In the “wee hours” this morning I submitted two project proposals to Home Depot, one to automate the gate at the entrance to our property, and the other to have our garage insulated and drywalled. They say that they will find contractors for us, and not charge us a fee… Let’s see…
Later this morning I gave the chickens a special treat, a “macaroni + oat” pancake that I made the other day, and some sweet potato as well (see photo to the right). I sprinkled some flax seeds on the pancake as I’m told that chickens think that they are bugs! They didn’t really care for the sweet potato at first, though I saw one of them dragging a skin around the coop later in the day. The pancake on the other hand was a big hit! They love the mixture, but it is a bit “gooey” due to all the starch in the macaroni. As such, they spend a lot of time wiping their beaks on the dirt to clean it up after eating this “gluey” treat… 🙂
This afternoon my wife sent an email to the kids’ new viola/violin teacher:
Hi Daisy,
I finally scheduled the lessons for the remainder of the summer! Calendly is such a great tool. I love that all the lessons get onto my calendar with no extra effort to import, add, etc.
On the way back yesterday, Bobby mentioned that now he likes to play violin because you know ‘young stuff’. 🙂 I think he meant all YouTube memes etc. 🙂 🙂 🙂
I personally really appreciate your efforts to connect with the kids! In my previous life I spent a lot of time tutoring math – from elementary school kids to law school students. Law students were the best! Huge guys, soooo embarrassed that their math sucked. Anyway, I found out that you can teach so much more effectively if you establish good relationship first and your students trust you. You surely are doing that – kids already love you! I don’t care if they choose to pursue careers in music, but I would love them to love and appreciate music. I hope that once group lessons are back, they’ll love sharing music with other kids and build some bonds! I think that’s why Katie switched from piano to viola – playing piano is a pretty lonely business as opposed to playing in the orchestra.
Anyway, just wanted to thank you! 🙂
Laura
Here is Daisy’s response:
That’s so lovely to hear! And I agree, it’s so much easier to push kids towards challenges if they have a strong relationship with their teacher first. It’s nice that we got to do our introductory classes in the summer when there’s a lot more flexibility with time.
Bobby and Katie are both doing a great job with the transition. As someone who had 10 teachers in the span of 15 years, making this switch can be a very uncomfortable experience as you learn the new teacher’s expectations and different terminology. A lot of the concepts I’ve explained so far (things that seem to have Bobby a bit confused) are things I repeat constantly to my other students. Most of them are neurodivergent, so I just repeat myself as many times as they need until it one day sticks, and it seems to work for everyone else too. We’re not on a timeline – everyone will learn at their own pace.
Glad to hear Bobby appreciates the meme stuff – I try to stay up to speed on what the kids are up to but I’ve been informed by my teens on many occasions that I am a little behind the times 😛
Since Walmart didn’t have a great selection of sandbox toys yesterday, I took my Amazon Fire tablet to Bobby to have him select what he wanted from Amazon. They had a pretty good sale, but since most of them were “childish” type toys, he declined.
Later this afternoon I secured the tarp to the top of Bobby’s new sandbox with some elastics that I picked up at Walmart yesterday, and the rebarb I purchased at Home Depot the other day (see photo to the right). I had no idea how hard it would be to wield a sledge hammer with two leg replacements… I do now… 🙂