Piano lessons

It has been 1 yr and 10 months since RA started Yamaha's music lessons in Jan 2011. From music wonderland to now Yamaha Junior Music course, she has made some progress. She is finally learning to play with two hands. But I have to bribe and nag to get her to practise all the time.

Her definition of practice means she has tried it once or at most twice at home. Of course, it's not enough, because the music teacher said we should aim to make the child practise 3 times a week. But only as long as their interest lasts for that session. But for the same song, I can make her practise more than 5 times in a row, and she is still not certain which keys to play. Today teach, 2 days later she'll forget. End up I always make her practise for the last time on Sat morning just before her music class. It doesn't help that I don't have any music background, cos I am at the same page as her, and sometimes I teach her the wrong things. :P

Now, I am trying out a new way to motivate her to practise her piano. Since she loves me to take her photos and videos, I will do video recordings of her practice and let her see for herself how 'well' she plays, which are the parts which she falters, and hope this will motivate her to play better. :)

Video clip

Swimming again....

We started RaeAnne on swimming lessons again on Sunday mornings last month after a 6 months hiatus after bumping into her class mate, Valerie's mummy in August. Thanks to her recommendation, we started her with Coach Joseph. Joseph kindly waived the fees for Sept when he saw that RA has a fear of the learner's pool and has extreme separation anxiety. She developed that fear after her 2nd swim coach accidentally let her jump into the deeper end of the learner's pool. She freaked out cos she could not reach the bottom of the pool.

After almost two months of hearing her whining 'Mummy, mummy', I finally saw some progress yesterday cos she was able to move off with a float and then without the float in less than 10 mins. Previously, she was just walking (yes walking) from one end of the pool to the other at the shallow end, and putting her head down (up to her ears sometimes). Swimming video clip

When I see her shiver in the cold sitting at the pool edge while the other 9 kids swim with a float, I get demoralised esp cos she has to wait so long for her turn and she doesn't do much during her turn. Felt like pulling her out but I told myself to persevere esp since the coach is already so nice to waive off her Sept fees. Sooner or later, she will overcome her fear and warm up to the coach. Even the coach was relieved, he had to console her a few times and get her to stop crying esp the last two weeks cos I did not go into the pool with her.

Joseph told me before that it's not that RA doesn't know. She knows, and it is not that she doesn't like to swim, it's just that she is not used to him so always wants Mummy. He told RaeAnne before 'If you are happy, I am also happy.' Very true, no point forcing if the kid is not enjoying. When we took a video of RA swimming, she was very proud of herself. Glad to see her gaining confidence.

I don't want the gals to be totally lacking in sports since we don't exercise with them at all. I am not trying to make her a competitive swimmer, as long as she has some survival skills and can have fun in the swimming pool, I am happy. In primary school, there will be group swimming lessons. And I will send her as well, but if she knows how to swim a little, I don't have to be worried about her. :)