As DD takes piano and has tried many instruments (we go to concerts for Very Young and now Young People with the Philharmonic and part is trying the instruments) and I think choir and instruments are very different. And the way the brain does voice and instruments is very different (research on this) and doing string and other instruments is different. When they say your child is good in math, they may like piano is very real thing in correlation.
DD hates to practice. I gave her a week off the end of the summer, she went to the piano herself to play one of her pieces. Yet, when I suggest she do scales, she was off like a dragon fly. Technique, learning to read the music instead of memorizing (their brains can memorize so quickly) and playing it how the composer would like instead of how they would like is a pain and sometimes serious struggle. But the discipline is good. I tell her there are times to be silly and times when I want cooperation and piano is serious cooperation time. It is good for her to know and practice the difference, even as she just turns 6.
I tell DD that she will figure out what she wants to do when she is older. It is my job to expose her to things so she has options. I do not know if she will want to be a ballet dancer or an astronaut so if I don't give her options, she won't be able to have a full range of options. Including piano. I tell her she will be so happy with her good mommy who made her practice piano (and she laughs) and we have a good moment then back to scales....
It is hard. I remember a girl I met in college who loved ballet and had just started. Her parents couldn't give it to her and she spent hours practicing but it was too late to be serious about it. I have no idea what DD will want to pursue (though I can guess it won't be football or hockey as she is just too small for her age). And maybe she won't pursue anything hardcore, but it doesn't matter.
We took DD at 2.5, 3.5 and 4.5 to Disney World. We totally leveraged the magic factor and did the princess thing to the hilt. We meet people all the time who want to wait until the kid can remember it. I think this is so ridiculous. 90% of the kids in the Bibbi Bobbidi Boutique were 3-4 years old. Who wants to be a 10 year old sitting with them? Or going into Pixie Hollow to shrink with pixie dust to meet Fairies?
We leveraged the timeframe and now we do Europe, Central America, and next April Egypt. A taste of travel. She got a whole unit study in southern Europe, Roman times and the culture. She asked to go to Egypt. How much she remembers, we don't know. How much she will use of gymnastics, I don't know, but it is great for her health, bone density and just general physical activity. Will she use Mandarin, I don't know but it is great for her to learn a second language.
Pushy parent, sign me up.
Ren
