Lessons

I know we've been down this road before. A kid starts violin lessons. I mistakenly thought with all the violins in our lives, my kids would take to it naturally, and Scott and I would have to open a special savings account marked, "Juilliard." Reality and parenting expectations rarely overlap. Golda paved the way to infamy on this instrument at the tender age 0f 4. She went to her first few lessons just fine, then one day she refused to play it anymore. Ruby, an obedient little thing at 2 and a half, dutifully picked up the violin and the lessons and did well for a good few years. I was so pleased! Then she fell in love with classical guitar and abandoned her violin. (Golda redeemed herself in 6th grade with a year in the orchestra on violin, just for fun, but flute is her main instrument. She chose it at age 6, I think because I knew nothing about it and couldn't criticize her practicing. Smart girl!)

I had a moment of clarity with Araceli and started her from the beginning on cello (a tiny viola with an endpin, actually. So adorable!), thus avoiding the pattern of violin quitting. When it came time for Xanthe to take an interest in music, she looked around, saw violins everywhere, and claimed one as her own. It was bad luck that we started lessons at about the same time she broke her collarbone. Before I knew it was broken, I was trying to get her to hold the violin on that tender collarbone, and she couldn't do it. Now I know it was because it hurt like crazy, but she never could hold the violin right after that initial painful experience. It was for the best, because she absolutely loves piano and I'm so glad she found her niche.

Last May, when Freestone took a sabbatical from guitar to focus on the French Immersion thing, he kept saying he wanted to play violin instead. I gave him six or seven months to keep asking, and he did. He kept saying, "I need to go to the shop and pick out my violin." Finally, I took him and got him all set up with an instrument. He chose me as his teacher, which works out well financially, but I was reticent. It's so hard teaching your own kid! Four weeks into it, we haven't missed a day practicing, and he has finished the Twinkle Variations and started on Lightly Row. He is still as contrary and ornery as ever, but our daily lessons are fun because if he practices cheerfully, he gets Wii time. So I have the Mario brothers to thank for giving me a child, finally, who has taken to the violin. A kid after my own heart! An apple that didn't roll too far from the tree!

I shouldn't make too much of Freestone taking after me. I was reminded yesterday that he has a lot of Scott in him, too. Trajan asked him what he was going to do with the two dollars he was bragging about. Free said, "Buy a pack of candy. Buy one, get one free." It appears Scott and I have both taught him a few lessons!