Double Bill

 There was a double bill at the Dopp house last night, a recital and book club.  Ruby's students and mine played to a sold-out house.  Some of the audience members were nice enough to bring their own chairs downstairs, and others provided the refreshments.  Due to Golda getting the most thrilling call of her life, she was teaching a ballet class as a last-minute sub, instead of playing a duet with me, and Freestone weaseled out of his performance when his ballroom dance party/performance was scheduled for the same time as the recital.  (You may have seen me dashing up the street at 6 to make an appearance at the ballroom thing, arriving home just in time for the recital.)  Ruby and I like our recitals to start exactly on time and stay short, so Golda and Free just helped us do that with their absence.  I don't know anyone who is ever sad when something is cut from the program!  Every single student did a great job.  And Ruby sounded beautiful on her guitar solo.  I am very impressed with her teaching acumen.  Her students are becoming quite proficient, and Ruby loves teaching them.  I love our little community of students and their families.

Mia and her grandmother, Melinda, whom I love.  We could talk for hours.

Our favorite audience members!  Xanthe played the piano.

After the recital, we moved a few chairs, set out a few refreshments, and it was time for book club.  It's usually at 8:30 the first Thursday of the month, and I always manage to nab December as my turn because I love holiday parties.  We read the new Elizabeth Smart book, My Story.  It was a great conversation.  My only complaint is that nobody ate enough of my refreshments.  Can you gals do better on that next time?  Thanks.  There was no shortage of laughter and merriment.  I love all these women.

About 10 minutes before start time, Ruby and I got bored and dipped some wafers in chocolate.  That's how easy they are!  Of course, nobody ever said they were impressive, but I like them.  Kids gobble them up like crazy, and they're cheap, so they have a lot going for them.  Two bucks, ten minutes, festive.

I forgot to make my savory appetizer, so Scott went to the store to buy some spanikopita for me.  They were probably better than my version, which I guess I'll make today for dinner.  My kids will eat absolutely anything if it's wrapped in filo dough.

Next event:  Ruby's Sugarplum Party at 4:00.  All your little daughters are invited.  There will be cupcakes, dancing and art.  See you then!

The Secret Garden

  There was a little touch of spring at our house yesterday.  As the storm approached, we had a little garden party and talked about the mother-daughter book club book, The Secret Garden.  It was a fun discussion, but we realized we don't know much about the British occupation of India or the Moors of England.  Oh well!  Everyone still enjoyed the idea of a garden restoring children to life.  Tiffany brought a beautiful key necklace for each person.  Thank you!  What a perfect party favor.  Jennifer brought all the ingredients for an egg head project, (Thank you!) except the dirt, which I had forgotten.  Ari and Elise went outside and dug up a bowl full of dirt for the project.  While the kids assembled their egg heads, I got gardening tips from Amber and Jennifer.  I'm going to start with, "Don't plant things until you have an automatic water source."  Believe it or not, I didn't follow that one last year.  I thought I could remember to water with the hose twice a day, but in this climate, one missed watering is - and was - deadly.

The book for next next month is The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt.  I started reading it last night, and the tone reminded me of The Wonder Years or A Christmas Story, but with lots of Shakespeare references.  If you have kids that don't want to read it, read a different book and bring it to tell about.  So book club is at 4:30-5:30 on March 19.  You're invited!

Mother-Daughter Book Club. It Worked! Next Book...

No, it's not Hanukkah.  It's our Anne Frank/WWII/Jewish history book club.  I was really pleased with our first meeting.  Along with our discussion of the diary of Anne Frank, the kids made simple Stars of David to remind them that the Jews in Europe during that time period had to wear a yellow Star of David.  Araceli put red glitter on her star, which is probably disrespectful, but reminded us of the youthful spirit of so many of the children who died in concentration camps.  We talked about the Holocaust, what it must have felt like to be a young girl living in hiding, and the tragedy of Anne dying.  She had so much to give!  The discussion was great, and the girls had a lot of insight.  Much more focused on the book than the discussion at grown-up book club, which invariably strays to labor and delivery and/or breastfeeding.  Am I right, girls?  But I love it!

