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Showing posts with the label learning

Sailing With Papa

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Lukey really seems to enjoy sailing and I definitely enjoy our time out on the boat together. We went sailing a few times this summer, as always, but this summer I managed to capture some video of one of our outings with the intention of sharing it here. Well... okay... the real intention was to add this video to my large collection of videos of the grandkids. I did, however, want to also share it here. I shot about 30 minutes of video on this particular outing but I miraculously edited the video down to about 12 minutes so it is a bit more bearable to watch... especially for those of you who aren't Lukey or me! It is still a bit long but I wanted to keep all the minutes of footage that showed some interaction between the two of us. There was plenty of time when we just enjoyed the sailing in silence but, as Lukey gets older, there is more and more talk between the two of us when we are on any of the boats. We both had a great time... Lukey was a pleasure on the boat and it

Music Education with Papa

Yesterday, while all the ladies were out bridal dress shopping, Lukey and I had some nice quiet time at the house. Naturally, we ran some trains on Lukey's layout while it was so quiet in the house... four different trains to be exact. That was fun. We then headed to the kitchen for some lunch.  After lunch, we knew the ladies would be back home before long so we didn't want to jump into anything time consuming. I then had an idea... I asked Lukey, "do you want to learn how to play a song on the piano?"   He enthusiastically replied, "YES!" while jumping up in the air like a little jumping bean. First, I attempted to teach him something simple... where to sit in reference to the piano... how to identify that middle group of two black keys. I doubt he'll remember this but he seemed to understand and it was his first introduction to this concept.   Then I figured we'd start with trying to play something simple like "Jingle Bells"...

Effective Practicing and Learning

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If you want to do something well, you must put in the time and effort. However, it can't just be 'putting in time'. This time and effort must also be effective time. There must be effective practice as opposed to ineffective practice which reinforces poor techniques.  If you are simply going through the motions like treading water to keep your head above the water, you are probably only participating (halfheartedly participating) in ineffective practice. Ineffective practice is a complete waste of time and energy and, oftentimes, only results in picking up poor techniques and bad habits. I don't know about you, but I do not like wasting my time and effort. Considering my lack of energy because of my poor health, this is even more important to me today than ever before. When you mindlessly go through the motions, lacking true effort, you are wasting your time and energy. This is not for me! Lately, I've been focusing on photography techniques (no pun intend