Its' not over until the deaf kid sings.....

Chance has been in chorus this past year and has really enjoyed singing. He has had a good teacher and she has taught the kids a lot.

Chance's brother is in chorus with him and together with the other kids they have sung in at the mall, for the school and for the parents.

Chance decided to sing one of the songs he learned in chorus for the Alexander Graham Bell Speech Fair this year. It is entitled,"Be Kind to Your Parents."

Since Chance has been singing this song since January, we were confident that he would be able to sing it during the fair.

When we got together with the teacher and friend who was going to play this song, we quickly realized that for this particular song, the piano doesn't really give you the melody. The piano is more of an accompaniment and does not provide the melody. This proved to be a bit of a challenge for Chance. In chorus class, the kids had performed to a CD that, while it didn't have the melody, it was what he was familiar with; plus he had 120 other kids helping with the melody.

Since the performance was in less than a week, I tried to figure out how to help Chance with the melody. He has the words down pat and he had the rhythm. He had always had the other kids in the chorus to back him up with the melody and now, he would be expected to carry it alone.

I had the idea that maybe Chance's brother could sing the song with Chance to help him with the melody during the performance, but was a bit afraid that Chance would feel I didn't think he could do it alone, or that his brother would be stealing his thunder. I broached the idea with Chance and he eagerly nodded his head in agreement that his brother sing with him.

Chance's brother readily agreed and together they practiced with the piano. At the last minute, we were able to get the CD that the kids used in chorus and Chance seemed relieved by this fact.

The singing number was not a duet in the traditional sense, it was more of a support. Chance's brother just sang quietly next to Chance to help him stay on track with the melody.

When Chance took the stage, he introduced himself, gave the title of the song and said his brother was going to sing with him. Then he said,"I am going to sing now."

Chance's brother sang quietly beside him, happily letting Chance shine. As a mother, it filled my heart to the brim.

THOSE parts........

Chance and I were sitting at the table talking grammar. The assignment was for Chance to look up words in the dictionary and see if they were verbs, nouns, adjectives etc.

Chance was looking down at the words he would be looking up as I was reading more of the assignment and that was when I heard the giggle.

Chance repeated one of the words and then he giggled some more and closed his eyes.

"Do you know what that word means?" I asked Chance as the thought dawned on me that Chance was confusing the word in the assignment with a slang word for a certain male body part.

Chance clasped his hand over his mouth and nodded yes.

"What does it mean?" I asked trying to make sure that I knew what was going through his head.

With a somber expression, Chance informed me,"You don't want to know."

Chance was trying to protect my innocence. What chivalry.

He was protecting me from a word that did not mean what he thought it meant but was a close cousin to the word he thought it was.

I did not want to make Chance feel embarrassed. I told him what the actual slang word for his anatomy was, and then he said,"Oh ya! It sounds kind of like the other word." He replied sheepishly. I agreed that the two words sounded alike.

Then I asked him what the actual word was for this particular body part. Chance gave me a few more slang words giggling and laughing so hard that I could not help but join him.

We came to a consensus on what the actual name was and Chance sayed,"Oh ya!"

I told him that he would hear many many names for that particular body part over the years but that we did not need to use all of them.

My boy now hears the slang phrases used by other kids and is learning all kinds of words that we don't use at home.

Who could have imagined this day would come?!

So, now Chance knows SEVERAL words for his male body parts. These are some of the things you learn by age 9 going on 10 I guess. Hopefully, these are words that don't need to be used all that often by boys age 9 going on 10:)

"I am so lucky..."

"I am so lucky to have implants and be deaf!" This is the phrase I heard while typing on the computer.

"Ahhhh! Chance is grateful for his implants and is glad to be able to hear!" I thought.

However, when I witnessed the scene of what caused Chance's expression of luck, I saw that he didn't actually have his implants on. The magnet parts were dangling from his head and he was looking down at his brother whom he could no longer hear. A big broad smile on his face.

Chance's brother just looked up at him from the floor unable to convince Chance of whatever it was he was trying to convey.

I think Chance won that one. One point for Chance.