String instruments are hard to play.

I've had four viola lessons now.

I think I sound worse each week.

The trouble with string instruments is that there are so many difficult technical things to worry about.

Am I holding the bow properly (probably not!) Are my thumb and pinky fingers bent the right way? Are my second and third fingers hanging loosely with their pads in the right spot? Am I gripping the bow too tight? Is the weight of my arm on the strings?

Is my elbow up high enough?

Is my bow moving straight, parallel to the bridge, and half way between the fingerboard and bridge?

Is my left hand wrist straight?

Are my left hand fingers in EXACTLY the right spots? (Millimetres matter.)

Am I making sure all this is right and RELAXING at the same time?

Good. Now I can start playing!

I grew up thinking that the piano was the most difficult instrument to play. I was wrong. I repent.

This is way harder.

If God had meant music to come out of pieces of wood, horse hair and synthetic/metal strings he'd have made violins grow on trees. He didn't. So playing is difficult.

But. I. will. master. this.

Eventually.

Suggestions for a way forward?

Over the years I've written quite a lot about Joel's issues with reading and spelling. I've fluctuated between hope, sadness, frustration, excitement, joy and despair. As a university educated parent, it is confronting to have a child with a learning disability. To think that the world in which you live is one that may never be open to him. It's especially painful when you can see that he would fit so well into that world. He has the desire to be there and ideas to contribute - just not the keys to unlock the door.

The middle of last year was a turning point for Joel. We were always told that he would need to learn to read in his own way and that he would work out how to do it when he wanted it enough. Ten months ago, thanks to the Percy Jackson books, he wanted it enough. He went from reading as little as possible to reading constantly. He has a bookshelf that he's proudly labelled 'books I've read'. It contains all the Percy Jackson books (5), the sequel Heroes of Olympus series, the Harry Potter books and the dystopian GONE series that he's currently working through (we bought him #5 this afternoon.) Library books aren't good because you can't keep them.

People ask if his comprehension is okay. In answer, yes. It is very, very good.

Sometimes I allow myself to think that his issues are in the past. Then something will happen to make me realise that they are not.

Joel got a D for his first major English assessment piece this year. It was a persuasive essay. The content may have been fine but the spelling was so bad that the teacher couldn't read it.

I proofread Joel's second major piece of English assessment. A narrative. I was very careful to make sure that I did nothing except correct bad spelling (70% of words) and add full stops and capital letters. He got an A.

So Joel's issues primarily exhibit in spelling now. But base level spelling is really important. Your words have to be discernible to others or at least to word's spell-check. The spell-check doesn't know what to do with Joel's writing and teachers certainly don't. Unless we can get it under control he will not pass any subject (except maths) in high school.

So we are looking for a way forward.

My speechie friend has told us about the assessments that they do.
My friend with a learning-complicated ASD daughter told us how a DAS assessment has helped them.
We've had a WISC before and are having it again (because the school lost the report with the details on it!)

Apart from the WISC, I'm not going to rush into anything. Before I make up my mind which way to go (we have to do something) I want to be convinced that whatever we do will yield results for Joel. He doesn't believe that anything can help him spell better. And certainly nothing at school ever has. Ideas?

He really is complicated. We were chatting this afternoon about the book he had just finished. I looked through it and asked him what a pile of tricky words were. He could read them all.

I was curious so I put these non-words to him, one at a time.


- pothouse

- nosegate

- toothfairy

- joelosaurus

He could not read them. Not any of them. Not at all. Not even when I told him that each word was made up of two words crashed into each other. His could pick his name at the beginning of the last one, but still had no idea what the whole non-word was.

For Joel, reading is a non-phonetic activity. He gets to know words by their shape. When he encounters a new word in a text, he works it out based on the context and the beginning two letters and maybe the final letter of the word. Then after that he knows the word for next time. The middle letters contribute nothing in working out the word initially, but are useful in making the word distinct from other words so that he can recognise it in the future. Lots of letters make it longer. Letters with tails or flags will make it a taller or droopier word.  

