Complete Church Piano Course Review

We recently received piano books to use and review from a family friend and my favorite preacher, Pastor Steven Anderson.  As soon as I opened the package, Abby was thrilled.  She has had about 2 years of lessons, and often tries to play from the hymn book.  She was able to play the first two songs in the book very easily.  Robert also wanted to play from the book.  They love how simple the songs are.  First Abby played Nothing but the Blood over and over and over.  Then Robert played it over and over and over.  After a few days of that I now had that song stuck in my head, but it is better than the other stuff they have to practice for their piano teacher. 
I was able to play the first few songs, too.  I am very excited about this because I had very little training, and have taught myself most of what I know.  I’d much rather play hymns than the silly stuff in other practice books.  Now I just need to find spare time to practice.  In the past few weeks they have learned the next several songs on their own with no help from me.  It is so nice to hear them playing hymns!!

Since Abby and Robert are the oldest, I am sure these books will get a lot of use in our family.  The other kids also show interest in the piano.  They are still a little young to have official lessons yet.

Here is the site and a video if you wish to learn more about these books and order them.

 http://www.sanderson1611.blogspot.com/p/the-complete-church-piano-course.html 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrZonzV_lv8

Developing motor skills

I have been thinking about why little ones tear everything out that they can get to – shelves, cupboards, and boxes. They are working on their motor skills. Fine motor skills are needed to pick up objects and large motor skills are needed to lift and drop items. This logic doesn’t help the house look any better, but it is something to laugh at as you watch such a cute little girl make such a big mess to clean up. It also works to pick up all her toys and set them in a box. Somehow, she feels that she MUST remove everything that she can reach, whether it’s her toys or someone else’s stuff. Here are photos of her emptying the box of library books.

Book Review

I wanted to share a few books that we have used lately and are enjoying. Our curriculum suggested reading books that deal with math topics. The first one I tried was Beep, Beep, Vroom, Vroom by Stuart Murphy. It is about making patterns with cars. It was a big hit with my kids. After I read it once, Abby then read it again and again out loud to her brothers. There also is fighting over who gets to look at it, and since it is a library book I have put it up high. I'm sure I will have to read it several more times before we take it back to the library. We are now looking for and making patterns in our everyday activities.

The other book making a big splash around here is Drawing with Children by Mona Brookes. I love the way this book breaks down the drawing process into easy to understand elements. I didn't think I could teach my kids how to draw, but this book makes it all very easy to understand and teach. My curriculum schedules art once a week, but my kids are asking for more art time. I love the quiet as they are busy drawing. I am looking forward to teaching this.