not sound all that amazing to many of you. But when a director is stressed about a difficult piece, usually the last thing thing they want to do at the last minute is a run through; they want to hit the hard spots. So we did a run through and Dr. Baldwin was disciplined enough not to stop us (much.)
After the run through he complimented us sincerely, not on our perfection, but on his faith that from hearing what we'd just done he knew that we would be able to make it through tomorrow without crashing. And that gave us all what we probably needed most, a little confidence (myself included.)
Then we spent the second part of the rehearsal working on spots he had noticed during the run through. And it was amazing, he had a system and he stuck to it. He would tell us the section, and what we needed to fix. Then we would play through it, and it wouldn't go so great. Then he would say one more thing, we would play it again, it would improve, and he would compliment us on the improvement and give us something to help us remember tomorrow. He didn't beat any one spot to death, and he didn't ever sound like he'd given up on a spot being the way he wanted.
After the rehearsal he saved time for a pep talk (some directors would go over time running spots, and then be like "oh... see ya.") And his talk was quite insightful for me. I must admit by that time I was extremely tired and didn't really want to play the concert the next night, so the pep talk was what I needed.
He paraphrased some other people, and he let us know that he was.... so I'm passing that on to you readers. Anyway, he said that there is a trend now for smaller orchestras to play Mahler, and the big works like that. The reasoning Dr. Baldwin stated was that there is power in this music. That even though we can't play it as well as say, the New York Philharmonic it still has power for the audience and (especially) us as musicians.
This meant a lot to me, because the reason I play the viola still is that I love playing in symphonies. I've felt the power of great music at least since I was in 9th grade and played the New World Symphony by Dvorak. And it made me grateful for the opportunity to play another great piece of music and experience that greatness again at a new level. It made me want to come back tomorrow and play the concert, even though I didn't know of anyone who was coming to see it.
At the end of his talk he complimented us for all of our hard work, and told us to think back to the first rehearsal and how much we had improved. And I must say the contrast was quite amazing, especially after only six rehearsals.
The concert the next night went well enough. I enjoyed playing, and I played better than I had the rest of the rehearsals (you gotta love adrenaline.) We only had a minor train wreck where the french horn came in the wrong spot, but we just went back to his entrance and everyone was able to figure it out and we got back together. It was a good experience, and now I'm glad that I didn't chicken out and take a break for this concert.
The thing I want to comment on is our director and how amazing he was at bringing the orchestra through this experience. I first must disclose that we didn't perform this piece perfectly. We were far from it. And while most directors would be extremely stressed, pushy, and possibly even downright grumpy, Dr. Baldwin had a great attitude through the whole thing.
I especially noticed all of this during the dress rehearsal. The first thing we did was a complete run through! Now that may not sound all that amazing to many of you. But when a director is stressed about a difficult piece, usually the last thing thing they want to do at the last minute is a run through; they want to hit the hard spots. So we did a run through and Dr. Baldwin was disciplined enough not to stop us (much.)
After the run through he complimented us sincerely, not on our perfection, but on his faith that from hearing what we'd just done he knew that we would be able to make it through tomorrow without crashing. And that gave us all what we probably needed most, a little confidence (myself included.)
Then we spent the second part of the rehearsal working on spots he had noticed during the run through. And it was amazing, he had a system and he stuck to it. He would tell us the section, and what we needed to fix. Then we would play through it, and it wouldn't go so great. Then he would say one more thing, we would play it again, it would improve, and he would compliment us on the improvement and give us something to help us remember tomorrow. He didn't beat any one spot to death, and he didn't ever sound like he'd given up on a spot being the way he wanted.
After the rehearsal he saved time for a pep talk (some directors would go over time running spots, and then be like "oh... see ya.") And his talk was quite insightful for me. I must admit by that time I was extremely tired and didn't really want to play the concert the next night, so the pep talk was what I needed.
He paraphrased some other people, and he let us know that he was.... so I'm passing that on to you readers. Anyway, he said that there is a trend now for smaller orchestras to play Mahler, and the big works like that. The reasoning Dr. Baldwin stated was that there is power in this music. That even though we can't play it as well as say, the New York Philharmonic it still has power for the audience and (especially) us as musicians.
