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In a message dated 11/30/2003 12:44:43 PM Eastern Standard Time,
jrossedd@... writes:


> Dunno if this will help, but my little guy wanted to play the violin
> at age four. So I bought one and signed him up for Suzuki, in which the mom
> and
> child supposedly learn together. Well, the first assignment was to build a
> toy violin, from a box covered in brown shopping-bag paper and strings drawn
> on
> with red magic marker. One end had a paint paddle attached to be the "neck.
>
> No sound to worry about sounding bad at least! <g>
>
> The idea was that little children really need to be able to make
> mistakes, to be rough, to fumble and drop it, whatever. The first task is to
>
> ingrain the standing still, the standing straight, the tucking under the
> chin at the
> right spot, the lifting and lowering and repositioning, et cetera, ad
> nauseum. Not making actual sound.
>
> I don't mean to misrepresent the method or diss violin playing -- it
> did not work for us, obviously, probably for were many reasons other than
> this
> and that wouldn't apply to your situation anyway. My only real point is that
>
> when this method DOES work, it all starts by building and handling your own
> toy
> violin and then not playing at all. If you can get anything helpful out of
> this, more power to you! <gg> JJ
>


Duh! It just occurred to me that we have a professional violinist mom
in our local hs group. She is not quite unschooling as I understand it --
though she is moving in that direction with her four young ones -- but she is
very thoughtful and good-hearted, and recently started an hs symphony. Would you
like me to put this question to her and see what she advises for your dd? JJ


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