Reflections from Star Hill: 2011

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

When the school year started a month ago, I was given the opportunity to give Natalie-Rose a short little music class each day as part of her "pre-school". Since she is only 3 years old, each class would be no more than 15 minutes and it would be very basic; pretty much just learning to sing simple songs together.

That went very well and Natalie was so interested, that I started showing her different things about the piano. She seemed to want to learn more, so I decided to teach her to play a simple song on the black keys. I found some number stickers, put 1, 2, and 3 on a set of black keys, and wrote on a marker board the numbers for Mary Had a Little Lamb. Then I showed her how it worked. She picked that concept up so quick! She even found a way to help herself keep track of where she was in the song: she would point to the number on the board with her left hand while she played with her right! She did so well after a day or so, that I took the numbers off of the keys. So here's a video of her first song:

Then, I remembered I had a level one book of the curriculum I use for my students on the shelf. It has in it some basic songs written for the black keys. So I got that out to see what would happen with those. I explained to her how it worked (pretty much the same as the way she learned Mary Had a Little Lamb) and off she went! Here she is using her left hand and playing with two fingers!

Yes, her big sister is a piano teacher, but honestly, I can't take credit for this. All I did was notice her interest and am giving her the tools she needs to learn. What a blessing.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

New post at 'Jed's Story'

Click over to Jed's Story for a new post.

Monday, September 19, 2011

Trip to Cataloochee

Check out Nathan's blog to read about our elk watching trip!

Friday, July 29, 2011

Check these out!

Hop on over to Blane Jr.'s blog and look at these great videos! Thanks for posting them Blane...

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Rattlesnake Orchid

This may or may not be exciting to those of you reading our blog, but I really love God's creativity especially in nature. I really enjoy looking at the details of plants and trying to identify them.

So I noticed a small group of leaves amongst all the dead, dry leaves at the beginning of Spring this year. They were bright green when nothing else was and they had such a striking pattern on them. I determined I would keep an eye on them and see if any flowers bloomed.

Finally some did this past month and I started looking to identify them. It took some searching, but I finally found it: Rattlesnake Orchid or Downy Rattlesnake Plantain. From the little bit of information I've found about it, it's kind of rare. It's endangered in Florida, according to the USDA.

Here's a little more info about it.

Monday, July 4, 2011

Independence Day Blueberry pickin'

So, some friends of ours told us about this place in Marion where we could get Blueberries.

Since my dad was off today, we planned to go.

And, boy, was it worth the trip!

We got there around 10 and left just before 12.

Even though you could get in the shade, it was still pretty hot.

The enthusiasm was beginning to wane...

And all for donations!

We were able to pick 4 1/2 gallons in 2 hours.

And here is our July 4th dessert: a cream cheese/whipped cream pie topped with fresh Blueberries, Raspberries and Raspberry puree, in a shortbread crust.