This meant a lot to me, because the reason I play the viola still is that I love playing in symphonies. I've felt the power of great music at least since I was in 9th grade and played the New World Symphony by Dvorak. And it made me grateful for the opportunity to play another great piece of music and experience that greatness again at a new level. It made me want to come back tomorrow and play the concert, even though I didn't know of anyone who was coming to see it.
At the end of his talk he complimented us for all of our hard work, and told us to think back to the first rehearsal and how much we had improved. And I must say the contrast was quite amazing, especially after only six rehearsals.
The concert the next night went well enough. I enjoyed playing, and I played better than I had the rest of the rehearsals (you gotta love adrenaline.) We only had a minor train wreck where the french horn came in the wrong spot, but we just went back to his entrance and everyone was able to figure it out and we got back together. It was a good experience, and now I'm glad that I didn't chicken out and take a break for this concert.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
What is Family History?
I've been pondering the question, "What is family history?" and also, "What is family history for?" Especially as I've been trying to decide where I want to start and what direction I want to go in looking at my family history. I've come up with three answers (in no specific order.)
- Documentation or Record Keeping
This includes things like keeping and collecting birth and death certificates, searching census records and making copies, looking for headstones in cemeteries and taking pictures, and finding military or immigration records. It's anything that provides proof (especially government) that this person actually lived, that they existed, or proves important events in their lives. This part is when I'm glad I have my husband, a history major, to help me out. You definitely need an organizational system for this so that the sheer amount of documents doesn't overwhelm you. - Temple Work
My second part of Family History is mostly applicable to members of the LDS church. We believe in doing temple work for our deceased ancestors. This is what I thought the only reason for family history was for a long time, and I still know it's very important. But you don't need as much information for this purpose. The other two purposes: Documentation and Journaling, can lead you to help and more information for this area, but mostly you just need names. I would personally prefer to have more information on a person, but at least finding names for Temple Work doesn't overwhelm me as much as it used to, now that I understand I don't need copies of all of the documentation listed above to be able to do someone's temple work. And it's probably the part that most motivates me in terms of past people. I'm excited for the church's new FamilySearch program to come online in Utah! The thing that was most difficult for me last time I tried to submit names to Temple Ready was that most of my relatives had their work done 10 or more times, and I was frustrated at the inefficiency of it all. - Journaling and Stories (his stories)
The third part of family history is journaling. It's what most people do in their scrapbooks. It also includes oral interviews, personal histories, and personal journals. The only thing in this category that used to excite me was journals. I have over 10 volumes now. But since I've been married I've been more excited about keeping a record of our life, and having a way to record our future children's lives. Especially since my husband likes to take pictures.
Scrapbooking in general has overwhelmed me since I'm not very crafty, so I've started thinking of it as a journal with pictures, and since then so many options have seemed to open up. One option is blogging, which I've really enjoyed beginning in many different ways, and that was validated for me in an article entitled, "Scrapbooks Move Into the Digital Age." Also, I learned from a family history fair that you can make a 12x12 page on the computer on Photoshop and have it printed at Costco on photo paper, and then just slide it into a book. For me that is SO much easier. No cutting, pasting, coloring, stuff that scares me. Just make it with the undo button right there handy, and print... high quality.
And, of course, this overlaps as you find journals and pictures of relatives and learn more about their lives and stories.
The thing I love most about the Journaling is the stories. Our lives are full of many interesting things. If they aren't recorded they can't be remembered. I'm still looking for a small journal my grandmother left entitled "Memories with the Grandchildren." She only made a few entries in it. But I remember loving to read them when she was alive. And it's a possession that now, after she's passed on, I would like to remember, record, copy, and share because they're her stories, and stories keep memories alive, and create memories by being shared.
Each of these categories can overlap, and as they do their findings in one area help with progress in another. As you decide to get census record copies for ancestors, you may find the parent's names and someone you hadn't been able to track. As you do an oral interview of a relative you may find the names of other relatives that no one else remembered.
