Category: Videos
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SVI 2016
SVI has come and gone for another year. Registration filled extremely early this year (third week of March) and that allowed me to get a jump on the scheduling. We had most of the basics fleshed out by mid-April, which took some of the pressure off me in May-June, when things normally get fairly frantic […]
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A working summer
Last year we managed some spectacular alpine hikes to cap off the summer. This year, so far at least, has felt much more like a working summer. There have been a few afternoons at the beach, but little hiking (yet) and it has felt like we’ve all been quite busy. Between us we’ve had multiple […]
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Creative Arts vs. Pure Sciences
It feels like things are starting to fall into place for Noah. He’s in his final year of high school, and hadn’t until recently been terribly forthcoming or taken much initiative concerning his plans for the future. Part of that was no doubt due to the delightfully flexible but exceptionally vague school he attends: there […]
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Cherry-picking
We’ve enjoyed unprecedented flexibility and co-operation from our local school for many years. At first we were merely registered homeschoolers with no official school affiliation, yet we were welcome to attend special events, use the library and participate in assemblies and field trips. When Erin enrolled in high school they enthusiastically supported her unschooled learning, […]
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Theatre camp
Sophie had been doing occasional dance classes at school all year with the high schoolers. It was an experience Fiona was really pining for, but she was too young. So when the same teacher was offering two weeks of intensive dance camp, one for teens and one for her age group, Fiona was the first […]
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Summit Strings Cuba Concert
Summit Strings began in 2008 when our most senior local violin and viola students began playing ensemble music together on a regular basis. It has evolved as students moved away, moved on, graduated or what-have-you. For a couple of years we had a tight group of five, and they anchored the first half of a […]
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Recital time
It’s been a challenging year musically for all three kids. Erin moved away, and though the other kids would never articulate that she was a motivating force in their music studies, she certainly “normalized” diligent daily practicing around our house. Not only that, but as a member of the Suzuki group class and of Summit […]
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Trail running
It’s been a lovely Nothing Day, one of those precious days with nothing scheduled. Some science bookwork got done, a lot of Harry Potter got read, bureau drawers got sanded, primed and painted, the pond got emptied and cleaned, a few loaves of bread got baked, some music got made, compost got spread on the […]
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Mother’s Day Concert
Need I say more? It was a great concert. They are great kids. The music was fabulous. And then after it was over, Erin and Sophie did a quick presto-change-o and became choral accompanist and soprano and did the community choir performance as well.
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Corazón
The recording above was made at their first performance of the season, a couple of weeks ago in Silverton. That’s Erin you see in the title frame, second from the left in front. Noah figures a few times in the course of the video, one of the guys in the front row. The performance was pretty good […]
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Dvorak Symphony
Last weekend Noah, Erin and I, together with another long-time local student and friend, headed off for another weekend at with the Symphony. Noah had done one previous program with this group, Erin and I had done two and it was J.’s first. The program was bigger and meatier this time, though, with two big […]
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Milky swirls
Fiona is enjoying learning how to use iMovie and iStopMotion. We made this one together. A couple of her other projects are on her blog.
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Suzuki recital
Yesterday was our winter Suzuki recital. All the kids who study locally with my mom or me played. For the first time we were able to “hire from within” for the accompanying. Erin hasn’t had a piano lesson in two years, but she continues to enjoy accompanying. She is making pretty good money as the […]
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Brandenburg
This was one of the first chamber works I learned as a teen in the program I grew up in, so it holds a special place in my heart. I played Viola 1, my first-ever viola gig, in a chamber group with my two brothers and six or eight other kids I grew up with. […]
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Sophie’s Beethoven Quartet
It was a big piece for an 11-year-old, one with little chamber music experience and none from the 1st violin chair of a string quartet. But she sure rose to the challenge! I was so proud of her assertive playing and her cues and leadership.
