Thursday, January 09, 2014

One Hundred and ONE!


Last night Newt won his 100th high school wrestling match. I was glad he wrestled a decent wrestler and had a good match. He is only the 6th wrestler in the high school's history to break the 100 win mark and will join his Uncle Karl on the banner in the gym.


I was a proud Momma last night but more for what he did at the end of the match. This year a young man with autism joined the team and yesterday was his birthday. Newt wrestled him in a match with the ref coaching, the score kept on the board, and people cheering. He let the young man work his moves and win the match. It brought tears to a lot of eyes in the gym watching how excited he was after his hand was raised. He ran off the mat with his arms raised into the crowd of other wrestlers congratulating him and then they all sang Happy Birthday to him. I am so proud to have raised such a wonderful young man!

3 comments:

Jennifer Bardsley said...

Congrats!

arvi said...

I have few questions regarding violin playing technique. Hope you don't mind if I post here.
1. I understand that Haley plays violin for hours together daily. Has she ever complained of wrist pain? I have heard frequently that violinists suffer from wrist pain/collapse due to long hours of playing. What preventive methods do you follow that let her to play for a long time?
2. I have a young 4 year old starting Suzuki violin. How did Haley memorize those Suzuki songs. Did she use some words for those songs to memorize or did she hum to memorize or what other techniques did she use to memorize the songs.
3. Does she play any songs by ear? If so, how did she develop this ability.
TIA

ptmom said...

1. We homeschool so Haley is able to practice for 60-90 minutes at a time throughout the day with breaks in between for schoolwork. She has never has wrist pain. I guess good technique helps prevent this. I know a few kids who put in a lot of practice and don't know any with wrist pain.

2. The Suzuki method involves a lot of listening. We listened in the car and in the house. We sang songs to the tunes...made up our own words to them or used those a teacher provided or both. After Book 1, she no longer made up words or needed to listen as long to remember a tune. Having developed this skill slowly over time, by the time she is able to play a piece, even a long complicated concerto like Mendelssohn, she has it memorized.

3. Haley plays everything Irish by ear. All her fiddle music is learned by ear either listening to her teacher playing a tune or listening to the tune on a recording or in a concert. She began developing this skill with her Suzuki training as I mentioned above. She reads her classical music and orchestra music but even then, once she has heard it, she doesn't need the music much anymore...uses it more for the details of the piece.