March 10, 2002 - Age four years, 10 months
We started our Suzuki violin lessons last week! Here is the reading list the teacher handed me on our first day:Recommended reading
- Nurtured By Love by Shinichi Suzuki
- Ability Development from Age Zero by Shinichi Suzuki
- To Learn with Love by Starr and Starr
- Kindergarten is Too Late by Ibuka
- Children: The Challenge by Dreikurs
- Parent Effectiveness Training by Gordon
I have purchased the two books by Suzuki and have to start reading them. We've had one class so far, actually two when you count that we have one private class and one group class meeting each week. We bought Julian a 1/16th sized violin and it is the cutest violin you ever saw. It's so small! My cousin Laurie has lent me her fiddle and that's what I will use. Part of the Suzuki method includes having the parent learn with the child. You don't have to, but it's good if you can. That way, you are modeling for your child and this should help with keeping the enthusiasm up.
We've practiced every day so far this week. Pretty good, huh? So, do you think I can keep it up for a lifetime? Oh my. Frankly, I am very concerned. It seems our practicing has been worse each day. It started out GREAT and then progressively went downhill each day after the other. I feel like I've lost my touch and I'm totally not connecting with Julian. He learned the parts of the violin so fast, and the feet positions, and how to care for the bow and violin, and now he hates when I ask him to do something only for the sake of practice. I may have to write to Miranda for advice again. As I write this my confidence is at an all time low. Don't tell anyone, as this Web site is supposed to provide encouragement, not spread fear. lol!
Now I recite - I can do this. I can do this. I know I can do this. That's what I tell myself!
I'll write more and keep you up to date about how it goes. This is the beginning of our violin music journal!
Two weeks later
It's going better, much, much better, although occasionally I do want to pinch by little boy's head off. He's taken to doing certain things that are somewhat annoying to me such as jabbering nonsense, and the one that really gets me...he says the opposite of what the answer is. Ha! Little does he know that I, The Mamma, know full well that when he gives me the opposite and wrong answer, it's a clear indicator that he knows the right answer - it's a dead giveaway. lol! Here's my big piece of advice for the day...
Children are not robots.
Of course, I know you already know this, but it helps when I remind myself of this sometimes. Despite the fact that I'm still feeling my way through practice time, he takes his violin out happily each morning, so I guess I'm not doing anything too wrong! And he likes going to the group class and the private lesson. I do too. He does great at his private lessons. (All two of them so far!) There is a little girl Julian's age in his group class and she is just a doll. As I was taking photos I saw she had a huge smile - she enjoys her violin class so. It is my dearest hope for Julian to have such a smile in violin class too. If I see him smile like she does I will know I've done the right thing.
Last week I felt really bad for the other mom with whom we share our private lesson. Her son is three months younger than Julian and at the second lesson he threw a full fledged tantrum. I did notice that he was sitting on top of my son and my son complained to me. I told Julian to ask Marco to get off of him, which he did, and Marco got off. Still, I thought they were just playing as boys do (this was after the class was over) and Marco's mom and I were both conversing with the teacher. A few minutes later Marco was on the floor flailing about and crying because he wanted a rubberband that Julian was holding. I felt so bad for the mom. She was quite calm and as I drove away I could see she was still trying to get him to their car. He seemed like such a good listener and so well behaved. They did not show up to the group class that evening. I heard his mom tell the teacher that the class was during his normal nap time.