We also read Tuck Everlasting for the younger kids, including our token boys, Freestone and Ethan.  Boys ARE invited!  :)  We got into a pretty good discussion on Tuck Everlasting, too, about whether we would have drunk the water, and at what age, and what it would be like to live forever and never change.  For refreshments, we had spring water that may or may not have had Fountain of Youth powers (we'll have to wait and find out), and windmill cookies, German Chocolate cookies and delicious chocolate cookies that Julie brought.  Thank you!

So, the book for February, by consensus, is The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett.  I don't keep many books, but The Secret Garden was a member of my permanent collection of Dell Yearling books when I was a kid, I loved it so much.  And its going to be fun to have an indoor garden party in February!  If you didn't come this time, open that door to the secret garden and come next time.  It's great having an hour where kids can talk about what they've read and observed, and learn from each other.   I lend and borrow books from my book club friends, Thursday lunch friends, blog friends, my mom and my neighbors, too.  I guess I'm trying to give that same sense of community to my kids, because I couldn't live without it, and I hope they never have to. 

Mother-Daughter Book Club; An Invitation

I had an idea several years ago and I still have yet to implement it.  My idea was a Mother-Daughter book club.  I thought it was a great idea, an important idea, but I was always afraid it wouldn't work.  Every time I try to get it off the ground, I worry that it won't work, and I stop.  I still worry that it won't work, that nobody will be interested, that I will fail or be embarrassed, but I'm going to do it anyway.  My older girls are already becoming disinterested, and I'm running out of daughters!  Plus, I realize that my kids aren't reading some of the absolute must-read classics, and I am looking for ways to broaden their base of experience besides me handing them a book and saying, "I loved this when I was your age."  That hasn't worked for me so far.

So here's the deal:  Everyone is invited to my house the third Saturday of the month from about 4:30-5:30 for book club.  It seems like a random time, but there are very few conflicts during that small window between soccer, etc., and Saturday evening plans.  The first book will be Diary of Anne Frank.  Araceli, my third grader, will be invited to participate, and I don't know whether this book will be over her head.  She suggested Tuck Everlasting, and I think that's a great idea.  We'll plan on having two books on two different age levels to read and discuss every month.  And sons are welcome, too, of course.  I just like the sound of "Mother-Daughter Book Club."  I'm not good at committees; I'm better at either being in charge or following orders, so I'm tempted to choose the books for each month myself, based on what I want my girls to read.  However, one of the things that is most valuable about book clubs in general is that you end up reading books you wouldn't have chosen yourself.  So if everybody comes to the first book club with ideas, we'll put together a calendar and a reading list.

I know this is just One More Thing in our busy lives, but I feel inspired.  I'm reading a book called Teach Like Your Hair's On Fire by Rafe Esquith, a teacher famous for his success in the classroom.  His quote that inspired me:  "  If young people develop a love of reading, they will have better lives.  That objective is not listed in our state curriculum standards.  Our assessment of reading may begin with standardized test scores, but in the end we must measure a child's reading ability by the amount of laughter exhaled and tears shed as the written word is devoured."

I know kids have a lot of homework and not a lot of time, but I want to give them the enjoyment and satisfaction of reading for pleasure, not for a grade.  I so desperately want them to love reading.  Even if Mother-Daughter Book Club results in just one book read, it is better than nothing.  Ari, Freestone and I are already on Chapter 7 of Tuck Everlasting and it only took a little bit of time.

My house, January 22 (which is actually the 4th Saturday, but it works better).  4:30.  No age limits, no rules.  You don't have to be a mother have a daughter, and if you live far away from me, you can still read with us!  It's just a reason to read a good book and talk about it.  And eat brownies, of course.