The Tuesday students were lucky to have access to the communal chocolates at the front desk today! Thank you to Luna, our violin student who is leaving
However Max (our star violin teacher) hopped out of his room every 30 minutes to grab one so I think in the end he ate the most.

What is it about chocolate that makes it so special?

Maybe it’s to do with the mysterious Cacao bean that originated from South America, which is now mainly harvested from West Africa! (Hey, I actually remember the stuff I learn at uni)
The bean itself is actually extremely bitter – but mixed with  the right proportion of sugar and other ingredients – it makes beautiful chocolate!

Think you’re a true chocolate lover?

Try 100% cacao chocolate and we’ll see how many of you will still be saying that.

Personally I’m a milk chocolate lover – so nothing over 50% goes down with me well haha.

What’s the strongest percentage you’ve gone?

On Thursdays it is devoured by our violin student Gianel and violin teacher Max.

Today William was trying to employ Gianel into coming in on Saturdays to help other students practice their scales. His payment would be in cookies. Not exactly sure what ended up happening in the end but I have a strong feeling that he may have succeeded. If he did I’m sure there’d be a strong case for child labour hahaha.

Nevertheless the infamous (well not really famous) K-mart cookies continue their reign as the sole Shine Music food. Any suggestions for anything better?

Does anyone remember this show? Or am I that old…haha.

Anyway two instances happened in reality today that could fit this show nicely.

1. Our adult clarinet student Florence tells us a story of how her 2 year old son was in a dilemma about who to read his bedtime story to.
   Florence asked ‘Mummy or Daddy?’
   He replies ‘Mummy’
   She asks ‘Mummy or Daddy?”
   He replies ‘Mummy… oh actually Daddy‘.
   Haha, how cute!
2. One of our young violin students Ela tells her mum “Mum, I want you to be confident and go up to Alexis and ask for a colouring sheet!‘
   Apparently her mum had been trying to teach her how to be confident – I guess it’s working.

Witty small children are always so entertaining

so!! back to business!! We’ve currently holding a EASTER EGG HUNT!!!  The kids (and parents) have coloured in some Easter Eggs for me and i’ve stuck them around the school!!! I’ve hidden some under tables, behind chairs, on chairs, windows, ceiling (i had some help with this!), doors and walls!

So how is works is that the kids have to go around the school, counting all the coloured eggs and have to quietly tell me how many they found, and if they’ve found all the eggs they receive a chocolate bunny!!! yum yum yummy!!!

I bought almost 50 eggs at once, and when I was going through the checkout, the ‘checkout’ lady looked at me weirdly, probably thinking to herself that I’d go into a full blown sugar coma by the end…hahaha

So far! 32 students have found all the hidden easter eggs!

How many can you find in the photo below?

We’ve also got a new addition to our computer monitor decoration….err team?

Zahra (younger sister of Sophia, one of our piano students) gave me her sister’s Chipette! So now we have Kitty Softpaws and the Golden Goose from Puss in Boots and Chipette from Alvin and the Chipmunks!

I get to spend a few hours doing a bit of paperwork while playing and talking with the students.  There’s always something different going on every day!  Today, Becky (William’s most adorable piano student!!) was showing me where her tooth fell out and where another one was wobbly!  I asked her if the tooth fairy had come to visit her yet, but sadly she said no…well not yet! I was just talking to her mum and she told me that the tooth fairy will be visiting her tonight…hehehe and now her younger sister is colouring in a barbie picture!

Yesterday, is a little crazier than the other days I work.  Most of the Friday students are quite young so they love to colour in.  They’re also very helpful when I’m decorating the school.  They love to help stick up picture, colour in decorations and keep me entertained.  They can get a little bit too excited, so I need to bribe them with lollies to keep quiet.  The hard part is keeping them from eating the lolly before their music lessons, otherwise they’ll go hyper….and the teachers won’t be happy..hahaha…

Tuesday….also another favourite day of mine!  There are a pair of absolutely gorgeous twins! I wasn’t here this Tuesday, but they brought in their Stardom colouring competition..and both their entries are sooo cute!!!! They stuck some cotton wool as the tail and drew a beautiful grassy area for their rabbits. There are so many wonderful students on Tuesday! I always look forward to catching up with everyone! My Tuesdays always end with a gossip session between me and the mums:)

So there you go! You’d like to work at Shine too right?

