Kodiak Island Drummers!

Before I get too far into this topic, I wanted to let you know that Andrew has his own post on this topic here. Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who has left him comments...he's becoming quite adept at checking in for comments, and you all have been so encouraging and have given him some great topic ideas! This mama's heart is touched, I tell you!

The week before last, the kids and I had an incredible opportunity to work with the leader of the Kodiak Island Drummers (search them out on YouTube...good stuff). The neighboring school had gotten a grant for an "artist in residence," and we had workshops all week long with Mr. D (whose native last name is impossible to pronounce or spell)! That school is MUCH more welcome to home schoolers than the one in our own community, and invited us to tag along for the week.

Each day, there was an hour-long session for kids PK-2nd grade. Jacob was reluctant to even try anything the first day, but warmed up some after that. In his defense, he did have a terrible cold all week, and we had to be up and out of the house by 8:30 a.m. every day. NOT usual for us. Lack of sleep gets along worse with Jacob than it does with most people!

Anna loved it, and would beat along on her drum and sing with the best of them! As it is, all four of us are still singing the songs and drumming the beat on anything around us!

Andrew, as you can well imagine, was in his glory, soaking up every minute of it!

I had no idea how incredibly fun it was to sit around with friends banging on a drum! But seriously, we were sounding pretty good by the time we had our performance Friday night. Andrew's group went first, and I was among the moms who helped keep them going on their rounds with "Are you Sleeping?" The older elementary kids performed after that, and they were amazing...and to think that he had only been working with them for a week!

It made for an absolutely crazy week, the week after which I refused to leave the house if it weren't absolutely necessary, but it was well worth it! There are already plans in the works for Mr. D to come back next year, and Andrew is already excited that he will be in the 'Older kids' group!

Tricia also posted some adorable pics of Andrew drumming (they came over for the performance), as well as tons of posts about tons of stuff we've been up to!