Ree ripped hers out of the box and immediately started practicing. She’s learned how to play B, A, and G and memorized Mary Had a Little Lamb. She reallyreally wants to learn the clarinet, but general consensus is that she’s still a bit too young (hands are too small and she doesn’t have adult teeth in the front), so this will be a good starter instrument.
Sister is hard at work practicing her cartwheels in the background. She spends more time upside down than rightside up these days.
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Cute! Agree with you on the clarinet. I played for a few years, and I can't imagine doing it without my permanent teeth in place!
ReplyDeleteDid you like it? Ree checked out every instrument in the symphony and listened to each one on Youtube, and emphatically picked the clarinet.
DeleteDoes she have to play an instrument at school? I played the clarinet in 7th to 9th grades and loved it!
DeleteThey have a school band, but you have to be in 4th grade (or maybe 5th?) to join. Same with the girls' running club, which also sounds awesome.
DeleteI'm super impressed that Ree spent that much time determining which instrument she wanted to play! That (plus diving right in to the recorder) surely bodes well for some stick-to-it-tive-ness in the musicality department, I'd think!
DeleteI played the sax in elementary school band...probably mostly because my dad had and I thought that was "cool"....plus I had his and didn't have to rent one or play a school instrument, and back then, that was sort of a novel thing. But I had no real attachment to it and didn't stick with it.
I took piano for a bit - it probably overlapped some with that year of 5th grade sax playing - but my teacher and I butted heads over the fact that I struggled to read music and yet could play by ear. I wish I had stuck with that (and learned to properly read music back then and not many years later when I taught and then sang in choir!) - I still can do better picking things out by ear than reading. Guessing it's old habits dying hard :-)
You'll have to keep us updated on Ree's musical pursuits (and your sanity when it comes to the recorder!)
As far as running (and ack, that'd have been even more of a nightmare to me than reading music at that age! Ha! Give me swimming any day instead!) have you heard of "Girls on the Run?" http://www.girlsontherun.org/
A TON of people I know did that with their girls this year, and they all just did a 5K a couple of weeks ago. Apparently it's great...and may be worth looking into since the running club is out at the moment. Some of my friends did it via a co-op group, some via a charter school type thing where they did it on the side, and some just started it up to get their girls moving and just started a group. So you maybe could just find some friends and do it (or that is my understanding).
That Girls on the Run group is the one they have at our school! I couldn't remember the name. We watched them many afternoons after school and it was such a fabulous group. I checked out the url you gave and it looks like it is avail for 3rd graders, but I know our school said you had to be older. Maybe it's up to the local group? I'll check next year and see if third graders can do it. Ro in particular is an amazing runner and always has been and the group was so great about promoting self confidence, teamwork, and other messages.
DeleteNo Tuba????
ReplyDeleteI know, right?!! :-)
DeleteI loved playing the clarinet! From there I moved right into flute and oboe. My parents spent a small fortune in instruments, but it is a gift that lasts a lifetime.
ReplyDeleteHow neat that she's taking such interest already in an instrument! Learning so much already is awesome! Miss H purchased a recorder for me for Mother's Day. All I can say is...OYE!!! :o)
ReplyDeletePS - The running club sounds awesome!!
That's great that she loves the recorder! I was the 4th grader that learned 2+ octaves of all the notes (chromatic) - so naturally playing a "real" instrument was next! That being said, i still get paid (yes!) to play recorder today! So it is a useful instrument. An instrument that young students can play is flute. I start my students as young as 6 on flute. No adult teeth needed. One of my young starters switched to percussion recently LOL. In any case, that's great news! And if you need some references for excellent flute teachers in your area, I think I know some ;)
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