I wrote in July about how we started over with the 100 Easy Lessons book. Since then we have continued Nikki's reading lessons, at her request: one lesson per day, 6 or 7 days a week.
This weekend, we recorded Nikki's 50th reading lesson with our camera. Unfortunately the camera stopped eight and a half minutes into the 20-minute lesson, so the video of Nikki's 50th reading lesson is incomplete.
We decided to record the story-reading part of her 51st lesson on Sunday, this time with Vi on my back as normal and Michael playing with Duplo cars (the squeaking you hear in the background) while Ben cooked lunch. Even Lex makes a guest appearance.
While Nikki and I continue discussing the drawing of the car in her book, Ben shot this outtake video that reveals the source of some adorable snoring.
I thought it would be fun in these last few days of Nikki's third year to share some video of her reading and playing the violin. Today, her first official song on the violin. Tomorrow we'll focus on reading. Come back Wednesday to hear her play another song on Sakioroma.
Although this recording does have her little brother asking for numnums in the middle, I felt it was important because it marks the time Nikki transitioned from saying the notes out loud on this song to simply playing them. She also stops and corrects a note that doesn't sound quite right, and she refers to the sheet music for the rest and repeat, or in her words, "play it again!"
This morning Vi pulled herself up on the stool and started moving forward on two feet!
Nikki and Michael are so pleased for Vi and her newfound mobility. They encourage her with "good work!" when she stands and walks, and protest that "that will never do" when she crawls.
I managed to catch a video of Vi's second trek across the living room floor. Enjoy!
In order to earn the privilege of choosing a book to take in to their beds with them at naptime, each child must have practiced his instrument sometime before lunch.
Both of them were already playing every day; I added the book incentive just to ensure that the main practice time where Mama needed to pay attention to notes and provide coaching happened before lunch rather than later in the afternoon when I have less time and energy. They LOVE taking a book to bed, so this has been hugely successful.
Nikki has been learning to read music as part of her violin lessons. She practices at home as well, primarily sightreading the notes A, B, and C, with a few D, E, and G thrown in. Nikki's practice times are eclectic and last anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes. She may choose to name notes on the staff, practice "ti" "tun" "tah-un" and "great big whole notes", play several songs, or anything in between.
Michael will usually drum and sing worship songs (Tim Hughes' "The Highest and the Greatest" and Seeds Worship's "Sing for Joy [Psalm 95:1-4]" are his current favourites). After a while Michael will exclaim "I need to play A, B, C!" and then proceed to sing and smash his way through the alphabet. (He clearly believes that ABCs are what make practice time "official" and thus are critical to earning his naptime book. I only "enforce" Michael's "practices" out of respect for his clearly taking his instrument as seriously as Nikki takes hers.)
During one of these drumming ABC songs, Nikki joined Michael with her violin. The two young musicians graciously agreed to repeat the performance for the video camera. I noticed one slight alteration: Nikki sang the alphabet song rather than Michael.
Ben took the kids through the first few pages of Physical Geology, his first geology textbook from university days, this past weekend.
In this video, Ben explains the scientific principles of "relative time" and "absolute time" to a three-year-old, a two-year-old, a not-quite-one-year-old, and a cat:
Forte School of Music put on its second annual concert (actually 4 concerts in a row - I had no idea the music school was so large!) Saturday.
A couple photos while we waited to be shown to our seats:
the star herself
some adoring (and adorable) fans
The 90-minute show included some fantastic performances and a mixture of solos and group pieces. A true standout was the nearly flawless 8-year-old's performance of Für Elise.
We enjoyed the whole show, and the last act, Nikki's 'Music is Fun' class, was definitely worth waiting for - they played the piano and performed an action song. Baba took a video while I was just offstage with the other mums in case we were needed.
We decided that since Nikki is a cyclist on the Like-a-Bike, Michael must be a "scooterist" on the Svan scooter.
Michael loves to roll up to where I am seated on the sofa breastfeeding Vi. (Ever since she moved into her own bed she has doubled up her feeds during the day. I thought I was nursing a lot before. I had no idea.)
And then he asks, "Mama, can you say, 'Hi, scooterist?'" That's where the video begins.
Nikki is our primary homeschooler at the moment, with most activities geared toward her and slightly adapted where possible to include her younger brother.
With that in mind, I took a video this morning of Nikki answering the first 56 questions in the Catechism for Young Children. The video below is sped up to 10x speed to highlight Michael's dynamic role in our homeschool. He listens, chimes in with some of the answers, and wiggles around, all while exercising admirable control and remaining in his seat.
this is a silent video since it's at 10x speed
Nikki is an eager scholar, and I am glad to be able to teach her more things now that Michael happily cooperates during our brief but focused study sessions.
