I have had such a mental block about the flutes because I don't know how to play (yet) and this is the first thing I've taught that I don't know, so I think I was/am nervous about keeping up with our schedule and staying ahead enough to actually properly teach.
I now finally understand all the comments about how can you teach things you don't know. In the past, I've answered this with a confident, "You learn, or find someone who does know to teach it." The you learn part seemed reasonable and easy enough, but now I'm outing myself as feeling anxious teaching things I don't know well :)
The good news is that the intro went really well and the kids loved the first day of flute! Elie joined us today, but, for the most part, my husband will play with Elie while I do flute with Yoav.
The resources I'm using are:
* "Teaching Yourself and Your Child the Pentatonic Flute" by Marsha Johnson
* "Playing and Teaching the Pentatonic Flute" by David Darcy
* "Playing with Choroi Flutes - an Introduction" by Thomas Pedroli and Dietmar Bloch
* "Pentatonic and Interval Flutes for Kindergarten and the Early Grades" by Par Ahlbom, Anne Widmark, and Maja Knierim
(the first two I recommend most)
and for music, I have several small books:
* "Pentatonic Songs" by Elisabeth Lebret
* "Quintenlieder" by Julius Knierim
* "There is a Path" by Channa Seidenberg
* "Clump-a-Dump and Snickle-Snack" by Johanne Russ
This is a great Youtube video by David Darcy on how to hold and blow the flute with a suggested first song.
There is also a useful Master's thesis online by Linda Ann Ledbetter Eterman titled "An Approach to Music Education based on the Indications of Rudolf Steiner".
We are starting out with Interval Flutes, which only have one hole, so it's a good way to get kids comfortable with simply holding and blowing into the flute and learning pitch recognition (without concerning themselves with finger placement). We'll play a few games with the flute:
1. I will play a note on a pentatonic flute and Yoav will try to match the note by using the three interval flutes, with and without the hole open.
2. He will play a note on his Interval Flute and then I will play notes on the pentatonic and he will tell me when we have a match.
There are a lot of games you can play with the interval flutes if you have six or more kids. I only have one, so my games will be pretty simple ;)
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| Silliness with Interval Flutes |
I am so happy you are finding your way with the music. I completely understand, as I scrambled to learn the recorder so that I could bring it to my first grader last year.
ReplyDeleteI came to your post moments after writing my own post on the music in our home with my reluctant 11-year old.
Thank you for sharing your resources - I will be looking closely at them!
Dear Emily - Lucia here from the East Village! I found your blog while searching for Jewish Waldorf sites. We met just before you left for Israel and did a yoga class on 14th street, and met at the Ottendorfer Library, and an API meeting uptown. I have twin daughters Yoav's age. I am enjoying reading about your journey into Neufeld's work. I have liked his approach for a long time! and I'm a wapf chapter leader, and I am starting to incorporate Waldorf methods in to our homeschooling. So I thrilled to find your site that is all those things from a Jewish perspective. I'd love to reconnect! Send me email if you can at lucia@lrw.net. You can also see us at http://forkmountainfarm.com.
ReplyDeleteLucia
Moriah & Tsameret (7yo)