Maia (5 years old) and Camelia

Maia loved the Haydn lessons so much, that today we got nostalgic, went back and read the book “Farewell Symphony” (see my first post), played and listened to the “Surprise Symphony” again.
I came up with the idea of realizing a “listening gliph” so, inspired by the illustrations in the book I mentioned before, I drew Haydn and chose six elements the child has to pay special attention to, while listening to the “Surprise Symphony” (second movement).



Maia had a blast improvising, imagining herself playing different musical instruments and choosing the colours for Haydn’s clothes and shoes:



I am more than happy to share this listening glyph with you so, if anyone interested in it, he/she can download it from here:


Note: The child has to be reminded of the reason why this composer's clothes are so dull: "Haydn's contract, dated 1765, required him to behave and dress as an officer in a princely court and to serve as an example to the other musicians" (Author's Note, "Farewell Symphony".)
Happy learning, everyone!

Dear Hellene, my Skype id is: camelia.vida
Looking forward to seeing you .

Happy birthday, dear Hellene!
I can imagine how much you miss and love Russia, so I think it is great that our current week curriculum segment is dedicated to Tchaikovsky!

A. Music appreciation:
Maia’s fist “musical” love is Chopin (I guess she takes after her mummy). In December, whoever, we met Tchaikovsky and he, at once, became her second love.
This week was a great occasion for us to sum up all the information we have on this composer and his great work.
We listened to March (Nutcracker suite) and filled in a listening glyph I found here: quavermusicblog.com/2012/12/11/holiday-l...and-quavermusic-com/ .


We read two wonderful books, The Nutcracker, written and illustrated by Susan Jeffers (short, simple and beautiful text) and The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, the original and unabridged story, written by E.T.A. Hoffmann and wonderfully illustrated by Roberto Innocenti.





Maia put on her tutu and we had such great time reading, listening to music, making all sorts of crafts, and practicing the ballet steps she is acquainted with so far!


This is a picture I took with all the materials I gathered for this study:


We made ballerina paper dolls, following this tutorial:

and using this template: krokotak.com/2012/11/snowflake-ballerinas-for-little-hands/



We painted a wooden peg into the colours of the Russian flag, and placed it next to the rest of the composer inspired "flags":


We crafted a popsicle nutcracker, following this tutorial: crafting.squidoo.com/popsicle-christmas-crafts .



I made M. a very cute ballet slipper book mark (tutorial: weefolkart.com/content/ballet-slipper-book-mark )


This ballerina-paper-clip-tin is also so, so sweet and loved by Maia! In case you are interested in it, here is the tutorial: blog.shoplet.com/office-supplies/zakka-l...rina-paper-clip-tin/ , and here is the ballerina template I designed: docs.google.com/file/d/0ByW769RKGiaWdy1aUVlRUnJmUkU/edit .




I also made, out of polymer clay, Maria and her dear nutcracker. This turned out to be one of the little dolls Maia loves the most:


In Romania we have the tradition of celebrating the coming of spring by wearing (children and women) little trinkets, similar to small pendants. For this occasion, I made small polymer clay ballerina slippers:


The Romanian book “Ceaikovski si dansul notelor de argint” (“Tchaikovsky and the Dance of the Silver Notes”, written by Cristina Andone) inspired me to make polymer clay piano, a small composer-elf, a swan and a house placed in a silver birch (we all know that Russia is the land of this magnificent tree):


B. Ear training:
I managed to “decipher” the music sheet I found in one of the books that came with our piano, Trepak (The Nutcracker), but since I was only able to read the right hand, I thought we could give it a try and play it together:


C. Interactive theory:

Maia has discovered how she can make notes in the Alphabet Note School run faster on the screen (by pressing “enter”). Here she is, early in the morning, still in pajamas, playing the game:


Her latest score is: 319 (5:10 minutes).

She has also met the Fruit Line Game, which she likes a lot. Her latest score: 138 points (5:20 minutes).


C. Piano exercises:
So far, Maia handles the right hand chromatic scale. We are already working on the left hand.


D. Piano pieces:
She made me a huge surprise (in 2 steps) this week.
On Monday, we chose, from the Favourite Classics list, Musette (Bach). She listened to it for several times and then wanted to try playing it with the program.
When I looked at the computer, I noticed that she was playing on P6 (she got 68 points out of 70)!


Then she began alternating P3 and P6 again and again… Here is a collage of her first experiences with this wonderful piece:


And this is the way she plays it today, on the fifth day of practice.


Hellene, we hope you are proud of Maia, she really made an effort and listened to your advice, that of holding her horses .

On the other hand, yesterday evening she began learning “Ode of Joy”. She, again, jumped to P6, but I didn’t notice that she hadn’t placed the symbols of the keys on the piano, either!
This is the collage (P6, P5 and P3) I made with her first attempts in mastering the right hand “Ode of Joy”.

More than anything else, I am so pleased to see how well she "reacts" at my singing the notes - it really proves my that she already knows the piano keys!


And here she teaches her dolls how to play this piece (with P3 and no stickers):


Happy learning, everyone!

Dear Hellene, your advice and appreciation words mean so much to Maia and I!!!
I know you are so busy right now, so thank you so, so much for the time you spent with us, for your dedication and involvement .

You managed to bring into Maia's world the magic and beauty of music at such a degree, that it became part of our every day life, and we are so grateful for this.
I can see how Maia has changed, how important piano is to her, how she cannot stay away from it even in difficult moments (like these, when a nasty cold is depriving her from sleep and causes her all sorts of troubles).
She is right now next to me and sends you kisses and hugs!!!