I discovered the Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra. Well, actually I’ve known about them for a few years, but it never has worked to go to one of their summer concerts, and their concert season is in the summer. Many of the musicians also play in the regular symphony, but it turns out that the LSCO has very engaging programing. I took Kidlets (and Grandma Kathy) to two different concerts in July, and now I’m wondering why in the world I didn’t make attending their concerts a bigger priority in the past.
I learned about jiggers. I happened to be reading an autobiography, and the author had jiggers when she was a child and almost died. Then, because that’s the way things happen sometimes, IF Duluth organized a service project to cut old jeans into shoes to send to Uganda for children who are treated for jiggers. It was a Sole Hope shoe cutting party. Cutting out denim was easy to do and a lot of fun. If you are ever in the need of a service project, check out Sole Hope.
While camping and waiting to use the public showers, I learned that some people are crazy meticulous about their hygiene, even when camping: Long showers, precise tooth flossing, and a very, very careful application of underarm deodorant, not to mention the application of makeup. Even on a careful day at home, I’m in and out of the bathroom pretty quick: no makeup, a fast shower, and efficient dental care for me. It was fascinating.
Water socks! Where have you been the last eight years of my life? On a whim one day I bought water socks for all of the kidlets and myself, and it turns out that they are JUST the thing for rocky Lake Superior Beaches. It makes wading and swimming painless and fun. We’ve tried flip flops and sandals that can get wet for years, and we’ve even winced along on bare feet. The rocks bite into your bare feet, and they wedge themselves into flip flops that fall off and water sandals that stay on, and then you can’t get the rocks out of your shoes, and you’re still walking on pointy stones. The rocks do not get into water socks, and the soles protect your feet but don’t get in the way when you are sitting in a kayak or swimming in the water. I don’t know why I didn’t think of them before.
I learned about the difference between a burka, a niqab and a hijab. I had to do a little researching after we encountered a lady wearing a niqab walking with he husband on the beach at Temperance River because all the kids had a lot of questions. Questions that were deep and tricky and that I was not prepared to answer, even though I carefully tried. There was also the fact that I didn’t know very much about any of those three head coverings.
It turns out I really enjoy watching and listening to someone play celtic fiddle music.
“You are really a visual learner” my cello teacher told me. And it’s true! I am so comfortable with how I learn that I haven’t thought about being a visual/auditory/kinesthic learner for years. I probably briefly thought about which one I am when I first started teaching, but even then I was mostly thinking about how to best include all those kinds of learners in my teaching. But it’s true. I can play music so much easier when I see it on the page. When I have to listen to something and play or sing it back, I actually end up visualizing it in my mind. When I make a motion, I visualize it first. When I listen to intervals I picture how they converge in their head. Most of all, if I want to learn something (not just music) fast and efficiently, I do it by watching. I use some auditory learning skills too, especially with music, so it’s really a combination, but since I’ve been thinking about it a lot this last week, I’ve realized just how prominent visual learning is for me, and I’ve been aware that I use kinesthetic learning the least.
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