etoile 2013

the practice, the wait is over. yu ze has his first violin concert, etoile 2013. i believe i'm more excited then him. there is a rehearsal before the actual concert at 4.30pm. we skipped berries today cos it will be a super long day for him if we still go for berries class.

 

we left home for the rehearsal at around 12.30pm. when we arrived, i left yu xi in her car seat and only bring yu ze with me. she was crying badly but i have no choice but to leave her there with darling. we are not supposed to stay behind for the rehearsal but to leave them with wei han.

 

the whole group

however, there are parents who stayed on for the rehearsal and so i did too. its not a big place but good enough to hold small scale concert. i didn't dress him for the concert and only changed him at 3.30pm where they have a short break.

 

the calypso group

the concert started promptly at 4.30pm. most guests started coming in around 4pm. i totally forget that my camera is spoilt and only have to rely on my hp to take any photos or pictures which is not very good. the moment i zoom in, the photo is not as clear. sigh.... well, i just have to make do with it. i must buy a proper camera this christmas.

 

 

ah gong, gugu and the whole family come to support him. i'm very proud of him and did get a bit emo to see him performing on stage. it was a good experience for him. i'm also glad that cos of this concert, he gets to see the older kids playing the violin, he is inspire by them and wanting to be like them.  

halloweon party

yu ze's violin teacher has a small tricks or treat for his student in yesterday's group practice. all the students are supposed in come dressed up for halloweon. i'm pretty surprised that the older kids came in dressed up too.

 

they had their usual group practice before the tricks or treats. in order for their treats, they had to answer some simple questions relating to what they learn and also simple observation of things around them. its not really a party but i think its quite nice for him to have something for the students.

 

well, i have a hard time convincing yu ze for the dressed up. luckily, andrina came along with us when we were at daiso to buy the stuff last week. she managed to convince him from nothing for dress up to 3 items from daiso. my kid listen to others more than his mommy. sigh.... anyway, i'm glad that i had prepared him for it and he seems to look forward to it after that.

 

oh yah, when its yu ze's turn for the treats, he only took 2 sweets from it. he shared one with yu xi. he even told wei han that cannot eat so much sweet, must brush teeth.  

christmas concert

i just received an email from yu ze's violin teacher. they are having a christmas concert on 1 december at nafa. i can't believe it. the group practice for them will start this sat. i can't imagine the mess and how my son will react to it. now i know why weihan keep revising that new song with him now. but but, he still can't make it for that song. argh!!!! i hope with the group practice, he will be better. must step up on our practice now.

2 months had gone

2 months had passed since we changed yu ze's violin teacher to wei han. i'm so glad that we had make the right move. within these 2 months, he had learnt quite a number of new things. he has enjoyed the class pretty much too.

 

he had learnt:

• the 4 basic parts of violin (chin rest, bridge, finger board and scroll)
• the 2 parts on the bow (tip and frog)
• how to play on a and e string
• how to play a (1, 2, 3) and e (1, 2, 3)
• what is crochet and minim and how many counts they have
• where does a and e 'sits' on the score
• how to play twinkle twinkle little stars (finally)

 

occassionally, he will still ask for the 'blue teacher' (anthony). he will say he like both 'black and blue teacher'.

3 lessons had gone...

yu ze learnt how to play mi si si pi stop stop on the A string, recognise the position of A and E, tell the different sound of A and E last week. today, the 3rd lesson he play mi si si pi stop stop on both A and E strings, what is crochet and the number of count.  

 

i'm really very glad that i had made the decision fast and changed him almost immediately when he requested to stop violin. 3 lessons had gone. i can tell that he likes weihan and takes to him pretty well. though weihan is more firm and 'fierce' compare to anthony, yu ze is more willing to practice now. no more fights, struggles and cries to get yu ze to practice.

 

for the past 2 weeks, whenever i remind him about the upcoming violin, his first reaction will be which one? are we going to the 'black teacher' (he called weihan the black teacher cos he was wearing black)? when my reply is yes, he will nod his head or say he wants the 'black teacher'.

