The Little Mermaid

A small part of Mulan and Miya's recent ballet performance, The Little Mermaid, is now up on YouTube here.

Mulan's solo starts at 10 min 27 sec.  Some of both girls' group dances are also there.

Sewing and ukulele/guitar

After music, art, basketball, ballet, swimming and athletics, our next two outside activities to finish for the year were sewing and ukulele/guitar.

But in case you were wondering how we can afford to pay for so many classes, these ones were free, taught by the grandparents, Nainai and Yeye.  On Saturday, at our family Christmas party, they showed us all what they have been doing.

This term, Nainai has been teaching the girls hand sewing for an hour each week.  They have been making table mats, cutting and edging the material and then sewing designs.  It is still a work in progress, and they will continue with it next year.  I hear terms thrown around like blanket stitch, cross stitch, chain stitch, and so on, and it is all coming together very nicely.  Mulan is putting her name in each corner (English and Chinese), and will do some more designs in the middle.  Miya is working on a picture of our cat, Kitty, and will also add a picture of our other cat, Maggie.

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In addition to their weekly music lessons at Belmont Music Centre, the girls are also learning ukulele and guitar from Yeye.

Both Mulan and Miya did some introductory ukulele at Belmont, but once they got beyond what was being taught there Yeye took over.  This term, Yeye has been giving them each a 30-minute individual lesson once a week.

At our Christmas party, the three of them played some songs together.  Very nice!

Swimming and athletics

And the next activity to finish for the year was swimming.  (After music, art, basketball and ballet.)

Mulan and Miya have both, for the past two years, been having weekly 30-minute lessons at Swim Lovers' Swim School in Belmont.  The owner and main teacher, Jean, is awesome with the kids.  She is the main reason that we go there.

When we first started two years ago, Mulan was able to float and bob around and put her head under the water, but that was about it.  Now, she has a beautiful freestyle stroke, can confidently do backstroke and breaststroke, and is improving well with butterfly.

As for Miya, two years ago she was a complete beginner who wasn't even putting her face under the water.  Now, she can do a few breaths with her freestyle, and has almost clicked with being able to keep going.  Her backstroke is very good, and she is working on dolphin kick.

I think swimming is one of those essentials that all children should learn when they are young.  It is such an important skill to have in life.

I also think it is important to learn swimming in a steady, long-term way.  I noticed in China that many Chinese parents send their children to swimming lessons in a short intensive burst, such as daily over a single school holiday.  Then they treat it as if they don't need to keep going after that, as the child seemingly then knows how to swim.  I think that is a mistake, as I think only with the steady, long-term learning can a child truly pick up how to swim properly.

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Mulan, Miya and I are all members of Takapuna Athletics Club.  This is the girls' second season there, while I have been there on and off since I was ten.

Clubnights are on Wednesday evenings.  Occasionally we also do athletics training sessions (Mondays with the club or Tuesdays as a family), though this season we have done very little extra training as we have been too busy with other things.

I had thought that we had one more clubnight next Wednesday 21st (with fun, non-points events), but it seems that sadly they have stopped doing the fun end-of-year special evening this season.  The final clubnight was this week, though we didn't attend it as it was the evening of the girls' ballet performance.

As I say, I started athletics when I was ten.  It was my main sport as a child, and I used to train for it for a couple of hours every day as a teenager.  I got to the point where I was competing at a national level, and I got three New Zealand national championship medals in the triple jump.  But then injuries, which I still have today, forced me to stop competing when I was 22.

These days, I still hobble around the track as best I can, trying to be a good role model for the kids (and reliving my youth!).  Last year I broke the club long jump record for veteran (over 40s) men, jumping 5.57 metres.  Not bad considering it was done with almost no training and having not seriously competed in almost 20 years!  This year I have had even more aches and pains, and haven't been able to do as much as I would like.

Athletics is the sort of sport where it is easy to compare people with each other, with exact times, distances and rankings.  So, it is easy to see how Mulan and Miya compare with others their ages.  It is also the sort of sport where natural talent plays a big part, and for many children, no amount of training, with either fitness or technique work, will jump them up to the top ranks.

But I emphasise to the girls that athletics is just as much about personal achievement as it is about comparing ourselves to others.  While it is nice to think about placings, if the children are doing the best they can at each moment, and making regular improvements in their times/distances, then that is the most important thing (and that they are enjoying it!).  So, each week we write down our times and distances after our events, putting them on the computer to see how they improve over time.  (It also works as a good computing and maths lesson!)

