If you have been following my story, we have quite a bit of challenge with J’s piano lesson.
For as long as I can remember, she doesn’t seem to have found the “oomph” to learn piano.
She is not motivated and not looking forward to the class. Not to mention making piano practice her daily routine.
When she first started piano, my wife bought her a used piano without a second thought. That was THE most expensive purchase apart from the house and cars. That was how committed we are to see J through in piano.
We changed teachers twice and currently being taught by the third – hoping that J and the new teachers would click. As it turns out, having the right teacher is one of the important factors that will make sure your child’s continuity in pursuing something.
Despite everything we had done for her, J wanted to give up on piano a few times in the past few years since she started.
Honestly, we don’t force her to continue her lesson if she doesn’t want to. We let her decide what she wants. When she wanted to give up learning piano, we sort of “warned” her if she ever stops, that will be the end of her piano journey. And it’s really hard for her to return in the future if she ever wants to play again. Of course besides the warning, we encouraged her to continue by firing up her interest when she was at the brink of giving up.
Every time she wanted to give up, we managed to convince her to continue. Somehow something still lacking and we were wondering what’s keeping her from enjoying piano.
Recently, out of the blue, she was really motivated to practice after her class. This has never happened before especially when the piano class was just over. From then on, she seems she’s bitten by piano bug and her interest in piano skyrocketed.
She now practices voluntarily and regularly without being pushed. The best part is she even composed her very little piece of music!
I don’t know what transformed her. I asked J’s piano teacher to find out. She attributed J’s transformation to a joint practice between J and her friend. Her friend knows a piece that J was not quite sure of how to play at the time. Maybe J was motivated to learn that piece so that she can do a duet with her friend again. And as the saying goes, after the fateful day, the rest is history…
Maybe that’s the reason for the change.
Maybe before this J’s time had not come yet.
Maybe not… but who cares.
Whatever it is, I am happy for the change in J.
And the message that I want to drive home is: Parents must not give up on the child no matter what.
Never!
You’ll never know what you miss when you give up.
For more empowering ways to raise children, check out my “The Nonconformist’s Guide to Parenting.”
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