Violins for Sale

My boys keep growing out of their violins!! I really feel like I've been ripped off a bit, because my plan was to have Micah use Josiah's old violins, thus getting double the use out of each purchase. Unfortunately, Micah has decided to give his big brother a run for his money on the whole growing thing. Therefore, we now have the equivalent of twins. Their clothes are the same size and they will have the same size violins....not fair!! OK, so I'm pouting and you're really not interested in my whining. I promise I'll hush now. :)

So, if you've ever had to buy a violin you will know it is similar to buying a used car. According to the salesman, if you are buying a violin, it is such a wonderful sounding instrument and all the dings and nicks give it character. Of course, 6 months later when you try to sell the same violin back to the nice man, he tells you that small violins never have a very good sound and yours isn't worth much! I'm a terrible haggler, and so I really don't play the buying game very well. I've been blessed in that we've bought our violins up to this point from a friend. She's told us honestly what they paid and we've given them a fair price based on what they paid. Now that the boys are in the same size(I might bitterly add a whine here...but, I won't), we have started to have to rent one for a boy and buy the other from the said friend.

Ok so why did I tell you all this? I really have no clue. I have these moments and usually don't post them...part of getting old I think. Oh, look there goes the pretty pink pony. Oh yes, I did have a point. We have two violins to sell. I'd much rather just sell them to a cyber-friend, then deal with the used car salesmen...er I mean knowledgeable violin dealers. So I'm trying my blog and facebook first.


Here is "Goliath"(we are keeping "David" and "Samson" since they were the boy's first violins)
Goliath is a 1/8 size violin. The inside of the violin reads as follows: Florea Modela Oradea Series 3618704 Made in China 2003 We are selling the whole outfit. Violin, bow and case for $50 plus shipping costs, or you can pick it up if you'd like.

Our next lot is "Paul". Paul is a very nice sounding 1/4 size violin. The inside of the violin reads as follows: Peccard Model : V-8 Copy of Antonio Stradivari West Coast String Instruments Anno 2003 We have papers for the outfit that estimates the violin's value at $850 and the bow's value at $300. We didn't pay close to that and the used car salesmen...er I mean experts, valued the whole outfit for less than that as well. We are selling the whole outfit; violin, bow and case for $400 plus the cost of shipping(by the way the bow is is an E. Guasti).






I'm happy to upload a video of each violin being played if you'd like to get an idea of the sound. Just email me at mattnjuwah@yahoo.com for that info or to contact me to make purchase.

An Idea

Geography is one of those subjects that we haven't really hit hard yet. We often have a world map on the island in our kitchen under clear plastic. As the boys are eating a snack, we sometimes quiz them on the location of countries or they often ask us questions about certain countries. But we've only done one year of a formal geography curriculum. This year we've been so busy with our other subjects that once again, geography has fallen by the wayside. That is until I realized I was missing an opportunity to learn more about geography while doing "school prayer time".

We love the ministry of Voice of the Martyrs and so we get a lot of correspondence from them. A few weeks ago we got their annual prayer map. It shows all the countries that are hostile or restricted nations toward Christianity. Everyday the boys and I choose a country from the map and pray for our brothers and sisters in that country. We wanted to know more about each country and so we ordered the 2011 report from VOM that gives information about the persecution in each country and even a little about the country's history, economic status, or government(you can get 10 of these books for $5). So now while I'm reading about the country of the day, the boys make a flag for the nation about which we are learning. Then we pray for that country. We were doing this for a few days when I realized that we were "doing" geography. Each day as I mentioned a country they would run to the map in search of the country and discover its location. I love combining subjects, so you can image how happy I was that not only were the boys learning to have hearts for the world, but they were also learning about the locations of African and Middle Eastern countries. SCORE!!

After we finish the persecuted countries, I think we may just go on to learn about and pray for the rest of the world.....I'm thinking we've got a couple of years of geography lined out now. :)

Just thought I'd pass that "accidental idea" on to you today.

Precious Birthday Treasures

Can I have a "mommy moment" here? My boys each wrote me precious birthday poems that I will cherish for life. I thought I'd share them with you.

I'm so glad he thinks I'm "tidy and neat" cause that's not exactly how I would describe myself. :)

Can there really be anything more dull than a shopping mall to a 6 year old boy? :)