Home School Families
"It is such a blast you almost forget how much you are learning. The need of children for movement is integrated into the most deliberately delightful music instruction I have ever experienced. The broad repertoire will be songs you will never forget. My kids don't fight in the car any more. We sing." Jacintha Mezzetti, Silver Spring, MD
"We had such a lovely week at summer camp. The music class was wonderful... the beauty of voices singing in harmony. Even a simple round sounded like the Vienna Boys' Choir. You did a marvelous job!" Sharrie Danielson, Gaithersburg, MD
"My son Douglas' pronunciation has improved. I think that the class has also improved his coordination." Janice Schultz, Gaithersburg, MD
"I can't walk by the piano without Rachel begging to sing. This instilled a love for music in Rachel that will last a lifetime." Kathy Tucker, Gaithersburg, MD
"Dear Miss Aniko, Thank you for encouraging me, even when I sang really bad. Music is my favorite class. Now I sing with my sister all the time... and I can sing really well. That's because you are such a good teacher." Lacey Dean, aged 9, Fairfax, VA
"Dear Aniko, I would just like to say that you have made such a difference in all of our lives. Before I met you, I was scared even to sing, but you always encouraged me and everyone else that we could do it if we just tried. Thank you for sharing your musical gift with all of us." Celie Dean, aged 11, Fairfax, VA
"Dear Aniko, I have learned so much from you, not only about music, but about the inspiration and nurture of young children. The children are so proud of what they have been able to accomplish this year. Your class has been a great boost for their self-esteem. And I have been amazed (and at times brought to tears) by their beautiful singing. You take normal children and teach them to sing like angels!" Linda Dean, Fairfax, VA
"Music has always been an integral part of my life, and we have endeavored to have this same richness for our children. The singing skills that they have developed under your teaching have far exceeded anything I dreamed possible for them. At home or in church, Aaron is able to harmonize "on the spot". Roxanne and Danny are also developing this same gift. They can all hold a part all by themselves with any number of people singing other parts (or other words or songs!). They love your classes.... My most precious memory of how this Solfa class has affected their lives is this one. Danny, 9 years old, and Isaac, our baby, share a room. Danny sleeps in a loft bed where he can look down on baby Isaac. One night after I had tucked Danny into bed, Isaac began fussing in his crib. I was heading up the stairs to check on him when this sweet, angel-like voice sang through the darkness. "Sleep, baby, sleep/ A mother sings/ Heaven's angels kneel/ and fold their wings./ Sleep, baby, sleep,/ Sleep, baby, sleep." and all was quiet. Danny had sung sweet baby Isaac to sleep." Martha Stehlik. Falls Church, VA.
"You have shared your gift of music and love for children so generously and have greatly enriched our lives!" Wendy Samuels, Falls Church, VA
"My 5 1/2 year old daughter Grace's Sunday school teacher told me (after trying to teach the children a song with clapping), that Grace was the only kid in the class with rhythm! I'm sure it was a result of this singing class!" Stephanie Link, Gaithersburg, MD
"I was fascinated to begin learning solfa and finally start making connections with theory and tone - connections I had missed in my 12 years of piano training (with excellent teachers). Finally I can almost recognize intervals! My real conversion to solfa happened when my 7 year old, after six months of solfa, went to the piano and started picking out the scale using "do, re, mi, fa..." After that, she started picking out the songs she had learned, singing them in solfa and then finding the proper note. We call that an "Aniko moment". Since then, we've had many "Aniko moments". My whole family sings all the time, stopping to correct the parts and make it more in tune. They can recognize whether or not it is in tune. That's a real step forward. Now our music fills our home, our car, our outdoors. Anna Joy, who is just 2, doesn't talk much, but in the morning we hear her mumbling to herself. Then she breaks out in song, in perfectly pitched notes with "Frere Jacques". Her repertoire increased with each new Friday, and now we hear the strains of "Old Man River", "Greensleeves", and "Music Boxes" drifting up through the baby monitor. When she is crying hysterically, hearing a strain of solfa music from one of her sisters' bedrooms will cause her tears to be interrupted, and she will soon join in." Ginnie Wilcox, Fairfax, VA
"We are really enjoying music more as a family! The children often spend "car time" singing (especially the rounds) songs from our class." Mrs. Clark, Gaithersburg, MD
Dear Aniko, Hailing from a small town in a rural state, I generally go to great lengths to avoid driving on the Beltway in Washington D.C. But every Friday morning September to May this year, my boys and I jumped in the car, tuned into traffic reports, and sped for 40 minutes to “Music with Mrs. Debreceny”. The first morning my sons complained about the long car trip, but they never did again.
You are a teacher extraordinaire. Your joie de vivre has convinced us all that singing together is better for a person than organic produce or even eight hours of uninterrupted sleep. But it’s not just your spirit that convinces us. You are truly gifted, as a musician and as a teacher. Your class has just the right balance of routine and “something new today”. We know when we will practice our breathing, do on Tonic Sol Fa scales, and “sign and sing”, but you are also always introducing a new challenge and telling us, “We can do it!”
My
homeschooled kindergartner and second grader are learning about rhythm, the
beginnings of reading music, scales, etc. by doing what they do best – moving.
They “walk the beat”, they clap a rhythm with a partner while singing
a round, they sign the notes of a folk song while learning the words.
And then we moms and our children, ranging in age from tiny tots to
thirteen years olds, are learning responsorial songs and singing in parts with
rounds and partner songs – and marvelling at how good we sound together.
But the singing doesn’t end with class.
My children sing all day, whether I want them to or not.
They sing during playtime and chores, even during supper and lessons.
Often an experience will jog their memory of a line from a song.
When on a nature walk at the park near our home we discovered the big
tree we’d admired was a White Oak, Ronnie and Stephen spontaneously sang out
“Coffee grows on White Oak trees.” In
reading about cotton they reminded me
that it should be “planted in April, in the full of the moon.” Besides
experiences reminding them of songs, songs are teaching them history.
Stephen at six years old knows that Leonardo da Vinci was a “quintessential
Renaissance man … a painter, a poet, an inventor …”
And Ronnie tells me he wants to read about Kublai Khan because “You
know, Mommy, Marco Polo was his friend. And
did you know, Mommy, that Mrs. Debreceny wrote
those songs about the Renaissance?” Yes, I did.
We love you, Mrs. Debreceny, and we are very grateful you are willing to
teach us.
Sincerely,
Nancy Rooker.” June 22, 1999
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