THE JOYS OF PRACTICING . . .

Or maybe I should say of getting my little girl to practice! A couple of mornings ago Carly had a case of the mellow dramatics. She began melting down the minute I asked her to practice her piano assignments. Her piano teacher wants her to practice 30 minutes, 5 days a week. When she does it, she learns well and gets better but it can seem like a lot to her and she gets easily overwhelmed. Her teacher offers her a reward if she does all of her practice time. I also have a reward system for her but all of these are easy for her to forget in a moment of drama.

At any rate, she started having a  meltdown this morning even before I started the timer. AND she kept stopping and coming to me with excuses why she couldn't practice every few minutes. I was seriously stopping and re-starting the timer every 2-3 minutes to have a "rah-rah" discussion with her.

Grandma came up during this time to make breakfast for Grandpa and her. She caught on pretty quickly to what was going on. She told me she was pretty sure the whole "practice drama" was the reason she never took piano lessons. She said she watched her sister Kaye go through the same thing when she was Carly's age. So, when her mom (my Grandma) asked her if she wanted to take lessons she said "No!" She did not want to have to come in from playing and having fun outside and be tied down to a piano like her sister! Lol!

While Grandma and I were talking in the kitchen, we could hear Carly moaning and carrying on in the front room (trying to get me to lighten her)"sentence while she practiced." She was like Monty Hall on LET'S MAKE A DEAL offering me 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes--but not 30 Mom! She was making herself sound so miserable that it made Grandma and me giggle a little. I had to have her keep practicing though, since she has a recital at the end of this month and is just starting to learn her song. As she started to play again, a thought came to me, and when I said it out loud it made Grandma and me laugh a little harder, "Would you believe the song she is practicing right now to play at her recital is Ode to Joy?" True story! Trust me - there was no joy in the piano room! Lol! (Though, I'm sure one day, she'll thank me!)   :D

Miss Carly ~ Banging on the keys
Probably age 4