I must add that I am no where near perfect in all of this. I'm just starting. But the breakthrough for me was the ability to categorize, and realize how much I'm already doing in an area, and which area I want to start working on next; instead of feeling overwhelmed by an overall concept of "Family History" with no idea where to start.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Grandma's Wedding Dress
After my mom, my aunt, my husband, and I went to the regional family history conference we were all determined to do some more with our family history, and preserving our stories and our past. So one project that I'd put off for more than a year was my Grandma's Wedding dress.
The story is that as I was preparing for my wedding over a year ago I tried on all of my relative's wedding dresses, because I didn't want to spend the money to buy one myself. None of the dresses fit very well, except my Grandma Beulah Simmons' (my mom's mother) beautiful silk wedding dress. But at the time I felt it looked too old fashioned, and not "princess" enough for me. And also my aunt found a bag of beautiful fabric for $3, and my mom can sew wonderfully, so I was able to have my own dress, which I love.
But as they were trying to convince me to wear Grandma's dress, mostly for sentimental reasons, (and to save my mom a lot of work) they took it to a dry cleaner to prove to me that it was clean and in great condition to be worn. Well, after I was married we found out that you don't dry clean silk. So in talking to people about how to preserve it, now that it has been dry cleaned, they said to take pictures of it, and find a model who fits the dress to take the pictures of. So they asked me to come model the dress for pictures, since I'm the only person that can fit into it.
My Grandma was married Sept. 3, 1947, so this is a vintage 40's silk wedding dress. She sewed it by hand herself, for her own wedding.
The veil I'm wearing in this picture is actually mine from my wedding. The jewelry was my Grandma's jewelry (but not from her wedding.)
This is my Grandma's original wedding ring that I'm wearing in the picture below, it fits me perfectly. My mom (Grandma's youngest daughter) now wears that ring. I love the points on the sleeves
We were told to preserve the dress we should take measurements in the photos to show the construction of the dress as well. I love the ruffle/small train down the back of the dress. It was really hard to get a picture that showed it at all.
And the last measurement they had to take was the waist. Probably to mostly prove that at one point I did have a 26 inch waist, and so did my Grandma when she was married. The dress really does fit me perfectly. It's fun to know I'm so similar to my grandmother in build and shape.
I have put a copy of my Grandma's original wedding pictures on this blog.
The story is that as I was preparing for my wedding over a year ago I tried on all of my relative's wedding dresses, because I didn't want to spend the money to buy one myself. None of the dresses fit very well, except my Grandma Beulah Simmons' (my mom's mother) beautiful silk wedding dress. But at the time I felt it looked too old fashioned, and not "princess" enough for me. And also my aunt found a bag of beautiful fabric for $3, and my mom can sew wonderfully, so I was able to have my own dress, which I love.
But as they were trying to convince me to wear Grandma's dress, mostly for sentimental reasons, (and to save my mom a lot of work) they took it to a dry cleaner to prove to me that it was clean and in great condition to be worn. Well, after I was married we found out that you don't dry clean silk. So in talking to people about how to preserve it, now that it has been dry cleaned, they said to take pictures of it, and find a model who fits the dress to take the pictures of. So they asked me to come model the dress for pictures, since I'm the only person that can fit into it.
My Grandma was married Sept. 3, 1947, so this is a vintage 40's silk wedding dress. She sewed it by hand herself, for her own wedding.
The veil I'm wearing in this picture is actually mine from my wedding. The jewelry was my Grandma's jewelry (but not from her wedding.)
This is my Grandma's original wedding ring that I'm wearing in the picture below, it fits me perfectly. My mom (Grandma's youngest daughter) now wears that ring. I love the points on the sleeves
We were told to preserve the dress we should take measurements in the photos to show the construction of the dress as well. I love the ruffle/small train down the back of the dress. It was really hard to get a picture that showed it at all.
And the last measurement they had to take was the waist. Probably to mostly prove that at one point I did have a 26 inch waist, and so did my Grandma when she was married. The dress really does fit me perfectly. It's fun to know I'm so similar to my grandmother in build and shape.