Is it any wonder that Joel can't spell?

How do you teach spelling to a child who reads like that? When he's writing, he just makes up the middle letters of the word! He developed his own way of reading, not out of perversity but because his brain's slow processing speed could not decode words phonetically. So is it likely that teaching him to spell phonetically would work?

Psychologists? Therapists? Any suggestions? Are you usual methods likely to work in this case? I'm after advice. Joel goes to high school in 18 months. I feel like time is running out.

27 hours without Andrew and the boys

What have I done?

- Tidied the house
- Gone to the gym
- Edited a song
- Practiced viola (accompanying myself on the electric piano I bought home from school. It has a memory!)
- Sat in a coffee shop for 4 and a half hours writing a talk
- Bought some new jeans
- Had a hair cut
- Ran to a friends house, had a drink and a chat, walked home
- Done some washing.

The dog is keeping me company and protecting me from all the noises this house makes. She's also demanding from me all the attention she'd get from the others.

My Heart Delights (draft 4 - re-metred)

My heart delights that Christ my Lord
would leave his heavenly throne,
And come to earth, our God a man
to claim us for his own.
The Lord of the ages
took on human form,
He clothed himself in humble flesh
And as a child was born.

My heart delights and wonders at
this love that gives himself,
He sought no honour, no acclaim
no riches and no wealth.
He faithfully followed 

the path set for him,
He walked the road to Calvary
To take away our sin.


My heart delights that Christ would seek
a sinful soul like mine
My heart was all unrighteousness
But his was love divine!
Oh Spirit move in me and
make me like Christ!
Oh may his will be my desire
And he my heart's delight.

sar 2012

My Heart Delights (draft 3)

My heart delights that Christ my Lord

would leave his heavenly throne

And come to earth, our God a man

to claim us for his own.

The king of all took off his crown

He took on human form

He clothed himself in humble flesh

And as a child was born.

My heart delights and wonders at

this love that gives himself

He sought no honour, no acclaim

no riches and no wealth.

His only thought was to obey

the path set out for him

To walk the road to Calvary

and take away our sin.

My heart delights that Christ would seek

a sinful soul as mine

My heart was all unrighteousness

But his was love divine! 

Oh spirit move and change me so

that I should be like Christ

Oh make his will all I desire

And him my heart's delight.

sar 2012

I've changed a bit at the end of V3. Took out the heart beating line. Was it too sentimental? Also would the last line be better if it said 'he' instead of 'him'? 'Him' is more correct, but yuckier I think.

Oye!

The senior choir at our school is singing this. I get to play piano. Fun fun fun!

My Heart Delights (draft 2)

My heart delights that Christ my Lord

would leave his heavenly throne

And come to earth, our God a man (OR as God and man)

to claim us for his own.

The king of all took off his crown

He took on human form

He clothed himself in humble flesh

And as a child was born.

My heart delights and wonders at

this love that gives himself

He sought no honour, no acclaim

no riches and no wealth.

His only thought was to obey

the path set out for him

To walk the road to Calvary

and take away our sin.

My heart delights that Christ would seek

a sinful soul as mine

My heart was all unrighteousness

But his was love divine! 

Oh spirit move and change me that

my heart should beat for Christ

Oh make his will all I desire

And him my soul’s delight.

sar 2012

new song - my heart delights (draft 1)

Hopefully the last song on the incarnation that I'll write in a while. (And this one moves away from the incarnation pretty fast.) I stole the title line from something that I wrote a couple of years ago that went nowhere.

Questions

1. Have I stumbled into any Trinitarian heresies? In V1L6, could I have said 'put' instead of took?

2. Would you feel ripped off if this was on a cd that was meant to be on the topic of the incarnation? I've used the words 'born' and 'child'. Does that cover it?

