Thoughts on the flu and children's choir

Yes, it's been a few days. There really hasn't been much happening here besides the usual routines. Additionally, although I'm not showing much at all in the way of observable symptoms, I've been feeling just terrible the last couple of days.

Whatever bug is going around is apparently more severe than usual. I've heard from a number of people how in most other years they don't stay down for a week with the flu, but this one just knocks a person out good and cold (or hot, I suppose depending on your point of view). I heard this morning that the high school is seeing an unusual number of substitute teachers.

While I was miserable and unable to get to sleep last night, I came up with a hypothesis. I have no idea if its correct or not, but it's my explanation of why it seems like the whole town is sick. Maybe someone's done a study on this and has a more scientific answer...

Hypothesis: A person, regardless of where they live, probably interacts with about the same number of people over a period of time, say a day or two. In a larger community, these interactions are quite likely to be with different people with few overlaps. But in a small community, you tend to bump into the same people -- lots of overlaps. In a larger community, the people carrying the cold or flu probably tend to be more spread out and a person comes across them less frequently. In a smaller community, a person tends to have more frequent contact with those that are carriers. The immune system is able to handle and combat new threats, but it takes time to build up the proper antibodies. In a larger community with less frequent contact with carriers, the immune system is able to build up the necessary antibodies before being overexposed to the threat. In a smaller community, with the more frequent exposure, the immune system doesn't get enough time to build up the necessary antibodies before the body gets overwhelmed by the threat.

Monday we went from dry and clear to snow, and then overnight it changed to rain. Tuesday was a mixture of rain and occasionally some heavy, wet snow. It's been just rain today.

I'm also trying to figure out how to most effectively run the children's choir. The kids range from 3rd to 8th grade -- a very wide range. And to add to that, some have had extensive musical training already while some are complete novices. How and what are ways to make sure kids at both ends of the spectrum are engaged so that they want to continue?