Piano Blues
Piano lessons began last week, with all sorts of changes. The boys have been taking lessons for a couple of years from a teacher I love, but after we moved it became more difficult to make the lessons fit our schedule. For one, the teacher's home is an hour roundtrip from our new house, so the driving plus the lessons meant at least two and a quarter hours out of the house. No huge deal by itself, but the kicker was that this teacher knew we were homeschoolers and would not give us an after-school slot. She said she needed to reserve those times for her non-homeschooled students.
?!?!?! This caused me huge amounts of frustration. Yes, I know my schedule is more flexible, but that does not mean that I want to interrupt my school day right after lunch to get piano in. The latest she would take us was 1:30, which meant we always had to leave right after lunch and did not get home till 3:00, when all the friends were home from their school. Getting ANYTHING done for school after 3:00 is pretty impossible. At least for me.
I tried talking to her about it, but she was firm. No, she could not give us after-school hours. No, she would only teach Mon or Tues. No, she would not drive to us, even if I got her other students on my side of town.
And then, over the summer, we met a lady in our neighborhood (two streets over) who has a studio in her basement and teaches three days a week. Yes, she teaches young kids, so the littlest one can start this year. Yes, of course we could have an after school slot - how does 3:30 sound? Sigh. It sounds like relief, to me. The boys can ride their bikes to lessons. And the lessons don't cut into our school day. The pressure is off, at least in one area.
So we began. The old teacher took the news kind of hard, which I hated. I really like her as a teacher - she brought out some amazing skills in my kids. And I tried to soften the news by assuring her how wonderful a teacher she is and how much the boys learned from her. But schedule is important, too, important enough that we were willing to take a risk on a new instructor. You reach a point in family life where you are constantly arranging and rearranging things to make them simpler, simpler, simpler. You have to.
The good news is, I think the new teacher is going to work out well. She's got the boys practicing scales with correct fingering, and she wants them to perform in a couple of months. And my littlest one, who had her very first lesson, has practiced every single day and went ahead in her book, like, four or five songs. She's SO enthusiastic. I'm eager to hear what her new teacher thinks about what she's done this week.
I've also referred a couple of friends from my "old" side of town to our former teacher. I talked to her this morning, and one of our friends is starting with her this week. This makes me feel a little better for her.
?!?!?! This caused me huge amounts of frustration. Yes, I know my schedule is more flexible, but that does not mean that I want to interrupt my school day right after lunch to get piano in. The latest she would take us was 1:30, which meant we always had to leave right after lunch and did not get home till 3:00, when all the friends were home from their school. Getting ANYTHING done for school after 3:00 is pretty impossible. At least for me.
I tried talking to her about it, but she was firm. No, she could not give us after-school hours. No, she would only teach Mon or Tues. No, she would not drive to us, even if I got her other students on my side of town.
And then, over the summer, we met a lady in our neighborhood (two streets over) who has a studio in her basement and teaches three days a week. Yes, she teaches young kids, so the littlest one can start this year. Yes, of course we could have an after school slot - how does 3:30 sound? Sigh. It sounds like relief, to me. The boys can ride their bikes to lessons. And the lessons don't cut into our school day. The pressure is off, at least in one area.
So we began. The old teacher took the news kind of hard, which I hated. I really like her as a teacher - she brought out some amazing skills in my kids. And I tried to soften the news by assuring her how wonderful a teacher she is and how much the boys learned from her. But schedule is important, too, important enough that we were willing to take a risk on a new instructor. You reach a point in family life where you are constantly arranging and rearranging things to make them simpler, simpler, simpler. You have to.
The good news is, I think the new teacher is going to work out well. She's got the boys practicing scales with correct fingering, and she wants them to perform in a couple of months. And my littlest one, who had her very first lesson, has practiced every single day and went ahead in her book, like, four or five songs. She's SO enthusiastic. I'm eager to hear what her new teacher thinks about what she's done this week.
I've also referred a couple of friends from my "old" side of town to our former teacher. I talked to her this morning, and one of our friends is starting with her this week. This makes me feel a little better for her.
posted by Mamabird @ 5:16 AM
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