3. I have Doug Wilson's voice in my ear telling me that this is effeminate. I'm a girl, so that's fine, but guys - what do you think?


My Heart Delights

My heart delights that Christ my Lord
would leave his heavenly throne
And come to earth, our God a man
to claim us for his own.
The king of all took off his crown
He took on human form
He clothed himself in humble flesh
And as a child was born.

My heart delights and wonders at
this love that gives himself
He sought no honor, no acclaim
no riches and no wealth.
His only thought was to obey
the path set out for him
To walk the road to Calvary
and take away our sin.

My heart delights that Christ would seek
a sinful soul as mine
My heart was all unrighteousness
But his was love divine!
Lord live in me and change me that
my heart should beat for Christ
Oh make your will be my desire
And you my one delight.

sar 2012

Weekend - Family =

3 days to myself.

Wow.

Shame I have 3 talks to write.

'If only'

'If only' is a distant planet that we know very little about. They may not have volcanoes there, but they also may not have oxygen.

Pathetic

Just finished watching season 2 of Dance Academy. I know it's lame but I still cried a bucket load of tears during the (very sad) second last episode. Do you think less of me?

Hospitality = Having a minecraft server

I think we have half the school hanging out virtually at our place each afternoon.

Want to be a mother of awesome?

Print out these minecraft* paper craft nets for your kids. They'll love you for it.

Our kids can now continue the obsession through the whole week and play minecraft without a screen.

* Unaware of minecraft? Find out about it here.

What do you make of this?

According to the Systemising/Empathising theory, dearest blog readers, you are an unusual bunch.

Guys who hang out here tend towards Empathy and Girls seem to tend towards Systemising.

Hmmm.

Any thoughts on this?

Sometimes you just want to listen to Bruce Springsteen.

Test Time!

Systemizing is the drive to understand the rules governing the behaviour of a system and the drive to construct systems that are lawful. Systemizing allows one to predict and control such systems.

Empathizing is the drive to identify another person's thoughts or emotions, and to respond to their mental states with an appropriate emotion. Empathizing allows one to predict another person's behaviour at a level that is accurate enough to facilitate social interaction.

How do you score? Take the test. Post your results in the comments!

UPDATE: I think the results section of that test might not be working. I'll look for another site.

UPDATE #2: Take the tests here - http://homepage.mac.com/lpetrich/Asperger/Index.html - the ones you want are the EQ and SQ-R. Then plot your scores on this graph:



UPDATE #3 : Can't get the graph to paste in. Find it on page 52 of this article.

Is it un-Australian to not like Anzac day services at school?

Joel says no. It is un-human to like them.

Are you E or S?

Hi Friends.

Anyone want to amuse me for a bit?

Simon Baron-Cohen (a psychologist) has this theory that classifies people on the basis of their scores along two dimensions - systemising and the empathising. It's a bit women's weekly, but interesting nevertheless.

According to Baron-Cohen, there are 5 brain types:

• Extreme Type S, whose systemizing is above average but whose empathy is below average (S>>E).
• Type S, whose systemizing at a significantly higher level than their empathy (S>E).
• Type B (for balanced), whose empathy is at the same level as their systemizing (E=S).
• Type E, whose empathy is at a significantly higher level than their systemizing (E>S).
• Extreme Type E, whose empathy is above average but whose systemizing is below average (E>>S)

He reckons there are sex differences in these - very roughly as follows:

Ex S - 5% men, almost 0% women (Many ASD are in this category)
S - 50% men, 15% women
B - 30% men, 30% women
E - 15% men, 50% women
Ex E - almost 0% men, 5% women

If you studied engineering at uni, you are probably in the S category. Or extreme S.

I'm interested in how this theory may be useful in thinking about church. My denomination is one that appeals to S types. Systematic theology is what we're famous for. There is a rule and procedure for everything. Many of our ministers used to be engineers. And they are all men. I think it likely that we have a disproportionate number 'S' brains among us. What difference does this make? Does it matter? How do 'E' types feel about this?