Having said that, outside of club athletics, Mulan and Miya aren't bad runners, seeming to be faster than most their age.  At our local club, they both come about in the middle of their grades for all the running events.

Field events are more about technique, and both girls have been working on getting the right movements.  Mulan's discus is starting to look very smooth, and she is generally in about the top three at the club.  She is also doing pretty well in the long jump, with the occasional win and in the top three or so.  Miya, at Grade 6, isn't officially doing any field events, but with our family practices she is beginning to get the hang of the field event movements.

While it is clear that athletics is unlikely to be the girls' main sport, I think it is a good sport to keep doing.  I think the sorts of body movement skills taught, for both track and field events, are extremely useful for many areas of life.  Equally importantly, we are all enjoying it.

Ballet

I wrote before about how our music, art and basketball activities finished for the year.  Next to finish was ballet, which had its final event last night.

Mulan is an old hand at ballet.  When she was three she decided that ballet was her thing, and she had her first lesson at 3 1/4.  She started having regular classes just before her fourth birthday, and has been doing it ever since.

Here in New Zealand, since Term 2 of last year, Mulan has been having lessons twice a week at Ballet Theatre of Auckland.  The teacher, Estelle, is brilliant -- both really wonderful with the children and also very experienced at ballet.  Knowing how pushy ballet can be, I have been delighted to read Estelle's posts on BTOA's Facebook page about being sensible with stretching and training, and not overdoing things.  Having also watched some lessons, I feel I can trust Estelle to get the right balance in training.

In the third term this year, Mulan sat the Grade 3 Cecchetti exam, gaining honours.  Last year she sat the Grade 2 exam, also gaining honours.

After watching Mulan for many years, Miya decided at the beginning of this term that she also wanted to do ballet.  And she is loving it.

This term, the focus for BTOA has been their production of The Little Mermaid, and for the past couple of months we have been going to practices three times a week.

Finally, last night, at The Rose Centre in Belmont, they performed the show.  In my admittedly very biased opinion, it was excellent -- very professionally done and very enjoyable to watch.  All the girls did an awesome job.

The main parts of the show were performed by a few of Estelle's teenage students, who all look like they have several years of experience.  They dance en pointe, and are very elegant.

Mulan is one of half a dozen pre-teen grade-level students.  During the show they performed a few dances together in a group.  Mulan was the only grade-level student who also had a solo dance in the performance, where she danced during the wedding scene.

Miya was one of four pre-grade students.  They also danced a couple of dances together in a group, all looking very cute.

What else can I say, but I had a very proud daddy moment, watching both my girls performing so beautifully up on stage.  Well done to both of them!

Art and basketball

As I wrote here, Mulan and Miya's music was our first activity to finish this year.

Our next two activities to finish were art and basketball, which had their last sessions yesterday.  Both of these were held at the Northcote YMCA through HASCA.

Art:
Back in China two years ago, the girls attended an art class, where they learnt about famous art works as well as created their own masterpieces.  It was well worth it, and I could see that Mulan especially picked up some good techniques during the year she attended.  (Miya was a little young, and only attended a few lessons.)

But since moving to New Zealand, the only art the girls had done had been at home.  That is, until they started an art class this term.

The girls have enjoyed the lessons, and it has been a good experience for them.  The overall theme of the course was animals, and each weekly lesson was about a different animal.

At the beginning of each lesson, the class gathered together while the teacher showed some computer printouts of artworks depicting the animal of the week.  This might range from cave drawings, to sculptures, to paintings, to tapestries, to ceramics.

While this was a nice intro, I sometimes felt that the discussions were a little on the light side.  The girls' art teacher in China had also done a similar thing, though I think they analysed the techniques more to understand better the methods used to produce the artworks shown.  In China, they also showed the artworks on a big screen computer rather than an A4 printout, meaning that they could see more detail.

After the art history intro, the class then turned to producing their own artwork.  All works were paper based.  Here is about half of the girls' work produced this term; the other half is fairly similar:

(In case you are wondering, Miya's is on the left door and Mulan's is on the right.)

