smallholdingsister's strivings

smallholdingsister

Tee hee. 4/6 students turned up but as ever I was preaching to the choir.
Insane amount of money spent.

apple_muncher

But hopefully a receptive choir...

smallholdingsister

They are very switched on.
Busy day of house gussying today. Two peerless days of sunshine and the forecast for Friday (photos day) is rain.

SingleSue

smallholdingsister wrote: »

Gosh Singlesue your boys sound like live wires.

Well, they have certainly kept me busy and made things interesting over the years!

Reading through the thread I notice mention of music, music has been the saviour for us as until middle son discovered he could play, our lives were pretty horrendous, so much so that I call them the dark years.

He has Aspergers and other disabilities and as a result, ended up being kicked out of school when he was in year 3 for aggressive and violent behaviour. After a period of private tuition he was finally accepted into a PRU and although things were not exactly wonderful at the beginning (the old school had not passed along the medical part of his records, so they refused to believe his diagnosis) they were the ones who discovered that banging things calmed him down.

As a result, they brought in a drum teacher alongside teaching him at the level of the high school students...the change was amazing. He went from a child who was forever going into Aspergic rages to one who was calm and who could learn and was receptive to the strategies for his Aspergers.

After spending an extended amount of time in the PRU, he returned to main stream education in year 6. By the end of the year, he was awarded student of the year and moved into high school...by the end of high school, he was seen as a gentle giant, a gentleman and an amazing musician who was not only a brilliant drummer but who could also sing, play guitar, keyboards, piano, ukelele, heck pretty much any instrument he picked up.

He is now in his first year at university...studying music.

smallholdingsister

What a lovely story.
If I am ever in need of calming down, baroque music does the job.

greent

I have a CD of classical music aimed at babies - I used to play it a lot when I was pregnant with DD and found it very soothing. If ever she was fretful as a baby/ toddler there were two things which would calm/ distract her - the CD being played (in particular a couple of tracks where I'd sometimes pick her up and 'waltz' around the living room with her in my arms) and a glass bowl which was heavily textured and she loved to run her fingers over it again and again.


When I used to do massage I swiftly abandoned all of my dolphins/ sea/ rainforest type CDs and just played a few good relaxing classical CDs instead. (Although I did find that I'd work certain movements into certain pieces as the music matched them well both in pace and intensity )


x

smallholdingsister

That is very cool.
mil hated music. I could never understand how you could hate all music.

Karmacat

That's amazing, Single Sue!

There are some tracks that are so special to me ... I don't like "background" music very much, to be honest, but a few tracks here and there are my lifeline.

AlexLK

SingleSue: Thank you for sharing. I'm so pleased to hear how learning to play an instrument helped your son and that he is now studying Music.

I'm a music teacher (amongst other things) and although I have some pupils that have little interest in the subject or in practising, there are a few that I've been told learning to play an instrument has changed their lives. Due to having problems with my own mental health, teaching Music is just about the only thing I've ever managed to do that has any positive impact on others or gives me any amount of self worth.

smallholding: I cannot understand how anyone can hate music, in fact I cannot think of one genre which has absolutely nothing to offer. Incredibly sad re. your mother-in-law.

I too enjoy baroque music, not just for relaxation but that does factor. In fact, JS Bach is my all time favourite composer.

smallholdingsister

Very sad, God rest her soul.
Electrician coming today to help with the gussying up.

It all takes sooooo long!