Suzuki Violin Book 1

Yep that's an academy award.
And there is a couple of Gemini and bunch of Genie awards.

This is Kieran's violin teachers house.
Where he's been taking violin lessons for the past several years.

Thanks to Marika, we got into Dorothy's school of violin.
But it's impressive to see them in real life none the less.


Today was a big milestone for Kieran.
Kieran was ready to take his Suzuki Book 1 test.
When he practices.
It sounds amazing. Award winning. To me.  But you should hear me play twinkle twinkle. It's like a cat screeching.
He's come a long way from that first lesson of bowing.






Not using the violin bow.
I'm talking taking a bow after a performance.
That was lesson #1.
I have that post. A few years back. Sometime in Feb 2012.
The Small Violin

For his test he has to play 3 songs from Book 1.
2 of his choice and one that he pulls from a hat.

These were his songs for his test.

Gosic Gavotte.  He played this one well a little mechanical but well.
Go tell Aunt Rhody.  He played this one earlier today very VERY well, his test I think he was feeling a little tired.  Because he was supposed to go to a swim meet a few hours later, but he didn't feel up to going. I felt it too.  So I didn't push him to go.  But it still sounded pretty good.


The song he did that was out of the hat was Allegretto.
He looked like he didn't know it, but some songs sound the same.   I knew he knew it, he'd practiced so many songs that he just needed some time to sort it out in his mind. And once he started hearing it, his playing improved.



This is their cat Iggy.  If he wants to be petted, he will rap on the door until he gets his way.
Usually he will sit near me or on my lap during a lesson.  Sometimes he's chewed on Kieran's music books.  But he's a pretty nice cat.

THP FC - DB

Football! Soccer!  It's a game that everyone can play and enjoy and since this is Kieran's 1st time playing in a House League and playing team sports can be challenging with respect to learning how to play your position, and how to move without the ball.

Kieran didn't like soccer.  And the main reason was because he never got the ball, because he wasn't as good as some of the other kids.  There's really only one way to fix that, and that's to play in an organized league with coaching and practices.  As you progress, it's natural to like something more, simply for the fact that you see improvement in yourself.

So when the request for parent volunteers for coach, assistant coach and team managers.  I thought that I could help him adjust to the sport and team play by volunteering.  So I did and here I am.  And we've played 2 games and doing very well.  I'm glad there are 2 assistant coaches, because I'm a newbie, but with motivation to have Kieran as well as all the other kids enjoy playing the game.  We have a great set of U10 boys on our team.

It didn't start off on the right foot, it was stressful off the bat when I picked up our team kit, as I opened up the box to dispense to the parents and kids. Our kit had the wrong jerseys and not having done this before there was a bit of confusion on which team had our kits.  It took a few days to sort out but we got the jerseys and shorts sorted, but the socks were delayed, but that's pretty minor as the kids had played previous years and just wore an older pair.  No big deal.  The jerseys were the important part and we got them before our first game, as well as some other missing things from the coach's kit.  Luckily I was able to get Kieran's entire kit before his first game.  One of the perks of being a coach!

So we are pretty much sorted out now.  And the kids have played well.  Like really well, as in 2-0 in games and 5-0 scores in each one.   The first game was a blow out.  The second was a little more even, but then we just kept rolling.  Matt the other asst coach is worried we would have one of our kids traded to another team to re-balance.

It's always fun when you are winning, but it doesn't matter if you win or not.  As long as the kids have fun.  And I think part of the reason the kids are doing well is that they are playing as a unit.  They keep their spacing and playing really solid defence.  And in terms of goalie's we've just been lucky to have some great kids in goal.

I put Kieran on 2nd unit and on defence so he can watch and see how the other kids play and so I can give him some instructions and it'll make sense when it's his shift.  He did ok.  We've been practicing doing kicking, passing and dribbling and protecting the ball drills.





The more he does it the easier it'll get on the field, to know where to be, to see the field and where the play will develop.  Hoping that as he plays more and gets more confident, he'll enjoy playing the game the whole world plays.


Next week, I'd like it to be warmer.

HMS 2015 Track Meet

Yep...got volunteered for another outing.
But you know what, this was an amazing event for the students of Humberside.
Varsity Stadium has been rebuilt for the Pan Am games.
There's seating on only 1 side of the stadium now.  It used to be all around the stadium.  But this Stadium used to be the home of the Toronto Argonauts and had been host to several Grey Cup games.
Well now it's home to the UofT Varsity Blues Football team.
And it looks pretty nice.

We got up extra early this morning so that we wouldn't be late heading out to Varsity Stadium for the Track Meet.  It would look pretty bad if this parent volunteer was late bringing the kids he was in charge of to the meet.  The kids would have left him behind.

Most were awake.  Others, still getting there.

I remember going to a track meet as a kid in Gr 7 & 8.  But I don't remember participating in an event.  Guess I'll be doing much the same this time too.  But Kieran and his class, that wanted to come. There was one kid trying to lobby all the other kids not to go.

Cough, cough, Josh, cough, cough.  I'm not sure if he went last year and just didn't like it.

But weather wise, it looked to be a pretty nice day.  And for the most part it was.  A little chillier than I had expected, but it was ok.  Overcast, but that was probably a good thing.  Kids didn't really mind. The teachers, parent volunteers, students all had a great time.   Some had more coffee than others, but otherwise it was amazing and entertaining.

There were I think 9 schools participating.  And it started right on schedule.  About 30 mins late. Ha.  Good thing the stadium is open on the one side, because some couldn't figure out where the entrance was.

I helped out timing the U8 and U10 hurdles.  Which was fun.  There were 5 lanes and there were sometimes 5 kids or less.  Each timing person took a lane.  A person on the timing side raised a flag to say we were all ready and the starter would get the kids lined up and drop the flag to indicate GO!

What we didn't expect was that the kids sometimes didn't understand the concept of staying in your lane. Especially the U8 kids.  They were the best.

It was more like follow the leader or playing a game of Galaga.
As timers we either had to call out which kid we had or move with the kids as they moved lanes or as they got closer and we could read their numbers, (if they stuck it to the front, some stuck it to the back) we'd shout it out that "I've got kid #368!"  So we knew.  And it worked out pretty well.  Made it interesting.  I wished I could have video recorded it.  It was so funny.

HMS had U10 and up. At least I got to see Kieran and a few of his buddies race the hurdles.

It was amazing to see all the kids cheering their team members on. As well as the announcer say "Off the TRACK!"  Haha.  They were all so excited and in the spirit of the games.

The best event we watched had to be the high jump.  Techniques were variations of jumping from bed to bed, from floor to couch and diving into a pool or lake.  That's what it seemed like to me.

They were down to the 3 remaining kids and each had knocked down the bar, so they went back and did it again 3 more times until 1 remained.
And the sight of the kids from that school cheer in unison and hug their classmate was the spirit of these games.  This is how it should be all the time.

To make things interesting when we didn't have HMS kids in a heat, or it was a scheduled break we'd all start betting on which lane would come in first.  It was like a primer in horse races.
I'll take Lane 5, 4-1 odds.
Go #5! Go!

Some kids were all business.







Others were clowning around.  It was a lot like a circus half-time show.









And others were having a picnic.







We even had a fan from the US.  Now we know exactly where she moved.  When I heard it from the kids.  It was 3 different places.  Lara was back up for a family visit and managed to drop in to see the kids that miss her.

It didn't matter if you were first or last, or that you participated in 1 or all 8 events, but that you tried your best and had a lot of fun.
Because tomorrow your body will probably ache.


 Photos: HMS 2015 Track Meet