As a Music for Young Children teacher it's just a given that all our children will be taking piano lessons . . . no questions, that's just how it will be. Braden and I truly value music and everything that it teaches and although there are some tough times when children take lessons we believe that we work through those times and keep on persevering and we pray that our kids will understand why we are doing this - maybe not now, but hopefully later on in life. I've heard soooo many parents say that they wish their parents would have put them in piano lessons or would have made them stick it out through piano lessons, but in all my years I have never heard a parent wish that their parent hadn't put them in lessons! (and I'm one of those kids who wanted to quit, had to keep going and am so thankful that I wasn't able to quit because I wouldn't be doing what I am if my parents let me just give up - Thanks Mom and Dad!)
Since January piano practice hasn't been a fun thing in our house. There have been tears, temper-tantrums, arguments and voices that haven't always been as they should. It has been the opposite of fun - for both the kids and us parents. It would be so much easier to just let the kids have their way and not practice and just pull them out of lessons. Sooooo much easier!!!
Then yesterday morning happened . . .
I was upstairs getting ready and I could hear the kids talking and Kaleb practicing the piano. The conversation started to interest me so I kinda snuck to the corner to listen to what was going on. Just to give a little history, Kaleb and Emma have both been working on very hard songs (they are both learning new techniques, with Kaleb having to play a straight rhythm in his left hand with a mix of straight and syncopated rhythm in his right & Emma is learning a song that continues to go hand over hand, having to find the notes really fast, etc). Anyways, they've been practicing a lot and these songs aren't sounding nearly as hard as they originally thought they were. So, back to the morning - I heard Kaleb call Emma and Navia to the piano and ask if they wanted to hear him play his favorite song, "The Water Snake". The girls stood there and listened as Kaleb totally rocked the song (which he couldn't even play hands separately last week). They clapped for him and told him how good he did and how much they loved the song - which was sooooo cool to listen to.
Then I heard Emma ask Kaleb and Navia if they wanted to hear her favorite song. Kaleb got off the bench and Emma got her music ready and started playing "Drifting Clouds". She did an amazing job! As soon as she was done the kids clapped for her and started telling her their favorite part of the song. Emma was just beaming!
Navia couldn't just sit there anymore - she ran and grabbed her books and said that she wanted to play a song too. So she opened her book up, found a page and started playing while singing her "hops" and "busy beavers" an octave higher than what she was playing. She did a great job too and was so proud of herself and her older brother and sister let her know how she played really, really well!
They came upstairs and asked if I had heard them, which I told them that I did and was soooo proud of how well they each played their songs and then I heard a bunch of "it was sooo easy", "I could play it with my eyes closed", "wanna hear it again?" . . .
So what did this do to the inside of me? My heart was smiling and I was so wishing that Braden could have been there to sneak with me (he's in Paris for a couple days for work). I know that it's all worth it - the tears and frustration. There will always be hard times when it comes to learning anything, but it's worth working through those times to get to the good times and have fun with the new skill. Hey, the kids have been on count-down to their lessons so that they could show their classmates how well they can play . . . what's with that!!! So cool!!!
So there's my little story - about my 3 amazing children who cheer each other on, praise each other when they do something well & although they have hard times they are sticking with learning an amazing skill and doing incredibly well!!! You should come over and hear them sometime!!!
