What A Week!

I instructed my very first group performance class for students from ages 5 to 9 this afternoon. All month I'd been planning and arranging schedules and activities. Any time I jump into some new activity I find that I get kind of anxious. So several times in the past few weeks I would wake up at 5 in the morning with my mind in a whirl over how I was going to plan this class in a way that it would work out. Then I would rationalize with myself that I had weeks to plan the class so there was nothing to worry over. Then a few days later it seemed my brain would forget the facts again and I'd have to re-rationalize.

I'm so happy now that it is done and went well. The children were very excited and enthusiastic about the whole thing. We learned how to play songs together on my new hand bells set, we played musical bingo, musical pillows(instead of chairs)and we practiced performing with bowing, announcing and all. I found out who, in the group of all my students, are the class clowns...there were at least two. One of them could not stop laughing the entire time she played the piano, and the other couldn't seem to talk in anything less than a yell the whole time he was here! :) I sent the happy children home with a sugar high from cookies and chocolates, heh, and right at dinner time too(very bad me).

I now have one more class to look forward to this week, the 10 to 15 year olds. Of course what the younger group loved doing I don't expect the older group to love so I'm still ironing out the details of activities planned. Teens and preteens can be awkward to place in a group especially since many of them don't know each other and they will all be asked to participate in some form of performance or another. Hope all goes well...