Ideas?

Want to know what kind of brain you have?

You can do this test here - you have to pick someone's emotions from looking at a picture of eyes. It is meant to measure empathy. 

Post your results in the comments.

Big Doug W. on Effeminate Christianity

Yes, I know, I know, but I've been hanging out over on this blog recently.

Yes. I know.

I find his take of the US primaries fascinating. That's why I've been there.

But while visiting, this little piece came up: Your Worship Services Might Be Effeminate If...

Here's the thing. I read this blog post last week, took on board what he was saying (kinda) and tried to make the current lyric I'm working on less effeminate. It's called While We Wait and it's a song about godliness now while we wait for Jesus' return. I took out the lines I had written about us being God's own possession etc etc. (DW would think them effeminate) and replaced them with battle-type references. Then I went back to the original passages I had been looking at and realised that draft one of my lyric was a whole lot more biblical than draft two.

The church is the bride of Christ. Sometimes it's going to feel feminine.

And I like the Em to C major chord progression.

What is life about for you right now?

I'm not after super-spiritual answers.

Just... what's your thing at the moment?

Finish the sentence.

"After I get all this other stuff done, I'll be able to..."


Sleep? Have a cup of tea? Watch TV? Do some gardening? Work some more?

For me, more viola practice is the end of all things at the moment. I've got it in my head that after 60 hours more practice, I'll start sounding good. How fast can I clock up those hours? (I have a lesson at 9am. If I have a really quick shower I can squeeze in ten minutes before I go.)

You?

I was just booked for supply teaching Thursday - Friday.

= $600 towards viola fund.

Romantics Anonymous

I saw this movie today.

Love it.

Viola Update

I'm still having fun. Hoping to have a lesson this week (my second!)

Tonight I've been playing along to this song. I can play the melody and put in various harmony parts. It's nice and slow which helps. Alas, it still sounds pretty bad, but is improving.

Guidelines for those living on a hell-mouth

1. Write a will right now. Don't put it off. And get life insurance.
2. Don't go out by yourself at night.
3. Don't ever go to the local night club. Someone dies there every week.
4. Quit school. Someone gets killed there every week.
5. I know it's hard, but avoid the graveyard, especially at night.

Vote for Vanishing Point

Ben's blog has it all.

If you don't read it, you should.

If you do read it, you'll understand why you'll understand why you should vote for Vanishing Point in the  Best Australian Blogs competition.

So do it!

Cynicism on Demand

I'm enjoying this blog. Love the Queensland pictures.

I'm remembering how painful it is to write talks.

Who would be a minister?

[Or sign up to do something like this?]

So.

I've been reading some stuff (research articles) on gender differences in cognition.

It's all pretty interesting and I've become convinced that there are differences in how men's and women's brains work.

But why is it that I can read gender stuff in scholarly papers and it (mostly) doesn't get me mad, whereas when I read American mega church pastors or popular theologians saying kinda the same(ish) things I blant (blog-rant) for days?

I'd never do it, of course, but...

... sometimes I feel drawn to the homeschooling option. For whole minutes I'll sit and imagine how cool it could be.

1. There would be more time for music practice. Lessons and practices could happen during the day instead of being crammed into afternoons.

2. Rather than learning the very basics of the Australian political system again (3rd year in a row!), Nathan could write opinion pieces on the US republican primaries.

3. I'd have time to teach Joel how to spell or to teach him strategies for how to not let bad spelling stop him from conquering the world. And we'd write stories together.

4. Micah and I could play duets. We'd do this instead of the boring bits of SOSE and Science.

5. We'd never, ever have school assemblies. This, in itself, makes home schooling worthy of consideration.

But I'd never do it.

Here are five reasons why.

1. I'm an extrovert. Schools are places full of people. I can't imagine robbing my children of the opportunity to go there.