Subject: Commentary on what happened this particular Thursday.

• Our two singing students Michael and Mikayla and their younger sister were very busy taking lessons, doing reading with their mum and entering the colouring competition. They’re always full of energy. I hope I was that energetic when I was young.
• New students always get lost so once again I had use my heroic powers to save struggling a lost student and their family. They successfully got here in one piece for their lesson.
• Our young clarinet student Sunwoo enquired in detail about the prizes available for redemption of Shine Dollars. He seemed keen on the Nintendo DS prizes which need $1490 Shine dollars. Unfortunately he’s still quite a long way away sitting at $25. No wonder he seemed a lot more quiet than usual. However after his lesson he moved up into the hundreds. More the reason to keep practising!
• Sunwoo’s grandmother asked whether there was an age limit to learning an instrument – she seems rather keen. You can never stop learning!
• Crystal’s mum was telling me about how their washing machine broke down and she had to hand wash the laundry and hang them in front of the fireplace. Very old-school style.
• Clarinet student Florence came this week her eye looking a lot better. It had been quite infected last week and apparently she used it to threaten her teacher Wayne haha. Of course in a non-serious way. Anyway it was good to know that her eye got better.  She was saying how it better have cause she paid like a $100 to see the doctor’s.
  Florence was also telling me about how she dealt with her son not wanting to practise piano. She told him that if he didn’t want to she’d sell the piano the net day. He replied, ‘NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!’ Parents, reverse psychology could work for you in this way. But beware, does not work on all kids. You may get the response ‘YESSSSS! JUST SELL IT!’
• We have a suggestions box that I put out last week and got some interesting feedback. Comfy chairs, refrigerators and payrises were among some of the suggestions we got.
• Had a very deep and meaningful chat with Hayley, our singing teacher about what it feels like to grow old….
• 7:30pm is when all the young and adorable students arrive. They definitely brighten the place up.

As the day winds up, I can say that it’s been quite a peaceful Thursday without any huge drama happening. Thank goodness

This was an item being sold as an ‘air guitar’. Consisting of only the top part of the fret with the part with pegs with buttons that you press to produce sounds as you swing your arm violently where the body of the guitar should be.

Strange as it doesn’t seem very air guitar-y if there is actually some sort of actual real component. But I guess you get the sounds without actually taking the effort to play properly.

If you look at Clarence’s left hand, he’s holding up a little lego piano that he made!

Here’s a closeup:

how cute is that! !

Reblogged from Shine Music:

I am sooooo glad to be back at work! I spent pretty much all of my holidays annoying my dogs, sleeping and staring at the ceiling at the ceiling. I was so bored I thought i might go a little nuts!

The most exciting thing that happened to me during the holidays was taking a road trip with some friends and lazying by the beach!

Some of the students I talked with were lucky enough to holiday on the Gold Coast and visit Movie World and Sea World! So Jealous!

Since it is only my 3rd day back, I’m sure there are a lot more holiday stories to be heard:) and will keep you all updated!

This term, we’re lucky to have a few new teachers with us!

Beata Eckerman: Piano teacher – big fan of Yiruma (one of his most famous songs is: River Flows in You) Super nice!

Sunhae Oh: Piano Teacher – She’s multitalented! She’s got a degree in fine arts as well as music! (alot of time spent at uni!)

Samantha Knutsford: Cello Teacher – Studies at the super competitve Sydney Conservatorium of Music! and is an avid traveller! She’s been to India, Nepal, Egypt and many other countries in South East Asia!

Tatyana Lukich: woo hoo Tat’s back! I’m such many of you remember her from a year ago.  She took a break to concentrate on her studies and now she’s back teaching violin!

Well that’s all from me today! I’m feeling a little hungry so I think i’ll go and chomp of one of William’s chocolate chip cookies:D