Our Beethoven In The Making

When I enrolled the kids in piano lessons this year, I thought the opportunity was perfect. My friend had convinced a teacher from Midland to travel to us and teach at the friend's house, rather than us all traveling there. She was willing, as long as there were at least 4 students. NO PROBLEM! I had to choose just 2 of mine for the slots that were open, and decided on Aimee and Alex, since they needed to continue their previous lessons and I'd just teach Allie on my own for now.

Then, extracurriculars happened. Aimee couldn't do piano because she was staying after school for volleyball. NO PROBLEM! We did a quick switch up and had Alex and Allie scheduled for Monday piano lessons, at the very last minute. Allie screamed and cried and threw tantrums about having to have lessons and we practically had to drag her out of the house (instead of dragging, I carried her).

We were going to let Alex go first to let Allie settle down, but when we arrived, NO PROBLEM! Allie was a complete turn around. She loved the teacher the instant she saw her and said hello. Allie wanted to go first so that she could play with her friend afterward (who, incidentally, also was substituted in for an older sibling who just refused to do lessons.)

After the first week, we found out that Aimee didn't make the volleyball team and Alex was, in fact, supposed to be staying after school for football (as manager this season). NO PROBLEM! After wavering back and forth on the issue of another switch, Alex just decided that Manager wasn't that tricky of a job, and arranged with his coaches to skip Monday practice because, in his words to them, "my mom is making me take piano lessons." LOL...that's okay...I'll take the blame.

Lessons have gone well. Practice is ... well, it's okay. Allie is very good about her half hour, and her favorite song is Yankee Doodle...not sure why; maybe it's because it was already familiar and she loves that she can play a song that she already knows. Alex, insists that I just don't know how to tell time, because he's sure he's practiced for a half hour, when I insist that it's only been 10 minutes. So, while I take a refresher course in time-telling, he is setting timers for practice.

Two weeks ago, Allie spent much more time at the piano than her required 30 minutes a day, because in addition to her assigned pieces, she was hard at work penciling out her own song! She loves it, and I'm sure we'll all be hearing it in the next Batman, or Superman film. John Williams, eat your heart out.

I now reveal to you, "big bad-gi on the loos!" or, if you are unfamiliar with 1st grade phonetic spelling, that translates as, "Big Bad Guy On The Loose" (you should be able to click the image for a larger version, if you so desire.)