Drum Lessons from a Non-Drumma Momma

I've been trying to change my focus so that my "school" times with my daughter aren't all about academics. It is extremely important to me that she has lots of different kinds of experiences. We've added a few different extra curricular activities. Maybe one or two too many, but this is one I am extremely proud of because these ideas are totally Lyla-led.

Lyla had been saying that her instrument of choice would be the drums. We've bought and made tons and tons of percussion instruments at home, but I was sold on getting her a drum set on a visit to the music store. Fast forward a month later, and she gets an electronic drum set for Christmas. We chose the electric kit just for our own sanity. Later on, if we see that it's something that she's serious about, we may look into an acoustic set.

Until recently, she's been kinda free styling. She will eventually take lessons when we move into our permanent home, but until then I've decided to teach her what I've seen and experienced before. I decided that the first thing she should learn would be the regular "boom cat" pattern (bass drum on 1 & 3 along with snare on 2 & 4). I've gotten some pointers from a youtube channel thislisa

First, we did the exercises on our laps, but here is the actual drumming experience below:

Facebook Wives Club

Hello. My name is Faith, and I am currently being initiated into the Facebook Wives Club.

In the past, I chuckled when I have seen wives post "Happy Anniversary" or "Happy Birthday" to their husbands on Facebook. Don't you live with him? If he's not around, wouldn't it be more appropriate to call him? Send a text, maybe? Don't you have his direct number? What if he doesn't check Facebook for a week? It's even more weird to me, when wives/mothers wish happy birthday to loved ones who are not on Facebook. It's obvious to me that these exchanges aren't for the husbands, but for the public, and thusly, I've shied away from them.

Even more odd to me is the Facebook prayer. You would think that some people only meet Jesus on Facebook. While I understand the power of corporate prayer and how easy it is just to push the post button on Facebook, some people think that every morning they're supposed to share a prayer with the world, or better yet, post how sweet time was with Jesus that morning. I'm not saying it's wrong. I just sometime wonder why people do what they do.

To each his own, but to me, my conversations with my husband and the Lord are intimate. I don't need to broadcast to everyone every time I have an intimate session, or every time we go out to eat, or every time my world is rocked in the bed room or in the prayer closet. I'm reminded of the scripture where Jesus advises his disciples to do these things (pray and give to the needy) privately. I am in no way condemning those who do their daily Facebook prayers. Please do whatever it is you feel is right. Please follow your own convictions. I'm not against it. Aside from occasional corporate prayers for public situations, it's just something that I don't yet understand.

1 Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

5 And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Matthew 6

I am a Facebook user, but my idea is that it's for people I don't see often, people I don't call. I basically post lots of things about my daughter because it's an easy way for loved ones to keep up with her. It's also a public journal of sorts. I do understand people sharing their personal views. This is not to make anybody feel bad. I probably share way too much on Facebook. If there's something I want people to know, however, I just announce it as such. For example, instead of saying "Happy Birthday" to my daughter who is too young to be on Facebook, I'll post that I'm thankful to God for giving me such a beautiful daughter 7 years ago. You see how I got God in there, but I didn't pray to him on Facebook.

So how is it that I am now being initiated into the Facebook Wives Club? It's happening quite coincidentally. Firstly, I have been living separately from my husband for a little bit. We're preparing to move from VA to GA, but he's keeping his job until everything is done. I am staying at my father's house, which is closer to the new home in GA.

Simultaneously, my husband is becoming more and more familiar with Facebook. He was never interested in it before, but for some reason (maybe he has time on his hands because we aren't there) he's on Facebook more.

But for whatever reason, I am becoming a Facebook wife- full of exchanges on Facebook with my beautiful husband who has been a wonderful provider and partner throughout the whole ordeal. I'm wondering when we tackle the final straw of this move, if things will go back to normal. Who knows? But for now, being a Facebook wife isn't so bad.

