We come down hard on DD for the "silly" mistakes. It is a common thread for her that we are trying to break of just rushing through things and being sloppy. We got her ballet report card and it was similar. The same with piano. She hates to work and learn the pieces, loves to play them really fast when she knows the notes, but hates to slow down and perfect the composition with all the nuance.
I came down on her for not working through the problems on paper as I specifically asked. And will continue to make her do it. Just like her piano teacher says, you can play fast but you must practice slow. When she wants to amuse herself by doing math quizzes in her head, when or why we never know why, but we don't care how she does those. But when it comes to her math work, then it is a different story. Just like when she wants to dance around to music we put on for dinner and the evening. I don't care how she does it. But I told her that I do not want another ballet report card giving me indications of sloppiness. They want her to get into the serious ballet program because of her talent but I told her she can't get in if she continues this way. The carrot is that she will be able to perform around NYC in the special program -- whiches what she wants to do. I wish it was like teaching the dog to sit. That it took less work and repetition.
Ren
