Monday Musings for Monday, September 10, 2018

So this is the week that things start to get back to normal for our homeschool life.  This afternoon the Strings program portion of our Homeschool Band and Strings program begins.  This year, my husband and daughter will continue playing the violin.  Our oldest son will continue playing the cello (once his full-size cello arrives), and will be adding the string bass to his instrument list once we are able to get him one.  I will be learning the violin and our youngest son will be learning the viola.

Then on Thursday, band classes begin.  I am going to try playing the flute again in beginner band while playing trombone in the advanced band.  However, if the flute does not go well, I will play the french horn in the beginner band.  I figure since I already know how to play the french horn, I should be good there.  My husband is going to use our youngest son’s alto saxophone to play in the beginner band while playing the clarinet in the advanced band.  Our youngest son will be playing the bass clarinet (once it arrives) for the beginner band while playing his alto saxophone for the advanced band.  Our middle son will be playing his baritone horn in both groups.  Then our oldest son will probably be playing his cello in both band groups if all goes according to plan.

In addition to classes resuming, our oldest son will be going on Friday to take his certification exam to become a Certified Nursing Assistant.  I am excited for him.  The above picture is from when he received he completed his course for Nursing Assistant before taking the certification course.

Over the weekend, we will have different friends over to eat with us on Saturday and Sunday.  Saturday, we are planning on fixing homemade Japanese and Chinese food to include Sesame Chicken, Beef and Broccoli, egg rolls, Japanese french fries (zucchini strips and onions), and possibly sushi.  Then on Sunday, we are planning on grilling Shish-k-Bobs along with a salad, wild rice and probably some other items as well.

So what is going on with you today?  I would love to hear from you.

Homeschool Band Performance Week

Our family has been participating in the area Homeschool Band since the fall.  My husband plays the clarinet.  Our second son plays the baritone horn.  Our youngest son plays the alto saxophone.  I play the french horn and trombone.  Then in January some of our family members began playing in the beginning strings class.  Our daughter began playing the violin.  My husband picked his violin back up from many years ago.  Plus, our oldest son started playing the cello.  My youngest son plans on learning the viola and I want to learn the violin.

 

Today, our three sons and my husband participated along with our Homeschool Band at our local Classical Conversations group.  Initially, the plan was for our oldest son to play the cello only with the beginning and intermediate strings groups.  However, things changed and my son wound up playing with the band as well. He felt thrilled by the opportunity.  Here is a video of my husband from the performance.

Here is a video of our youngest son playing.

Here are some more pictures from the performance today.

So what has your family been doing this week?  I would love to hear from you.  If you would like to read what other members of the Home School Review Crew are doing, click here or on the image below.

Homeschool Band Participation

So this year our family is doing something new.  Our second and third sons along with my husband and myself are playing in the homeschool band.  The picture above is our second son who is playing the baritone.  He has played the baritone in the past when we were in Pennsylvania.  So far he seems to be enjoying himself.  He began learning it when we were part of the Salvation Army band at our local Salvation Army Corps.

Our youngest son is going to learn how to play the alto saxophone.  This is rather interesting since I started on the alto saxophone in the fourth grade.  Unfortunately, our family moved to South Carolina and I had to wait until I reached sixth grade to play again.  Also in his past, my husband has played the alto saxophone as well.  Yesterday was his first time actually playing his instrument in band class.  He was very excited about it.

My husband who played clarinet and trumpet is playing the trumpet for the beginner band.  Then he is playing the clarinet in the advanced band.  Unfortunately, his clarinet needed some work done on it, so right now he is using a borrowed one.  It is fun to listen to him practice.

I am playing the flute for the beginner band, which I have always wanted to learn.  Then for the advanced band, I am playing the french horn.  I played french horn in high school.  Then I played an E flat horn in the Salvation Army band.  I am very excited that we were able to find an amazing french horn for us to purchase for me.  It is a double french horn, which is new to me.  But so far I am loving it.

Our Area’s Homeschool Activity Fair – Part 1

 

So we are now in our second year of living in Texas.  This week I became aware that our local homeschool organization was holding an activity fair.  So I informed my youngest two and my husband the four of us would be attending.  As we drove into the parking lot and started to get out of the vehicle, I stated I was not sure how much we would find if anything.

So imagine my surprise when we entered the room the fair was in and found a number of booths that interested my children.  I am going to break this up into two parts.  Today I am going to write about the activities our 16 (getting ready to turn 17 in October) son found at the fair.

The first activity which really interested him was the area homeschool band.  The benefit of this is that I can also play in it as a parent.  Furthermore, our second son can play as well.  After talking with the representatives a few minutes, I picked up a flyer, added our names to the list and checked one activity to add to our schedule.  So this should be fun for us.

The next table to catch Nathan’s interest was one for an area Junior High/High School choir.  Nathan has a love of music and of singing, so again I knew this would be a good fit.  So I grabbed the flyer, noted the date of the informational meeting and then we moved on again.

My son then became distracted for a few minutes when one of his friends from church handed him a flyer for the group’s yearbook staff.  Involvement in that is still under consideration.  Then he was distracted by seeing the mother of that same friend.  So, of course, he had to go over and speak to her.

Then we stopped at a table where another one of my children’s friends was sitting.  We spoke to her for a few minutes before moving on to see what else we could find.

The next table to truly interest our son was the one for tennis lessons.  One of the moms we met when we first moved to Texas was on duty there.  We received the information, chatted for a few minutes and caught up a little bit.  I gave a sigh of relief when I realized they provided all the necessary equipment.  So that is one expense I do not have to worry about right away.

Finally, he asked if we could stop by the table for the area athletic teams – including basketball – something he has wanted to play for years.  Unfortunately, that activity is not a possibility because it will conflict with the homeschool band.  I was glad to see my son was more interested in the band instead of basketball.

So that is a summary of the activities our son is interested in for the new year.

Stay tuned for part 2 where I will discuss the activities our daughter is interested in for this year.

NaBloPoMo – Things that Bring Me Joy

Today is day 5 of NaBloPoMo’s December challenge, and I want to write about things that make me happy.

1) Spending time with my family – I love my family and they bring me great joy.  I love that I am able to homeschool my children.

2) Reading brings me joy.  I am never bored or without something to do because I always have a large number of books I want to read.

3)  Crocheting makes me happy because most of the time I am making things for either members of my family or for friends.  So I always love seeing their expressions when they see the finished product.

4)  Watching favorite movies with my family makes me happy.  We have certain ones that are our favorites.  It is always fun to hear my husband or children quote lines from various shows that other members either quickly pick up the next part and say it or quickly identify for us where it came from.

5)  Listening to music on my Pandora app or Itunes also brings me happiness.  I can pick what channel or what songs I want to listen to based on my mood or even the season (like right now on Pandora, I am listening to a Christmas station).  Christmas music has a way of bringing joy to my heart.

So what things bring you joy?

3)  Going to Bush Gardens makes