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A Lesson in Music (and Flexibility)

Today was one of those awesome (but rare) days in which I let go of any preconceived notions about the day and just let life happen.  Technically, according to my self-imposed schedule, we should have reviewed our memory verse, completed a math lesson (Levi), made lines of yellow playdough (Owen), possibly run out to the library, and learned the silly "Father Abraham" song as a gross motor correlation to the week's Bible story.  

Instead, Silas and I fell asleep nursing in bed, which made me late in getting ready for the day.  Isaac stayed home for part of the morning, in which Levi did most of the scheduled math lesson and I spent an eternity in the shower, trying to summon up the will to re-enter my chaotic life downstairs.  It did not look like today was going to be very pretty.

But, rejoin life I did, and as we all snuggled on the couch for a story, things started to pick up.  The bigger boys had great fun helping Silas touch different textures in a book about creation, and then Owen brought over Berlioz the Bear.  (Who doesn't love a little Jan Brett?!)  The last page shows Berlioz (the ursine string bass player of the Berlioz Orchestra) playing "Flight of the Bumblebee" as an encore, and as always, I hummed a few bars and explained how it's a fast song that sounds like a bumblebee.  

That's when inspiration hit: what is YouTube for, if not to watch and listen to any song your heart desires at that very moment?!  So (I changed two diapers and then) we all piled into the computer chair to watch three versions of Rimksy-Korsakav's lightening-speed masterpiece (one piano, one orchestra, and the ever-brilliant Itzhak Perlman on violin).  The boys were fascinated, and for the first time in weeks I felt like I was actually doing something to broaden their horizons and artistically enrich their lives.  (For an ex-music major, ex-piano teacher, I have done a dismal job at exposing my children to good music.)  We went from there back to the living room to pull out the instruments -- a random selection of floor tom, rain stick, accordion, and harmonica -- and make "fast music."  (I noticed for the first time today that the accordion and the harmonica are both in the same key, and as this was the first time both boys have been able to make sound on those instruments at the same time, I was extremely grateful.) 

So simple.  So easy.  So incredibly delightful.  I must remember this!  I'm trying too hard!  And with that, I leave the computer to speed-clean the living room and whip up a snack for youth group tonight, since I spent the morning playing instead of working.  But everyone is happier for it, myself included, and I wouldn't change a thing.

Note: these pictures have nothing to do with this post.  This is one of the boys' current favorite activities: "planking" from the couch to the coffee table.  :)





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