This week at CatholicMom.com, I recount a story about Christopher. The stressors of his world ... his school work, his piano lessons, his home work, and the changes that are part-and-parcel of the end of the year... were creating a short fuse.
This post is short and sweet, because I'd like to open it to you, my readers. Have you ever been through a particularly stressful time with your grade schooler, and what did you do to help him or her through it?
Also, if your child has been taking music lessons, what do you do to help your child get practice time in -- and balance his other responsibilities at the same time?
Any and all advice welcome!
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2 comments:
We are a house full of musicians... the best practice times were before school...YES, really! My kids always had a late bell time and "waited" for the bus by sitting on the piano bench for 15 minutes! It warmed up their brains for learning the rest of the day!
Then, of course, there was the "evening concert" (another 15 minutes) they played for me (from another room) while I prepared dinner while listening in the kitchen.
Heidi,
Thanks for a great column! My kids are big time musicians, but it's all through their own personal motivation. Now that Eric is 16, he says, "Mom, why didn't you FORCE me to take piano lessons when I was younger? I'd be so much better now!" - So persevere my dear, he will thank you for the gift when he's older! One thing that might help is buying him a small digital recorder so that he can record himself making up his own compositions. You can turn them into CDs, send them to family members, and he can listen to himself making progress. We love some of those early "songs" that the boys made up!
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