Music class - 19 Dec

It's been a few weeks since we were at music class due mostly to him being sick.

Keen or not keen?
I thought he'd be keen on going again. He did nod when I asked him the night before if he wanted to go for music class. But when I turned off the main road into the inner roads leading to the music teacher's house, out came "I dont want. I dont want to go."

Sounds like a repeat of the past times driving to music class. I dont understand why he protests. He does enjoy the class - not all of it but certainly some parts of it. Perhaps he rather be at the park?

He did also protest going for the holiday programme at his kindergarten. But those protests were a lot louder. This was very mild. Teacher had explained that at his kindergarten they had probably not made him feel comfortable or confident in himself or there were some activities that he doesn't like. If that's the case, I wonder if it applies to music class too or is there something else I'm missing? I really dont know what's causing the protests. I think he is a sensitive child.
By the way, he also protests when going for CST therapy where he just sits there playing with his cars (it's a gentle therapy where the therapist lays hands on him to release tight muscles/fascia etc & he doesnt have to do anything). But I digress.

One thing at a time
The teacher shared his reflection that for most teachers, when teaching music to kids, they often go directly into note reading. But there are actually several steps involved for the child in the seemingly simple one step of playing the written note. Some of the steps the child must go through are: listen (a skill in itself!); process it internally; get the speech muscles to sing or get the fine motor muscles to play.

He said we shouldn't assume that because of his disability, he does not understand the lesson or that it's not being absorbed. When it comes to music, I really just let him go at his own pace. I try to encourage but no forcing. I want him to enjoy his music class, and not end up like me, disliking my music lessons!

I really like his method of teaching. I feel it starts off with building in an appreciation/awareness of pitch, rhythm etc. It may be a long process but I trust that it lays a good foundation. I believe what he says that in the end, they'll be able to hear an unfamiliar piece of music and figure out how to play it without even needing to see the music sheet. I believe so too because I saw the older boy from the class prior to ours, figuring out a tune he heard and finally playing it right.

New song - OBEY
It was a simple catchy song. He liked it when the teacher made it more interactive by inserting their names into the song. I like it that he's teaching values/character as well through songs.

When I played that song with him at home the next day, he still remembered it. He asked that it'd be my turn to sing it to him (ie. replace some words with his name & he's supposed to 'reply in song'), the way the teacher did it at class. But when it came to his turn to 'reply in song', he didnt! I think that takes a lot more repetition because it's different for him. For him, there's a lot of motor planning involved especially when it comes to speech muscles and that slows down his processing speed.

Writing "Obey"
Teacher wrote out the word on the whiteboard and one by one, the kids were asked to copy it out on the whiteboard. My son writing:
- his first letter had some semblance of an "O";
- his "b" started off well with the vertical line drawn from the top down but then he added a circle at the bottom, thus looking like a pear as A pointed out (to me it looked like a cherry);
- I now cant remember if teacher helped him with "e", I think he did
- his "y" looked like a funny "N"

Then he had the kids write it again but doing so while not being able to see what they're writing (he held a piece of board in front of their face). I was very keen to see what my son would do! To my surprise, my son managed to write the "O" without looking. But got stuck with "b" so the activity was stopped.

Finger exercise
The fingering exercise involved 2nd, 3rd and 4th fingers respectively playing do; re; mi. To help, the teacher placed a coin on the back of the hand, to help the child focus on keeping the hand still and just using the finger to press the key.

He hasn't achieved finger isolation yet - ie he can't move a chosen finger independently of other fingers. (It's one of many fine motor targets we're working on) So he just used his pointer to press 'do' - the coin fell several times. He needs more practice. That'll be tricky cos he only sat there for a max of 1 minute! The rest of the time when the other boys were doing this activity, he was walking around, dancing, moving around.

Teacher gave a piggy bank as a christmas gift to each student. This tied in nicely with the exercise cos if the coin didnt fall, the kid gets to keep it and insert into his piggy bank! He inserted his anyway! LOL

I was concerned on what to do with him at home on this activity. Teacher says we'll have to find other ways to have him practice. But first, he needs to get more flexibility in his hand muscles.

Interaction with A and J

In this class, I noticed that A was being a big brother to my son. So nice! He came to help put in the new music sheet in his folder although I was almost done filing it in. I of course let A do the remaining and praised him for being such a good friend in helping. J very quickly then came to help! So I praised him too for being a good friend. My son was at a distance away, so he wasn't involved this time, but it's good that they came over out of their own accord, without being asked to/ needing any prompting.

It's thanks to the teacher for he had promoted such behaviour from the early days. Examples included distributing music sheets, distributing stickers.

When it came to playing with sleigh bells (used for follow the pace of music/follow leader), he as usual got very excited. He and A ended up facing each other and shaking the handheld bells playfully and so vigourously at each other that it must have accidentally hit my son (minor la). He shouted out "Owww, PAIN". It was loud and clear enough that A's mum heard him. Yay!