Originally Posted by Dandy
If I let my kid choose everything for himself (@ age 8), he'd eat nothing but ice cream, pizza and chocolate, and he'd be wildly successful at video games. And he'd likely never brush his teeth... or bathe.

Perhaps one difference in my approach is that I don't consider piano to be an extra-curricular activity at all. It is very curricular in my book.

So... he is required to eat all sorts of vegetables, brush his teeth, limit sweets, bathe regularly, and do his homework... and practice piano.

Dandy, just saw this after my previous post. This is how I feel as well. But I am willing to re-think it as circumstances change. I am in the process of re-thinking now. As someone else pointed out (I've gotten some very good advice here), he may learn persistance better by doing something where there is a specific goal - like get good grades to get into school. So I'm willing to give up the piano if we need to. But I have no problem forcing my kids to go to school and I think it's reasonable to put piano in the same category.