I have put a copy of my Grandma's original wedding pictures on this blog.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
American Sign Language
With the attention the Pepsi commercial "Bob's House" drew during the superbowl to deaf culture, and the nature of my job right now, I've been thinking about American Sign Lanuage a lot. (Yes I did know that deaf joke before the commercial, it's a really common one)
My job right now is to work one on one with a student who is deaf in special ed at an elementary school. I am not an interpreter, but we communicate in ASL. He is behind grade level, so I do a lot of teaching and very little interpreting for other teachers.
I've been surprised at how much sign I've been able to learn in such a little time that I've been working with my student. I knew just enough to get by when I started, and it's been expanding so fast.
A lot of this, especially what I started with, I owe to Signing Time! videos which I found in the library last summer. I now own a couple of them, tivo them every week (click here for a link to the TV Schedule), and watch Rachel's blog and forums regularly. I think they are fun videos, and will be great for helping me to have a signing family.
Another book that I found at the library is Baby Talk: A Guide to Using Basic Sign Language to Communicate with Your Baby by Monica Beyer. I think this is a great introductory book to using Sign Language with babies, and especially a good one to show to the skeptics of signing in your life. It's cute, and concise. Although I believe it would help to have some supplementary vocabulary builders to go along with it, like Signing Time! or the Michigan State ASL browser website. It depends on how much you want to do, and how enthusiastic your toddler is to sign.
Although I don't have a baby of my own yet, signing is definitely in the plans for my family. I am so glad I've had this year to practice and learn with my student at school.
The other thing I've loved is seeing how signing has benefitted some children with disabilities, especially some with Downs Syndrome or Autism. Somehow signing seems to bridge the gap that some of them have with spoken language.
My job right now is to work one on one with a student who is deaf in special ed at an elementary school. I am not an interpreter, but we communicate in ASL. He is behind grade level, so I do a lot of teaching and very little interpreting for other teachers.
I've been surprised at how much sign I've been able to learn in such a little time that I've been working with my student. I knew just enough to get by when I started, and it's been expanding so fast.
A lot of this, especially what I started with, I owe to Signing Time! videos which I found in the library last summer. I now own a couple of them, tivo them every week (click here for a link to the TV Schedule), and watch Rachel's blog and forums regularly. I think they are fun videos, and will be great for helping me to have a signing family.
Another book that I found at the library is Baby Talk: A Guide to Using Basic Sign Language to Communicate with Your Baby by Monica Beyer. I think this is a great introductory book to using Sign Language with babies, and especially a good one to show to the skeptics of signing in your life. It's cute, and concise. Although I believe it would help to have some supplementary vocabulary builders to go along with it, like Signing Time! or the Michigan State ASL browser website. It depends on how much you want to do, and how enthusiastic your toddler is to sign.
Although I don't have a baby of my own yet, signing is definitely in the plans for my family. I am so glad I've had this year to practice and learn with my student at school.
The other thing I've loved is seeing how signing has benefitted some children with disabilities, especially some with Downs Syndrome or Autism. Somehow signing seems to bridge the gap that some of them have with spoken language.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
My sister, Emily
As many of you know, my sister Emily is doing BYU study abroad at the BYU Jerusalem Center. Since we knew that she would not have time to email everyone about her experiences J.P. and I helped her set up a blog just before she left. She has now put a post up, and I'm proud of her so I want to share her address with all of you! And I'm posting it on my blog page for everyone's future reference. Hopefully if we let her know we read and enjoy it she'll keep posting.
We also helped my mom set one up last night. She's been writing things lately that I think are great, and I keep wanting to tell other people, "go read this that my mom wrote and then you'll understand." The first post she put up is about homeschool and it summarizes a lot of the feelings about why I want to homeschool my kids.
Hopefully they both keep posting, and I'm excited to read both often!
We also helped my mom set one up last night. She's been writing things lately that I think are great, and I keep wanting to tell other people, "go read this that my mom wrote and then you'll understand." The first post she put up is about homeschool and it summarizes a lot of the feelings about why I want to homeschool my kids.
Hopefully they both keep posting, and I'm excited to read both often!
Saturday, January 12, 2008
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.
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.
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