The Kennedy Center

I always get inspired to do a weekly wrap up after I read other bloggers' wrap up.   I'm inspired by their week and maybe just maybe someone will be inspired or encouraged by my week.  I decided to try a different format this week to switch it up a bit. 

My Favorite Thing this Week...  seeing Sphinx Virtuosi with friends at the Kennedy Center.  I was surprised at my reaction to this performance - simply exhilarating.  One solo performer was 15 years' old and I was just in awe of her performance.  There is a Q & A session after each performance.  An audience member asked how long she practiced and she answered 5 hours per day!  She then said she was homeschooled so she had time to do that.  Of course there were homeschoolers in the house who cheered loudly after that.

From their website:
 The Sphinx Virtuosi Tour offers a diverse program featuring well-known repertoire in addition to works by African-American and Latino composers, including works by Mozart, Piazzolla, Michael Abels, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, and others. The Sphinx Virtuosi (formerly Sphinx Chamber Orchestra) is a conductorless ensemble comprised of alumni from the Sphinx Competition for young Black and Latino string players. This unique group has earned rave reviews from The New York Times. Allan Kozinn of the Times described their performances as "first-rate in every way" and the ensemble to have "produced a more beautiful, precise and carefully shaped sound than some fully professional orchestras that come through Carnegie Hall in the course of the year."

 We're Reading...well we just finished Around the World in 80 days.  It's part of the Excellence in Literature curriculum that Pumpkin is doing this year.  We often like to look at the movie of a book after we read it so we got this copy from the library.  This version was not very well done.  There is an updated version with Jackie Chann but it isn't at my library yet.

 Places We're Going...  the usual weekly routine of co-op, the YMCA for Zumba, Art & Piano.

 Things I'm Working On... staying ahead of the kids with the weekly lesson plan sheets.  If I'm organized it makes for a smoother week.

Random Things I'm Thinking about ...  preparing Princess for 11th grade that looms right around the corner - ordering drivers' education materials, talking to the local PS to make sure I get a spot for her to take PSATs,  application to VCU's Art intensive for high schoolers, and talking to the local CC for dual enrollment. 


Head over to weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers to see what other moms were up to this week.