Accordion Lessons

Elliot and Tani jammin' on their accordions

This past March Tani started taking accordion lessons from Elliot Seif, who we'd met last Simchat Torah when he was playing with the Dorshei Derekh/Mishkan Shalom musicians. When Tani was four years old we were at the first Germantown Jewish Centre (GJC) young family retreat. One of the children had brought a toy accordion - Tani found it almost immediately and carried it around the entire weekend. So when Tani saw a real accordion last October, he went up to take a look and talk to the musician (who was Elliot). We asked him if he'd be willing to give a few lessons to an eager then five-year old and he agreed. In March Melissa, Elliot and Tani went downtown to Liberty Bellows to rent Tani an accordion. Melissa rented it for $100 for three months but was required to leave a check for an additional $300. If she returns the accordion in June she gets the check back. If not, the accordion is ours. Looks like we'll be keeping it as Tani has been enjoying the lessons. He's learned "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and "Dreams Come True" and is working on a third piece called "Flying". It's fun to watch him play. BTW, we're heading to the third GJC family retreat this weekend!

Tani lost his first tooth!

We were at Mt Airy Day by the Wissahickon Village Cohousing table. Tani runs up to me with a tooth in his hand: "Mom, my tooth came out!". It has been loose for almost a week. The hygienist at our dentist had offered to pull it for him. He had agreed but then changed his mind. To celebrate this milestone, we went to Custard & Cakes Creamery (known as Mommy Neysa's favorite ice cream place). Tani put the tooth under his pillow, and the tooth fairy left a Susan B. Anthony dollar coin.

While at Mt Airy Day, we also sat at the Project Learn (PL) table. Tani got to tell folks how much he enjoyed Jane's K/1 class and Melissa and I talked to a few parents about how much we love the philosophy of PL and how Tani has thrived there. Hopefully we'll get a few more students for PL. Tani's class already has 17 students - if any more sign up they'll get a teacher's assistant to help Jane out next year.