Emily's dance

Emily participated in the "Tinikling" dance of the Philippines for her school's Asian Pacific Heritage celebration. Two teachers clapped bamboo poles down and together, and the dancers did their dance between the poles. Emily was nervous at the first couple practices that she'd get her feet caught!

For a few months, I have been taking the boys to a weekly music group that a friend of mine headed up. Parents and kids do a half hour of music time with simple musical instruments (shakers, castanets, sticks) and puppets and scarves, etc. with songs to sing or music to accompany. It was our turn to host music group in May, and my friend loaned me her supplies. Emily wanted to do music group on our own so she could see what it was like, so we had family music time on Memorial Day. After the usual half-hour, Emily wanted to keep going!

Also on Memorial Day, for Family Home Evening we had the first ever Campbell Family Talent Show! Emily did a ballet dance and showed some of her paintings, Brandon sang a song he learned in preschool and showed some of his paintings, and Nathan danced to “Upside Down”(hilarious--he really gets into it) and sang “Bill Grogan’s Goat” with Paul leading him. I played a song on the violin and Paul played a song on the kiddie piano and showed one of the scrapbooks he made. It was really fun. Brandon was a bit nervous at first to sing, but he did it! Here's a video of some of the show. Unfortunately my video of Nathan dancing didn't work out, so I'll have to capture that for you another time!

The reason I wanted to do a family talent show was to help Brandon feel more comfortable performing. Last week on the last day of preschool, the class sang some songs for the parents. Brandon had been excited about it for days, telling me, “We’re going to sing for you!” When it was time to start singing, he started out singing and doing some actions for about three seconds, then apparently the shyness struck him and he stopped singing and started wiping his eyes, and then moved behind another kid and sat down through all the rest of the songs. He didn’t make a scene at all, but just made himself invisible. Then when the kids sat down again and it was time for Mrs. Vroman, his teacher, to pass out their folders and certificates, Brandon scooted back to his spot. So he didn’t cause any problems, but I thought it was a little sad that he missed out on the fun of performing the songs. He also won't say the scripture or give a talk in Primary because of his shyness. So the family talent show was a good step for Brandon. The next week for Family Home Evening, we all gave talks or testimonies and the kids stood up at a makeshift pulpit. It was really wonderful.