Music, Maestro

David has become very interested in music. He is playing the drums - actually taking lessons and paying attention - and he has a iPod onto which he has loaded a lot of music, and he has created numerous mixes. His taste is definitely eclectic - not just "today's hits" but a whole array of music, from Ella Fitzgerald forward. (Unlike Mikey, he only tolerates symphony and does not care for opera.)

So yesterday I bought the new Sting Christmas album. The album is very non-traditional in the current sense; it contains many traditional and seldom heard carols, although there are a few standards like the Cherry Tree song.

I left it out on the piano; David saw it and started to comment on it immediately. He also looked it up online. He knew already who Sting was.

When asked if he liked Sting, he responded, "I appreciate his work. He is a modern-day Kenny Loggins"[!]

He launched into a set of comments made by other people, including those who think Sting "sold out" and several other criticisms. David has decided he likes the album, with the exception of one or two of the songs, and asked to borrow it (to add to his iTunes library).

Additionally, he has decided, "even though I don't really like your voice" that he would like to "make a cover album" for this one, using Garage Band, himself, my friend Richard and me. We shall see. (David has met Richard before but it's been a while.)

Captain Underpants

One of the book series that is - interesting - to the 10-12 year old male set is a series called, "Captain Underpants." The hero is - yup, you guessed it, a chubby male who wears diapers. I have not read them. David was into them several years ago; out of nowhere, Michael has suddenly taken a significant interest in them. This is progress, trust me. He brought 3 of the books with him today, and read through parts of them from time to time.

We also went to the park today, and Mikey engaged in play, with me, for the better part of 1/2 hour. (Also some progress - often when I'm around he pushes me into another place or room.) It was fun, but Grandma is not in the same shape as her 13-year-old grandson. The one who ate 2 hotdogs, a big mess o' baked beans, and 2 helpings of cheesy potatoes for dinner (then wanted dessert.) We suspect he'll shoot up to meet David soon.

As usual, after we got them home, they performed their nightly ablations, then went to bed. Not too sleep. We talked with Mom for a while and then realized that Mikey was still wearing the slippers that we keep at our house - so we went into his room to fetch them. Mom recovered him (he's a cover-kicker, just like his Aunt Evie), and Grandma bent over to sneak in one more kiss. "Sleep with Grandma!" was the response. I told him, "Not tonight" - but it was very sweet.

The Lion King on Broadway

A good part of last summer, Mikey would get on You Tube and look at clips from The Lion King on Broadway, and then he would ask, "May I have Lion King on Broadway, please?"

Now, he's never been on an airplane It's one of the things we are planning to try someday; Mikey is a pretty good traveler. However, starting with a 5-6 hour plane ride and a NY hotel is not our idea of a try-out. :-)

The travelling company is in the area - well, 1-1/2 hours away by car - and we got tickets. OK, it's a $200 experiment, but if you don't try, you'll never know.

Mikey usually wears elastic-wasted sweat pants - there are small motor issues, although he has been working on buttons. For the theater, we wanted something slightly upscale from sweats. So a very nice lady at Sears helped me find pants. We discussed 18/20 versus 30 x 30 and ended up with 30 x 30 twill pants. They fit! and he had a pink-striped shirt which, for reasons not known to us, he started calling his "theater shirt." (We do not tell Mikey in advance that he's going anywhere; if we do, he wants it NOW.) Grandpa loaned him a burgundy pull-over, zip-front sweater. What a treat he looked.

I did the usual prep of a "story" about the day. The story's purpose is to set expectations for Mikey. I do it with words and pictures. Here are the "words" from this story:

Mikey goes to the Theater!

Today, Halloween, Mikey is going to go to see The Lion King.

He is going to go in thecar with Grandpa and Grandma. It’s a very L-O-N-G drive in the car.

We will make 3 stops on the way:

1. To go potty
2. To have lunch
3. To take a break
When going to the theater we dress up. Mikey will get to wear his theater shirt!
What happens at the theater?
First, we park in a BIG parking lot, and walk to the theater.
Then we find our seat. There will be lots of people.
Everyone needs to behave! So everyone can enjoy the show.
When we like a song, and when the song is over, we applaud. When the actors on the stage are acting or singing, we watch QUIETLY.
During the show, there will be a break, called an Intermission.
That’s the time when we can walk around and go to the bathroom.
Then we go back to see the rest of the show.
After the show, we will go back to the car and then go to dinner.

OK I can't wait to tell you: This was an ENORMOUS success! He stayed through the whole show and behaved!

Here is what we learned we need to improve:

We need to add something about waiting to go into the theater after we park. We got there about 1/2 hour early. Mikey wanted to go into the theater (and presumably have the show start) immediately. Mikey did have a behavior issue - I guess he thought we were trying to keep him from seeing the show because we didn't let him go in right away (and the story implied we would)

We need to explain that Intermission lasts a certain amount of time, and even if Mikey is done with bathroom and getting water, we wait for the bells to tell us it's time to go back in

We need to set the expectation that it's a LONG drive BACK as well.

The latter two were not big issues.

Here are some things that did work.

Once we got into the theater, Mikey wanted the show to start. I told him that we had to wait for the orchestra and for the LIGHTS TO GO DARK. He kept looking at things and then finally said, "I want dark, please." However, he did not fuss.

I did bring some snacks and water into the theater. I know, I know, but ..

We got seats on the side of the theater. This particular theater had these loge seats sticking out from the side walls, that have only a few seats in each row. We had a row of 3 seats - This was PERFECT. Although we didn't need to use it, there was an Exit right by us where we could have left quietly. AND not having so many people so close was better for Mikey.

The production was almost 3 hours long, with 1 intermission. He sat through the whole first act, enthralled with what he was seeing. He did, as he does with movies and videos, point and name things he saw: "Antelope. Scar. Mufassa. Rafiki. Giraffe." We had to remind him several times to whisper, and after about 5-6 times he did. He was a little antzy in Act II.

Altogether this was a ROUSING SUCCESS!! and we are really glad we did it.

Assessment!

Lost 2

GAINED 12!

Got another email from David. I Lost 2 Pie Pieces :-\ but gained 12 :-$ , so i really have 10. :-)

Woo-Hoo!!

Periodically, and without any warning whatsoever, ALEKS presents an assessment. Once that happens, you cannot do anything else - including looking at the Dictionary or Review items - until you have completed the Assessment.

For the past few assessments, David has gained and lost roughly an equal number of pie pieces (see earlier blogs for more info on ALEKS - http://www.aleks.com). My assessment is that he is not retaining some of what he has learned. Mind now, he has retained a LOT. I hear it when he gets a problem on an assessment and says, "That's easy."

But ALEKS does not give a person as much review on items as a regular classroom might. Which is fine IFF you GET it and REMEMBER it. So I have approached the issue this way. Each week I assign 10 lessons from ALEKS (they are not that long). I select 7-8 from the REVIEW topics, and then 2-3 new topics for David to try. David is reponsible for completing them and recording what he's done. He's also to let me know what gave him problems. On Friday (my regular teaching day), we look at what he's done and spend time on the ones that gave him problems. Then we usually do 1-2 new pie pieces together.

I am assuming this is working! given the fact that, per his assessment, he was up 10 pie pieces for this review period.

HORRAH!