Thursday, Piano Day

Thursdays have quickly become the day that not much in the way of bookwork gets done. The morning passes with chores mostly completed before our piano teacher arrives. Andrew gets his math done on his own sometime during the day, usually in the morning. I sit with Matthew to do his math while Nicholas has his piano lesson, then with Nicholas for math while Andrew has his lesson. Next week that will change when we start the Music for Young Children programme with Nicholas and Matthew. The teacher, K, has requested that I stay in for that hour and take part with the kids. She says it's a fun time and the kids will really have their theory reinforced in creative ways. I'm all for creative learning so we'll see how it goes!

Andrew has the "homework" of doing his scales and triads for about half an hour a day. The rest of his suggested practise time (an hour and fifteen minutes in total, so 45 minutes) he is to spend on his grade 3 pieces. K has asked him to concentrate on the middle bars of one piece because while he plays the first part really well, he slows down the pace and stumbles a bit in the middle. He really wants to polish this piece for his exam so he has been working at it, along with the other pieces on his practise list.

Nicholas is coming along really well! It's amazing what a difference a break of 18 months has done for him. He is picking up pieces quickly and thoroughly enjoying them. It's lovely hearing him play the same pieces that Andrew was playing at the same level and K is careful to include new pieces that Andrew did not play so that they are for Nicholas alone. He really likes that! It's hard for him not to compare what he's doing to what Andrew is doing and has in the past just given up altogether. We're encouraging him to keep going because his practising is really showing the rewards!

Thursday afternoons we spend doing the two newspaper routes the kids have. There are two newspapers offered freely each week. They have one route with each paper. One is close to the pool and is fairly quick to do. The other one is even closer and is just as quick to finish. That one has to be done on Thursdays, but the other one we have until Friday to do. We just find it makes more sense to do them both on Thursdays.

Every other week recently we've also had catalogues to deliver at another area of town. That one is a little more tedious because it's further away and they are not delivered to every house, just the ones who have requested the catalogue. I end up driving the kids for most of this route because it should take less time. Thursday we were a bit frazzled by a sudden need for a bathroom break after finishing the second paper route so we didn't continue on to do the catalogues.

We did them Friday morning instead. It took nearly two hours and I was admittedly very frustrated with the slow pace. The kids were arguing about who had to close the van door (of all the silly things to choose to argue over!), who got to take a catalogue to which house and consequently, the stop I had planned on the way home to pick up some groceries was cancelled. There was no way I was going into the store with all three of them in a prickly mood. I took just Matthew with me later in the afternoon and it was much more enjoyable!