While the classes were good and enjoyable, we have decided not to return in 2017.  The main reason is that we feel that we overdid things a bit this term, and we need to cut back on our outside activities.  Of the classes that we do, we feel that this has probably been the least important and the least value for money.  (For the size of the class, we feel that it is a little overpriced, when compared with other classes we do and also the classes we teach.  This art teacher is probably getting twice the hourly rate that Mama is getting.)

Basketball:
This is an activity that Mulan is doing without Miya.  She started basketball in term 3 this year, after getting dragged along there by her netball teammates.

Prior to this, Mulan had done pretty much zero basketball in her life, although she had done two seasons of netball.  So, it was a bit of an adjustment for her, learning how to bounce the ball and getting used to the faster in-your-face approach.  She has done really well, and is steadily getting the hang of the game.

Each week, Mulan does one hour of skills training followed by a 30-minute team practice and followed by a 30-minute game.  After all this, on our bike ride home Mulan often comments that her legs are pretty wobbly from all the running around.

Mulan's basketball team did very well, winning their grade competition.  Their prize-giving was last Thursday.

Mulan is loving basketball and we plan on doing it again in 2017.

Music at Belmont Music Centre

The end of the year is fast approaching, and already one of our activities has finished up for the year.  Amazingly, music lessons at Belmont Music Centre finished at the end of November.  The end-of-year concert and prize-giving was two days ago.

Mulan completed her second year at the music centre, learning first-year flute and second-year recorder.  Miya completed her first year there, learning recorder.  Both girls would like to continue learning these instruments next year, with Miya also wanting to pick up the violin.

(As well as having lessons at the Music Centre, both girls are also learning ukulele and guitar from Yeye -- these lessons haven't stopped yet.)

Four bands played on Saturday at the concert.  Mulan was in the Junior Wind Band, and played three pieces, while two of her cousins also played in bands.  It all went very well, and we were all very impressed.

At the small prize-giving after the concert, about a dozen or so children received special recognition (and a medal) for their achievements during the year.  I think I am right to say that each teacher picks out one or two students from their classes who are doing exceptionally well.  Mulan got an award for her flute and recorder, and two cuzzies got awards, too.  (It seems that Miya's first-year introductory classes don't get awards.)

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Practicing:
I think the key to the girls doing well with their music is firstly that they are enjoying it, but secondly that they practice out of class a few times each week.  When the children are enjoying it, they are happy to get their instruments out to practice.  Mostly, all I need to do with the girls is occasionally say, "how about you have a music practice after you finish this," and they will happily play their instruments for 20 or 30 minutes.  They know what they need to do, and I simply listen to them playing from another room.  (As much as they enjoy playing the music, I notice that if I don't gently remind them, they just won't get around to practicing, as they will get caught up in other activities.)

When it comes to the lessons at the music centre, it really is this sort of practice that makes the difference.  I almost always sit in on the children's classes, quietly observing what is going on, and it is very obvious to see who practices and who does not.  By the end of the year, many of the classes are very split, with the non-practicing students half a year or more behind those who practice.

Unfortunately, I don't see that the teachers are strongly encouraging out-of-class practicing.  And most parents clearly aren't helping either.  I really do think that children this age need adults to create the supporting environment for enjoyable practice to happen.  Children will rarely do it themselves, without adults first taking the initiative.

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Which music centre:
There are three other similar music centres in our local area (Glenfield, Birkdale and Mid-Bays).  We initially chose to go to Belmont Music Centre because the cuzzies go there (it is within walking distance of their home), and it is also fairly convenient for our other activities.  (It is also the music centre I went to as a child, when I learnt the recorder.)

Lately, though, we have been wondering about going to one of the other local music centres.  To put it bluntly, recently there have been some issues at Belmont which, as we see it, have not been good for learning.  And we have been wondering if other places would be better.

For us, the key practical priorities are that the children enjoy music and their learning goes well.  I understand that running a school is a complicated business (Mama was HOD of a language school in China for several years), and there can be all sorts of other management concerns, in addition to these primary purposes.  So, I can be fairly sympathetic to management that they have to balance many things, and these primary purposes can't always be completely satisfied.

