...and little musician!

Today was the final Kindermusik class for this term...the next term is called Do-si-do, which apparently is focused at getting the children to move around more and experience different types of music and dancing.

One of the great things about the Kindermusik class is that they try to teach children how to stay in a group, which is very difficult with Juliana. But, since the first class until now, I've noticed that she is getting a little better at it. I don't know that she will be capable of sitting still for any stretch of time, but I still try to encourage her to sit in the circle with the rest of the kids.

In the beginning of the class, they get to play with the balls while waiting for everyone to show up. She is getting very good at throwing the ball now and even hit a couple of the other kids in teh head a few times. Luckily, the balls are nice and soft and most of the time, the others kids either laugh or don't even notice!.

After some music, with maracas and other instruments, we did some dancing and then moved on to the drums. Juliana is always so interested in what's going on around her! I think she was eyeing one of the other drums in the picture below. Fortunately, as the song goes on, we pass the drums around, so everyone gets a chance to play each one.

Juliana seems to enjoy playing with the feathers! The teacher has them use the feather to "tickle" their feet, stomach, chin, face, etc. Then we throw them up in the air and watch as they fall. Juliana finds that part hilarious!Although she enjoys the gym classes a lot more, Juliana seems to like the music classes, so for now, we're going to keep attending. It's a different group of kids for her to interact with and the Do-si-do term sounds like a lot of fun for her.

On another note...I recently got a part-time job at a language school...yay! Not sure how many hours it will end up being just yet, but it's a start. The students are mostly Japanese business men and some business women or housewives who are looking to improve their English speaking skills. In Japan as well as China, children learn the English language at a very young age. The problem is that they learn how to read and write in English, but there isn't much time devoted to learning how to speak English, so their verbal skills tend to be weak. I will be working with students on their communication skills in a 1:1 class or at times, 1:2 class. I'm hoping that it works out to be enough hours every week, but we'll see as things develop. I had my first student last night and I truly enjoyed it! In the mean time, I'm still going to keep looking around and finishing up my coursework on the third class I signed up for.