I swear not all of my posts are about tykes

But this one is.

You know how I told you that I would tell you if I got that other job? I did. (Oh, and I get to work extra hours at the first school when I want to too.) We start next week and I am in charge of the intro to music class for 4-6 year olds. I gather that the parents are rather a force to be reckoned with at this school so I am spending the rest of the week and weekend writing up a term's worth of lesson plans, making homework sheets, and drafting a letter to the parents about What We Will Be Learning.

I'm excited, looking forward to actually setting down all my thoughts and plans about this class. It is a new, start up school so the pay is less than stellar- but I would actually do this for free- so getting paid is a bonus anyway and I have a new practice arena! With even more tykes who don't speak English!

The school has just hired a new musical director and he is amusingly nervous. I mean, I'm nervous too because it's a new school and I'm going to need to be much more goal oriented with what I am teaching the tykes. I need to be clear from the outset what I am planning on teaching them and why- so challenging and whatnot. He is just jittery though. Worried about which set of percussion to buy. Worried about what the correct rhythmic Sol-fa syllables are. Worried about the fact that he is going to be teaching primary school students when his experience is exclusively with 16+. I told him it would all be okay.

Things I would not have thought of had we not discussed it: French Sol-fa or English? (one syllable difference); fixed Do or movable? (corollary: sing on "la", Sol-fa, or letter names?); English, American, Canadian, or French duration terms?; etc.

Really interesting.

However, as this meeting was after an action packed day at the races and continued on rather more lengthily than I had anticipated- I was glad that I had packed myself snacks. (Things I've learned from my mother: Wear layers. Pack snacks. Take up space at meetings.)

I walked to the bus stop through the park as the light was fading. It is so autumnal now- brisk weather, colored leaves, flocks of geese silhouetted against the sunset.

Sweet.

Happy Mother's Day!

My mom is pretty amazing. Here's how:

1. I have this giant final project that I'm working on. It is big, scary, and tremendously exciting when I can get past those first two bits. One of the things that I have been struggling with is pulling all the disparate parts of it together- handily my mom is a bad ass program manager and has been giving me tips. By "tips" I mean lavishing huge amounts of time and effort to coach me through different aspects of the project. I can't even begin to explain how helpful it has all been. I have someone that I can ask really stupid questions to, someone I can freak out to because I'm falling behind and not only does she listen and not think I'm an idiot- she also helps me work through whatever that particular issue is with the project and also helps me realize that I'm doing quite a good job and it's all coming together. Which is pretty phenomenal. We do email updates and phone calls and I have someone to bounce ideas off of and someone who can help me to organize all the thoughts going through my head. I'm so lucky. Plus, it is really fun to work with her in this way- it is fun to see her in work mode and playing with these tools and ideas; playing with me.
2. She's secretly super goofy.
3. She taught me to feed everyone. This has turned out to also be useful in my project- I've been keeping my team well fed. The bagels this morning were a hit!