I check Lynn's school bag everyday, not only for papers that I need to sign, or to read notices from school, but also review the work's that done. I saw this booklet for the first time.
This is a journal, so that main focus here is to get/guide the kids to write about their feelings. As I started flipping, there's a page on how they felt about a game that they played in school, and there was a page on "I felt happy because....". Then I flipped to another page, which says "I felt sad because......." GUESS what Lynn wrote?
Ha! Yes, I tore her book (piano book) once. It happened at least half a year ago.
I had always been in a dilemma about letting her learn the piano. And I struggle to decide how hard I should drive her to learn the piano. As I know how to play a little myself, I revise or even teach her how to play correctly the pieces that she's suppose to practice at home. I finally understand why I gave up myself (when I was young), because it is difficult to master, unlike school subjects. So Winny is right that it should start with the kid showing an interest/talent.
Anyway, there was this day that she was throwing tantrum while practising. I wanted her to understand that she cannot give up easily, because achievement comes from hard work and resilience. There are many ways to teach her this concept. For example, if after practising hard she plays a song well, I will praise her and explain to her how her hard work paid off. That night, she was beyond reasoning, so I wanted to use other methods to create an impact. It is like some mothers will pretend (or really) throw after toys if the children repeatedly don't keep their toys after playing. Or letting them go hungry/withhold the dessert when they consistently don't finish their proper meal.
I wanted her to know that she's fortunate to have the opportunity to learn and that comes with a price, like lesson fees, cost of the piano and buying the books. To demonstrate my point, I probably said something like ".. if you don't want to learn then why do I have spent money to buy books.." and then I ripped the middle 2 pages (from the staples) out of the book.
Later on, I found her taping the pages back to the book.. At that point, I not sure how she felt. When I saw her journal, I was surprised that she quoted this incident. Truthfully speaking, I feel smug that it created a strong impact on her. I hope I don't one day regret this, but I really doubt I ever will!
1 comment:
my mum sent me for piano lessons when I was probably in primary 1 or 2, the teacher was very strict and fierce and I was very stressed every time attending her lessons. One day, my mum decided to stop the lesson coz she said we might be moving to town, I was so delighted that I think I 'hooray' a lot and I did not touch on music books till I was in secondary school.
When I was 13 yo, I met a friend who played piano and organ, she played the song "love story" for us and that struck me, I really envied her for being able to play a song so well. I requested my dad to let me learn piano again. At the age of 13, I picked up piano again, playing the songs I was once playing at the age of 6 or 7, learning with the primary school kids that were so much younger than me, but that time round I make sure I practice hard and pass all the exams.
From my own experience, I see how stress can kill one's interest so easily, and how interest plays an important part in kids' learning.
Lynn is a smart girl, she can definitely excel in piano if she continues her lessons, allow her to make mistakes, allow her to play a little out of tempo, let her find the interest of playing piano herself, yes, practice makes perfect, but interest is the only factor in making someone doing the same thing repeatedly.
One tip in cultivating her interest, give her the scores of songs that she's familiar with, you can download many piano scores from www.77music.com, the website also have an application that can play the scores and show you how it plays on the keyboard, very powerful tool that i'm using now.
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