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Friday 4 November 2022

Cold Start

Sarah - I wonder if there is the worry that bear won't excel at violin. He's started too late to be a high performer, and the tutor has a lot of kids with pushy parents. She would have been happy to have him change to piano, which I suppose needs less correcting. As bear has lost the last dregs of his enthusiasm, I'm not pushing it now, but I'm paying attention to you and Eileen. Poor kid has been unlucky with the violin, with losing two teachers (to moving country and unexpected pregnancy) and then Covid before this. I'll keep an eye on him and see what he wants.

Bless - DH had the second half of it tonight and thought it was even better after a rest! I really hope that I can duplicate it after all this!

Eileen - bear only has two exams left. Poor kid has had them all loaded on him in the first week. He is still planning on revising most of the weekend. 

There was ice on the car windscreen this morning. It was only a tiny bit, but it was there. I took a pic of the fuchsia as I'm not sure how long it has left for this year. 


There are still quite a few buds, but it's coming to the end.

Bear had Biology and English today. He was indifferent about Biology but said that he had done much better on his English than he had expected and was bubbling over with enthusiasm. I had picked up reduced price cupcakes from the Co-op which he very much enjoyed before disappearing to his room. He only has two exams next week, but one is Maths and he is making his target to get 100%. He came down a little later on to get something from his bag and explained something about differential equations to DH and I. I have absolutely no idea what he was talking about. He was happily chatting about square roots, x, y and negative numbers and I could feel myself switching to autopilot. 

I should add - bear is setting his own targets and, as far as I can tell, while 100% may be a little over-optimistic, he has as good a chance as any of getting a very high score. He has in previous tests before the mocks. I'm not pushing him. Between his own determination and school, I think that there's more than enough pressure. I'll leave him to it, but I make make some of his favourite meals over the weekend.

For me, today was a washout. I felt so tired this morning, despite a reasonable sleep, that I was worried that I wasn't safe driving home after dropping bear off at school. I went straight to sleep and slept for two hours before being woken by a delivery (DH has a new computer chair). Then I had another hour's nap. I loaded up with caffeine before picking bear up from school, but I'm still feeling flattened. I think I shall have to see the doctor, but I think I will try an iron supplement first. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

3 comments:

  1. The cupcakes were a nice treat for Bear. Hope he gets some relaxing time this weekend! Take care of yourself. Are you feeling any better?

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  2. I hope bear did well on his tests today and will continue to do well on the upcoming ones, too.
    I also hope that you will start to feel better, soon. Hope you'll get plenty of rest over the weekend.

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  3. This will probably sound like I'm nagging you but every time you mention the music teacher, it rings alarm bells. It doesn't matter whether he excels at the violin and he honestly isn't that late a starter. He still has the time to reach a high standard IF he has a good teacher. The fact that this teacher has decided he should stop learning violin but that she will teach him piano is truly scary. I think it is important that kids learn their chosen instrument, not the one that is chosen for him ... speaking from experience, that only ever leads to failure. The piano needs just as much correction when learning as the violin does, and any other instrument come to that. I know that you both liked the teacher but the real issue could be that her teaching style doesn't suit Bear. Back in July you said that she'd mentioned working towards the grade 4 exam which, considering he only started learning in 2019 and taking account of the disruption of lockdowns and other time without music lessons, is actually a remarkable achievement and would suggest that he has a lot of ability. But it could equally be that he isn't doing well know because she incorrectly assessed his playing standard and is setting his lessons at too high a standard especially as there are gaps in his foundation learning. I know you want to interest to come from Bear but I really do agree with Sarah's suggestion that you find a youth orchestra for him to join and look for a better teacher for him in the long term. I'll stop now and hope I haven't offended you! xx

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