What do you think? Will I be joining the Facebook Prayer Club next?

Slow Approach Spanish

I know. It's been terribly too long. During the Christmas season, I was a run around wreck. Lot's of things happened. I got lots done, but it just kept going and going until Tuesday, 1/14/14. Since then I've been battling a serious case of inertia. Indeed, 3 days of rest is beneficial for the weary, even if she feels a bit of guilt for not accomplishing much. It's good to be back, and I hope you'll enjoy what's to come.

Before my hiatus, I started on some videos. Hopefully this week, I'll be able to do a blog a day, just from the ideas i had before. Well, below you'll find the first video. It was recorded over a month ago, but shows our wrap of lesson 1 from Pimsleur. This has been a really slow ride, as we are finishing lesson 2. She and I could go a lot faster, but there's no need. I just thought it would be a waste to learn Spanish words ( the way they do in most Spanish classes) without hearing natural discourse.

I really do like Pimsleur. All we do is listen. I did however add practicing the conversations presented on the lesson. Here are the results of lesson 1.

Musical Experience: Embraceable You

In a recent blog, I mentioned being ashamed that I haven't done a lot musically with my child. I mean we've had lots of experiences with music, but I haven't spent as much time with her as I have with my students. Even when some of my students were the same age, I should have been bringing those music lessons home, but often I did not.

My daughter has been showing interests in playing drums. She's been trying the set at church every Sunday. We went to a music store Friday, and she sat down, and I had to walk away so that others wouldn't see the tears. The guy helping us said that she wouldn't have any problems learning. I was trying to show her the little basic eighth notes on high hat/ kick on one and three/ snare on two and four pattern. She was getting it. We're thinking about getting her a drum set, but I'm thinking electronic for sanity purposes.

While I haven't done a lot of formal musical training with her, my daughter and I have shared many musical moments, mostly in the form of singing with each other. Over the years there has always been a song that just sort of epitomized our relationship. While she was still in the womb and beyond, I sang a little made-up ditty, "Lyla, Mama Loves You." Then, her dad started singing "You Are My Sunshine," and for some reason it stuck with us. We sang it to each other. Next some of the members of Afro Blue made up a song that I doubt anyone remembers, but it stuck with me. It was called "Lyla Rose, You're My Favorite Rose." And lastly, there's this song that just kinda hit recently. It's a Gershwin tune that I was singing around Lyla and somehow it just started a love fest of hugging and kissing between us. This song always makes us smile." Check out our little version of "Embraceable You" below.

Some May Call Me The Sight Word Nazi

Every chance I get, I discourage sight word lists amongst parents with young children. Why? I can't possibly know what I'm talking about? I'm not a reading specialist. Surely, they went to school to teach reading. They would know more than I do. Who am I to suggest such things?

The first thing we should recognize is that all educational approaches are just theories. While some are widely accepted, none of these theories have become law. These theories usually have been manipulated to show the theorist's desired outcome. Amazingly, our educational system is in the dumps while so many of these theories are "proven" to get results. Almost all, if not all, of these theories claim to be research driven.

Stance 1: Sight Words Are The Devil

At the time I decided to teach my child to read, all the programs I looked into for early reading were phonics driven. All of them cited research blaming the "look-say" reading method for the downward spiral of America's education system. They also reported that dyslexia was not a true mental disorder, but a reading impairment brought on by children using the look-say method of reading. Because these students are only remembering the shapes of words, instead of the sounds of word components, students can often confuse words. Also, imposing the order of letters would happen more frequently for those who don't know how to decode the word from left to right.

Stance 2: Sight Words Are A Necessity

Indeed, I thought sight words were the devil until I spoke with a reading teacher, a principal, and a reading specialist where I was working. They made points that I thought were valid. For example, there is the forever present reason given for the necessity of sight words- that some words can't be decoded but must be learned by sight. OK, that's a good reason. Then teachers everywhere will say sight words are necessary for fluency which is also aids in comprehension, yet another great reason for sight words.

