Dreaming

Another cute Filip story. Every morning when he wakes up, I ask him what he dreamed about. He used to say the same thing, every day, "Horsey, was mean..."

Now he's trying to say some other things when I ask him. This morning, he said "boney cows".

I have been playing the same Bible story CD for him over and over. The first story, is called 'Pharoah's Dreams'. So, he keeps hearing that Pharoah dreamed about 7 fat cows, and 7 boney cows. So now, that's what Filip dreams about.

He's so smart! I'm going to have to kiss his brain.

Scary Movie

I rented Land Before Time 12 for Filip at the library. Since it's dinosaurs, of course he loved it. Then it got better, because Cera's (the triceratops) little sister was born. So his favorite portions of the movie were the scenes with the 'baby'.

At the climax of the movie, the baby dinosaur falls into the rushing river and can't swim. As required in scenes like this, the baby is headed straight for a waterfall.

Filip was so upset by this. He cried for me, and I had to comfort him while the baby was in trouble. Then, the disc started skipping. Not just a quick skip, we had to wait 5 full minutes for the movie to resume again. All the while, Filip is crying:

"Baby! Arde, Baby! Mommy, Baby Arde! Baby Arde!"

BTW "Arde" is Filip for 'Water'.

Finally, we get to the scene where they save the baby, and all was well again. However, through the evening, he kept telling me about the baby and the arde. I had to keep reminding him that the baby was saved.

Teaching

I went to the piano store last night. I sat in on one of the group classes that my boss taught. She wants me to be teaching some of these classes. It should be a new challenge for me to teach several children at once. I'm looking forward to it.

The program is pretty straight forward. You just go by the book they provide, and you make sure there are plenty of interactive group activities. Preparation is the key.

I've learned alot just these few times I was watching Teresa teach her class. Before, I didn't think I had control over how seriously my students took their lessons. I figured it was just a toss up on if they we're 'good' students or 'bad' students. The 'good' students would learn more, and the 'bad' students would review the old stuff more. However, after watching her teach, I realize that the teacher has a huge bearing on how seriously the students treat their lessons.

There are also practical things that I can implement right away. These would be like giving students written homework every week, and requiring them to turn it in. I also need to require good rhythm right from the start. I used to let them learn a song, and then work on the rhythm. The most important thing I am going to start is to have a lesson plan prepared in advance, instead of just 'winging' it.

So I'm excited about having a whole class to teach. I can really see how it's going to improve the caliber of my teaching ability in private lessons as well.