But having said that, we have been a little worried about Belmont.  The main practical things for us are:

Firstly, it is essential in a school that the junior teachers are getting adequate professional development and mentoring to improve as teachers.  Teaching is not something that can simply be done if you know your subject.  Teaching is a separate skill in itself, that needs separate training.  We are concerned that the junior teachers at Belmont Music Centre are not developing as teachers, and are still unguided in classroom management, lesson planning, etc.  At the beginning of last year, I saw the previous manager getting involved with mentoring the junior teachers, by sitting in on classes and giving practical advice; clearly the previous manager was an experienced teacher and knew what to do in the classroom.  But since then, and since the current manager took over at the end of last year, I have seen no further assistance to these junior teachers.  Consequently, these teachers are stagnating as teachers, continuing to make the same mistakes, week after week, month after month.

To be clear, most of these teachers seem very nice people, and I have no reason to doubt their musical competence.  But I do think that with some of them their classroom teaching is not up to standard.  And this needs to be addressed by management.

Secondly, some of the instruments taught at the music centre are very expensive to buy.  Typically, music centres hire out decent quality instruments to students to make learning more affordable.  Unfortunately, the new management is making hiring instruments more difficult.  (a) They are suggesting that they will stop hiring out their instruments.  (b)  They are significantly putting the hiring fees up.  (c) They are stopping hiring over summer, meaning that for a couple of months each year students cannot practice.  (d) They are encouraging students to hire from private businesses that are not government subsidised (as the music centres are), meaning higher costs to learn.

Thirdly, there seems to be far too many weeks during the year in which there are no lessons.  (a) Finishing classes in November is surely too early.  (b) They have three weeks break between terms instead of the standard two.  (c) The entire third term is disrupted because of recitals, resulting in many lessons missed.  I have found that it is best not to choose classes at the 10:30 time, as these are the ones that get cancelled in favour of recitals.

Fourthly, even though theoretically the lessons are 45 minutes long, often in reality they are much shorter, with teachers starting late and/or finishing early.

Fifthly, there doesn't seem to be an adequate relief-teaching system.  On some occasions when teachers were sick, and they could not find any relief teachers, classes were lumped in together or taught by teachers who did not know the instrument being learnt.  On their website they even say that if they cannot find relievers then they reserve the right to simply cancel the class -- I find this unacceptably unprofessional, when students are paying for these classes.

But there are also several things favouring Belmont, including:

• Two of the other music centres appear to have stricter age restrictions, meaning that Miya would be too young to join their classes.
• It appears that none of the other music centres teach the recorder beyond an introduction; both Mulan and Miya want to continue with this instrument.
• We are beginning to know the good teachers at Belmont.  Three of the four classes that Mulan and Miya would be in next year are taught by teachers we trust (we have not yet met the teacher of the fourth class).  We think that the recorder teacher, Kevin, is brilliant at teaching music creativity.  He teaches an ability to play with music, creating something out of seemingly nothing.  His classes are always fun and exciting.  We also like the way the flute teacher, Susannah, teaches an awareness of the feel of a composition, understanding how the background history and composers' motivations influence the feel of the pieces as they are played.  Her classes are calmer, and, for more mature students who are prepared to sit more still, provide a good contrast to Kevin's dynamic playfulness.

Given all this, on balance we think that we will return to Belmont in 2017.  When we are in China over Christmas/New Year, we will see about buying a flute for Mulan and a violin for Miya, to avoid the whole hiring instrument unpleasantnesses.

Bullying in NZ schools

A couple of days ago, this article appeared in the local newspaper.

Apparently, about a quarter of Mulan-aged students (in maths and science) are bullied in New Zealand schools on a weekly basis.  And New Zealand is one of the worst countries in the world for bullying.

Bullying in schools has always been one (among several) of my reasons for choosing to homeschool.  So, obviously, if we are to work in with our local state school, we need to be reassured that bullying is not out of control there.  Is our local school any better (or worse!) than these averages cited in the report?

I simply don't know.

In our brief visits around schools in our area, I have always felt that the children are very nice, and I have seen no sign of bullying.  But of course that is going to be the case.  Bullying is going to happen much more subtly, in the non-observed interactions between children.

In my discussions with local homeschoolers who started with school but stopped, I have heard quite a few anecdotes from both parents and children about bullying (I hear stories from the students in the critical thinking classes I teach; I aim to create safe spaces for these children to discuss anything they want, and many are happy to talk about their school experiences).

This all leads me to wonder if it is worth the risk to send Mulan and Miya to school part time.  Will the possible advantages of getting to know what schools are like outweigh the possible disadvantages of experiencing the negative aspects of school such as bullying?