Song, Birds

The new level of music lessons is pretty radically different to how it used to be and Eloise is taking some time to adapt, which is interesting to watch.

It's much more formal with the kids sitting in a row with chime bars at the ready while an actual lesson with teaching and so on happens.

It's taken Eloise three weeks to come to terms with the format. Last week she absolutely hated it, very shy when she was put on the spot and not happy about sitting still and paying attention. She found it quite distressing, and probably I didn't help as I became quite frustrated at her unwillingness to concentrate, in retrospect a mistake.

This week she was very much happier, and I was much happier too as I let her get on with what she wanted to get on with and just filled in for her where she didn't want to participate and I think that she's getting used to the format much more.

Another part of the problem I suppose is that we've joined the class weeks into the term - there were no other classes that were convenient for us - and the other children have been doing it for three months more than Eloise has. But their progress is quite impressive, even the young siblings are singing along when they have to and are very attentive, apparently with very good concentration.

So I expect that if we persevere that it'll be really beneficial for Eloise.

On the way home, after a stop at the playground, we saw a flock of corellas - tropical birds to you and me - roosting on a telegraph line at the bottom of the road. A sizeable flock of probably fifty birds has been hanging around for weeks now, there being a house locally with a comprehensive bird-feeding facility, and they make a hell of a hullaballoo.

We went down a little bit later and as the sun went down and their wire fell into shadow they flew away, probably seeking out some warmth somewhere as out of the sun it's pretty chilly.