Band Night

When you have a homeschooled child with autism who plays the clarinet pretty well, it's quite a challenge to find the right place for him to play in an ensemble.  But it's always seemed to us that we should build on Tom's strengths, and if you have a kid who is a solid musician who enjoys the instrument and gets a kick out of playing with an ensemble...  it's seems like a no brainer that he should be a part of a band.

Ordinarily, kids who play in the band are not homeschooled.  And so far as we can tell, kids with autism almost never play in band.  So we're blazing some new ground, and hopefully making things a little easier for the next kid to come along.

No, he's not playing in the "big" band, since that meets during school hours - but for three years now he's been part of the after school "advanced" jazz band. Impressively, with some minimal support from the band leader and the outstanding teaching skills of a terrific clarinet teacher, it's gone quite well indeed.

In these photos, Tom is playing "In the Mood" and "Vehicle" as part of the middle school band (he's the clarinet player next to the girl with the saxophone).  This event was held at the high school, and included bands from the two middle schools and the high school - which meant that people we knew from every part of our lives were in attendance.

It was quite a night.