Back To Stance 1: Those Devilish Sight Words

May the record reflect that while I taught school, I was a great academic teacher to all but my own child. Time just did not afford much reading instruction. We were blessed in that we spent time learning in between my teaching assignments and during the summers. At this time my four year old was almost a master at decoding CVC words, something that she was able to do when she was 3, but she wasn't at the point where she could pick up a book and read it, not unless it was a decodable reader.

Somewhat skeptically, I began to support the use of sight words, until... I had to test fourth grade students for remediation in reading. Quite remarkably, I had to test students of the teacher who touted the importance of sight words. Though I don't remember the exact word, I do remember that every person that I tested incorrectly "read" the word phone. Let's say that the word was prone. All of the students were using what the whole word resembled, instead of blending the phonemes to determine the word. Every single person said phone. Somewhere down the line they all must have learned phone as a sight word.

Here I was armed with all the ammunition my little heart needed to leave those pesky sight words alone. The Reading Lesson became our religious reading guide. At the end my daughter could actually pick up books, some of which were pretty hard, and read them.

Not quite a Nazi, but...

My position has softened just a bit. Do I think that every child should be taught sight words? Not in your wildest dreams. Can sight words be beneficial to some children? I think so.

When my child went to Kindergarten, she could read almost anything, but at first they wouldn't label her as such. Why? Because she wasn't fluent enough. Honestly, she had only been reading books for about a month. She was doing extremely well, but I knew what she was capable of reading and comprehending, and I wanted the school to acknowledge it. Soon, I learned not to care too much about what the school thought, but I also saw the value in her becoming a more fluent reader. This is where sight word lists could be extremely helpful.

Did we ever start working with sight word lists? Not really. We didn't even do what the school required. She came in knowing the words on the list, except for two. They ended up giving her the four first grade lists. Her teacher suggested all this sight word work. We just never had time to do it. I did occasionally, however, try to add decodable sight words to her spelling lists. That's all.

Because I wanted to give her a chance to practice her reading skills, we never dwelled on reading the same book(s) over and over again. This was probably really helpful in developing accuracy, but not at all helpful in developing fluency. In regards to fluency, I would have changed two things. We would have had special "repeat" books on deck, and I would have modeled fluent reading by reading to her more. Once she started reading it became all about reading practice. This is no longer the case.

Doing My Job and Teaching Sight Words

Last year, I taught PK4. I thought that it would be easier and afford me more time at home. Boy, was I wrong. At any rate, the curriculum called for sight words. In my opinion, most of the people were misinformed about sight words. One popular question among parents was, "How's she doing with her sight words." Somehow, parents believed that these magical sight words would mystically lead their children to the land of reading. No parent has ever asked about the blending of sounds. No parent ever asked me about the steps toward reading. Everyone only asked about those sight words. I tried to be as informative as I could without saying that these people have no clue in what it takes to ensure successful reading.

I do understand the buzz about sight words. Lots of kids can begin learning to read with only sight words. It's simple to include sight words in lessons. The turnaround time in being able to "read" one's first sentence/ book is irresistibly fast. My best "reader" in my class was the youngest of the students. She was the last to be moved into my class. On the first day, she sight-word-read circles around the other students. Why? Because she had 0 knowledge of letter/ sound relationships. She had not yet begun to identify the individual letters with their corresponding sounds. It was much easier for her to learn what the whole word looked like without the need to associate the individual letters with anything. That week, I constructed sight word books for my students (See. I can't possibly be a SWN.) Her mom was so proud that the child who had only been in my class a couple of days was already "reading." This student became disinterested with the exactness needed for true reading. While some of the others were starting to decode, with me, she never got so far. She began to disengage in lessons until sight word time. I'm afraid that she gained a false sense of reading accomplishment that could only be overcome with a good phonics reading program, though not offered to students in PK at that school.

