Last month, we attended a friend’s wedding and Rinoa enjoyed the company of a girl her age. After the wedding, she was saddened to know that the girl lives in another state and was just in town for the wedding. She cried at the thought of not being able to play with her new playmate anymore. I told her that even though her new friend lives far away, she can write her a letter. And so she did. (I’m putting this under “homeschooling” since writing letters once a month is part of Rinoa’s curriculum.)
Rinoa's Letter to Emily
Incidentally, I had to ask permission from Rinoa before I could post this letter. I even had to negotiate with her – haha!
| Con mucho amor, |
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That’s what permeated our house today (aside from the stress-relieving scents of Shea Butter and Cedarwood from my Yankee Candle) for our Fridays are not only dedicated to art but also to music. Our homeschool music program consists of music appreciation and piano lessons. In music appreciation, the girls listen to works of classical composers and learn about their lives and music style – nothing overly intensive. The main idea right now is just to make them aware and, hopefully, appreciate classical music. Then I give them piano lessons which includes theory, technique, and performance. For their piano books, I use Piano Adventures by Nancy and Randall Faber which I complement with performance music sheets. My favorite resource for free music sheets is The Mutopia Project which also includes midi files so you know how the music piece sounds like. Most of the music sheets in The Mutopia Project are intermediate to advance so another site I found invaluable is Making Music Fun which is geared more for children. (Both these sites offer free classical music sheets. I was classically trained, so naturally, I’m teaching my girls the same way.)
Here’s Mica playing Spring from Antonio Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons”. (The password for this video is vivaldispring.)
Spring from Antonio Vivaldi's Four Seasons played by Mica Redington (13 years old)
Here are some more recordings of Mica playing the piano: Stephen Foster’s Camptown Races and Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.
| Con mucho amor, |
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Summer is over in our household and we are back to homeschooling for the third year. As always, I’ve reassessed my goals and reasons for homeschooling. Every now and then, I start to lose confidence and question my goals, but what’s interesting is I always get some sort of sign that reminds me why Troy and I decided to homeschool. I was reading this book about incorporating poetry into daily life and it’s quite an unusual place to find an answer to my doubts:
“In our schools, grades K through 12, students are not so much educated as trained to perform well on standardized tests. They aren’t taught to think for themselves, question, or be curious. They’re encouraged to accept what they’re told without hesitation.” – Poetry as Spiritual Practice by Robert McDowell
Anyways, this year is a tough one because aside from teaching Mica, it’s the first time that Rinoa has a full formal curriculum. You can read about Mica’s subjects and her thoughts on homeschooling here. As for 5-year old Rinoa, she’s tackling first and second grade level subjects. And she’s loving it! Her favorite subject is history! (Would you believe?!) She begs to have history if it’s not scheduled for the day. It’s making Mica, who hates history, crazy!
To keep me sane during school days, I’ve dedicated a 2-hour break in the middle of the day called “quiet time”. During this time, Mica and Rinoa can do whatever they want as long as they stay in their room. It works well for us – it keeps us refreshed and ready for afternoon lessons. It’s especially important since they now have gymnastics class almost every evening.
Mica back to hitting the books this year.
| Con mucho amor, |
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