More Lessons Learned

* * *

While discussing how to make a proper stage bow for recital:

Me: "Be sure to keep your arms at your sides when you bow."

5-year-old student: "But I want to bow like THIS..."
(Takes a very low bow with one arm in front of his body and the other behind his back.)
"...it's how you bow to a KING!"

Me: "But that's not a good way to bow on stage. Besides, there aren't going to be any kings at the recital next week."

Student: "God is a King. And He will be at the recital because He is everywhere."

* * *

Another 5-year-old boy:
"I need help with this song I am trying to figure out. If you know this song, you can help me. If you don't know it, then I will teach it to you."

* * *

From the eight-year-old girl who loves scales and chords (and apparently quarter notes also):

Me (Counting out loud in 2/4 time): "One...two; one...two."

Student: "You forgot to say the other beats."

Me: "This piece is in 2/4 , so we only have two beats in each measure."

Student: "Oh, I feel sorry for poor old beats 3 and 4! They get left out!"

***

10-year-old girl, after listening to the composer Ravel for the first time:

"And I thought BEETHOVEN was crazy!"

Lawn-and-Garden

Dan and Bailey love yard work.

Dan mows the grass, Bailey trots after him, and they play a game of fetch the whole time.

Earlier this spring, Dan tilled the back corner of our yard for a vegetable garden.

At first, it looked like the picture above. But now, after a few short months:

• The sweet potatoes are taking over the dirt that belongs to the other vegetables.
  
• The corn is much taller than we are.
• The squash plants were so crowded that we had to transplant them AND hand-pollinate them since the bees aren't doing their job.
  
• The romaine plant gave us 4 salads during its lifetime.
  
• We have jalapenos every few days.

The garden contains 3 different kinds of peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, romaine (now deceased), 1 strawberry bush, cantaloupe (no fruit yet), sweet potatoes, corn, and beans. I don't think I left anything out except the innumerable species of weeds that also enjoy our dirt and water. (Why do the bees pollinate THEM but not the squash plants?)


So far, we've eaten five strawberries, one zucchini, four jalapenos, one green pepper, and romaine leaves. Pulled our first ripe tomato off the vine today. It's probably going to go into some sauce for lunch tomorrow. It's a "Victory Garden," because it's a victory for me that I haven't killed anything in it yet. (Except the romaine, and that was on purpose.)