2. I'd be really, really bad at making my kids learn things that I thought were boring or pointless. Under me, my kids would have a skewed education.

3. Schools have bands and orchestras and choirs. Right there. On site. Free(ish).

4. I think I want my kids mainstreamed as much as possible. The christian thing is weird to the world. I don't think I want other stuff to be too.

5. I couldn't work if we homeschooled our kids. This would mean we couldn't afford to pay the rent. Homeschooling would be bad if you did it while living in a car.

Excellent holidays.

1. The kids have spent half their time being helpful (doing washing, scrubbing mould off walls, taking dog for a walk) and half their time in front of a screen. I thought our holiday EM policy would limit screen time. It didn't - but the house is much cleaner and the dog is much fitter.

2. I've spent a good bit of each day asleep.

3. Micah spent a few days with our friends and we had one of their boys in lieu. Worked well. Our kids are nicely interchangeable! But we're really glad to have Micah back home now!

4. Heath Scotland is going really well tonight. Yay for Carlton and the Mighty Penguins (my AFL dream team!) Dane Swan is scoring nicely for me too.

5. I am getting better at viola. I don't hurt my ears quite so much. My bowing arm is developing some control, but it still doesn't sound good. I look at the music, hear in my head how it ought to sound, but I can't. quite. get. it.  It's actually a really good exercise for me as a music teacher. I understand my year 4 recorder kids better. We sing the song, they play the song, they get the notes right, but something is still missing.

6. We went away for a night (with the dog) and came back to find rat poo on the floor. I am grossed out. The dog has become obsessed sniffing a particular built in cupboard. I don't want to look inside.

7. I've become really interested in a particular theory of mind and how it relates to gender. I'm incorporating it into my flourish conference workshop on music. Come to the conference if you want to hear about it. It's heaps of fun and has interesting ministry implications (I think.)

Can't. make. my. viola. sound. good.

Grrr.

Don't Be Proud

Lately I've been thinking
There's too much to do
Don't be proud of drinking
It's beaten better men than you.


Lately I've been thinking
There's so much to see
I won't be proud of drinking
It's beaten better men than me.

Tim Freedman, Don't Be Proud.

Happy Easter everyone!

Good Friday kids' talk

It's not last minute yet.

Church doesn't start for another 10 hours!

Here's an idea for a kids talk if you haven't got it sorted yet.

This one is pitched at little kids.

Good and Bad

Use google to find yourself a set of pictures of things. I'm using - Present, kid crying, cake, friends, and scary dinosaur. Print them out, or powerpoint them onto a screen. I beam up a pic, kids have to say if it is something good or something bad. Final one is Jesus on the cross. I ask kids if that is good or bad. We talk about how it hurt Jesus a lot when he died, so that was bad, but how he died for us so that is good. Then say that today is good friday, explain why it's good - because we remember that Jesus died and that is very good for us.

Go well and happy easter!

Monster cake.

Take a deep breath, people.

The world is not going to end if:
- Gay marriage becomes legal
- homeschooling is outlawed
- our society becomes cash free
- the greens pick up more seats at the next election
- ethics is taught in schools
- the school chaplaincy program is scrapped
- Barak Obama gets a second term

Can we please calm down?

Crazy, crazy stuff.

Man.


Oh man.

A viola milestone

Tonight I transcribed a piece of cello music (bass clef) into alto clef so I could play it on viola. This is a big step forward.

A couple of days ago read Petrina's advice (see comments below) about not worrying about what the notes were called. Now I just focus on playing them. I can read notes on the G, D, and A strings pretty well. Thanks Petrina!

I also had my first lesson today. Bow hold, it seems, is important. Something to work on.

thoughts on quilting.

Just because you have 179 different sorts of fabric, you don't have to use them all on your very incredible quilt.

I just saw a very clever and awful creation.

We made roll ups! Yum!