Teaching students to read without the use of sight words can be taxing, but is rewarding. Honestly, I think it's hard to teach a phonics program to a group of students. I really would advise parents to start teaching their children how to read before they get to school. That way you can ensure that your child has the basic building blocks for good sound reading. A program/ book can be as cheap as 10 bucks. Choose an affordable but highly rated program and just get started.

I Actually Love Sight Words

My daughter and I do sometimes go over sight word lists, but I like to think that a sight word is word that becomes recognized by sight after it has been decoded several (maybe several hundred) times.Sorry, but there's no Nazi here.

The Revamp Failure

The last two weeks were stop and go. I like to research things to a tee. This is beneficial, but for me most of the time it's a problem. It's a problem because I often find myself looking and learning and knowing, but never doing. This has been the case for the last few weeks. I really wanted to make sure that what we were doing was helping her to be well-rounded.

In the past, I really liked some of the Charlotte Mason curriculum suggestions. My daughter and I were supposed to do the nature science curriculum, but didn't get very far. I recently returned and really like the selection of classic books/ readings. I really like the way that language is used in classic books. The only thing I don't like about classical education is the hint of racism. Culture helped to ready Europe for what she was to do to the rest of the world. Those everyday symbols that accustom people to act like savages in the name of Jesus are present in some of the literature in the Classical period. Moreover, I am not a believer that all things this period are the standard. While classical music is great, I do not share the belief that it's the best music the world has ever heard.

All that being said, I still think that with some tweaking CM with some adjustments could be a great model for a well rounded/ complete curriculum. I don't agree with all of CM's ideas. Waiting till a child turns six to read? Only if you're going to homeschool through 1st grade. My advice would be to teach your child to read before sending them to anybody's school. The way a lot of schools teach reading is like unto osmosis. For some students this works well, but a lot of students go lacking in the reading department because they really haven't had sound teaching in reading. I am a strong believer that kids as young as 2 1/2 can start learning to read. Give your child what she is willing to receive.

So I returned to amblesideonline.org checking out CM's first grade curriculum. Usually in reading I would go straight to the third grade curriculum, but the language is a little more advanced than everyday 1st grade curriculums and fits perfectly for us. What I am most excited about is adding Spanish. I chose Pimsleur. All I do is let her listen, and then we practice the conversations every other week. We spend about a two weeks on one lesson. We work about 3 days a week. She's pretty decent.

Anyway I went through a lot to make sure all the materials were collected and mapped out my whole month, but quickly learned that it was too much. It is very rewarding work, but we've had to lay back just a bit. My revamp basically turned into a no-vamp. I'm going to relax just a little bit and just work her extra hard during the winter and spring breaks. She is my world. I might as well enjoy.

We're Learning Cursive

I've been pondering whether or not to teach cursive to my daughter. There are those who argue that cursive can be taught before manuscript writing. There are also those who say that cursive is dying, and there is no need to teach it. I decided against it until she started showing interest in it. Now, she wants to read notes sent home from the teacher, etc. So, I thought it would be good just to go ahead and teach her. We've only had one lesson. What I've decided to do is to break the letters up into combinations of strokes. The actual strokes, to me, are a little too simple. You can find the basic strokes for cursive, here.

I thought that we would have a hard time. I thought crying would be involved, but much to my surprise. We made it through the lesson without any drama. I think the key to success was that we didn't try to do to much, and their was an objective with a foreseeable outcome. Unlike our mini math lessons of recent, she enjoyed this one. Maybe it was because she's slightly interested.

The letters we practiced were t,i,c, a, d. The goal was to be able to write a and d, but in writing those two letters one can also learn to write t (without the cross), i (without the dot), and c. The pic is her tracing of my writing. The top a's are of her own doing before we even began the lesson. People take lots of liberties when writing in cursive. I had to look everything up to make sure I taught things the right way. Gee, I love google!