 

there is nothing very special with weihan's teaching method. i guess its really the chemistry between them. a good thing i can think of is, yu ze learns something new every lesson. weihan will revise what he taught last week and cover new things. i guess in this way, its not so boring and yu ze gets to play on the violin too. its no longer going for violin class without playing on the violin.  

additional routine - practice violin

last week, i started a new routine for them which is keeping toys. bedtime routine starts with keeping of toys, read books/activity of their choice, brush teeth, drink milk and sleep. today, i'm adding another new routine for yu ze which is practising violin.

weihan asked for a 5 minutes practice for him so i decided to add this to yu ze's bedtime routine. this will comes after keeping of toys then read book. i didn't really time if its really 5 minutes. all i want is for him to go through what weihan had taught one to two rounds. if he is cooperative, he will have it done soon and can start on his story time. if he dilly dally, refuse to practice then it will affect his story time.

it never occur to me that bedtime story is such a big attraction to them. they really follow the routine i set up just to get to story time. i'm so glad that this didn't backfired on me.

new violin lesson

yu ze started his first violin lesson with weihan (violin teacher) today. i'm glad that he takes to the new teacher and say that he likes him. what he learnt today is pretty similar to what he already know with different terms and slightly different movement.

used to be

rest feet (feet together), v feet (form a v shape) and play feet (right feet step back) to now

step 1 (feet together), step 2 (form a v shape) and step 3 (move left feet toward) with the position of the violin at different steps.

he also re-learn 4 parts of the violin, scroll, finger board, bridge and chin rest. out of the 4, yu ze was able to identify bridge.

weihan mention to practise with him for 5 minutes. don't do any longer cos he is still young. hopefully, i can make him practice from now onwards.

i know why

eversince, yu ze mentioned he wants to stop violin i have been checking and double confirming with him if he really wants stop. i always get the same answer of violin is yucky and slowly to don't want to ok.

 

today then i finally realised why yu ze wants to stop violin. i remind him about going to violin class on saturday. he shake his head first and nod his head. then he say he can't and don't know how cos his hand is painful, pointing to his thumb (he had blister on his thumb previously for plucking the strings on the violin.). i told him we go to another teacher, the teacher who willl teach him how to play twinkle twinkle little stars like didi, hayden (i show him a video of hayden playing twinkle twinkle little stars). he then show me the action of 'plucking strings' and say don't have like that (the action), only like this (action of playing violin). i say yes only play violin, no pluck strings. then he nod his head again. i guess, its not that he don't want to learn, its the 'painful' experience of the blister that make him wants to stop. hopefully, he will perform better with this new teacher this weekend.

 

i had also text weihan (violin teacher) to inform him about this and confirmed that there is no plucking of strings on the first lesson.

stop violin?

we are back for class after the chinese new year break. as usual, we reminded yu ze about his class during lunch time. he told us he don't want to go for class, violin is yucky. we just leave it as it is thinking he is just trying to push his luck to skip class.

 

lesson didn't go well, he refuse to do anything. doesn't want to hold the violin at all. only thing he did today is to stand and bow with the violin. end up, i call off the class after 5 minutes. we walked out with a crying yu ze. he has been a good boy for the past 7 months. though he make noise about the class, he will still go and concentrate and do whatever for 15 mins on bad days. today is the ultimate.

 

upon reaching home, he dare not ask for his favourite tv. he just play with his toys. darling asked him if he is serious about not wanting to do violin. he say yes and violin is yucky. darling agreed to let him stop. i was sad when he said he wants to stop. violin is what he asked for, i didn't expect him to tell me he wants to stop. 

 

however, his behaviour today also set me thinking, is the class to slow and boring for him. all he did  is stand, bow and bow activities. nothing on the violin except for plucking some songs which yu ze don't like. his way of plucking is not right end up having a sore thumb and blister.

 

i hope today is just the 'wrong day' for him.