Homeschooling isn't always cupcakes and rainbows. It isn't all smiles and good times. There are days when it is a little bit more extra challenging. Not just for the parent, but for the kid as well. Today is one of those days when the drive is there but the distractions and difficulties are trying the little learner's patience.
Our Fridays have always been a feee day for us. This is the day for relaxation and fun. But Friday is also catch up day. A day we spend for catching up on keepings we weren't able to make, rehearsals we weren't able to do, etc. Today, my little learner decided she will make her Keeping of The Battle of Marathon then she would practice on her keyboards. She just finished reading and understanding the music sheet for Atin Cu Pung Singsing so she wanted to try out if she read it correctly. Just a brief background on the song, it is one of the many Philippine Folksongs we are studying.
Except for a few sharps add flats, she did great with the note reading. She needs a little bit of work with the tempo when she tried out the notez on her keyboard, but other than that, she did well. But then the neighbor started calling me downstairs for a little chat about this and that on some pipe here and there. I had to go up and down the stairs a few times, I think I burned all the calories I cheated on that morning.
Anyways, whenever I step away, the little learner would usually stop her practice and wait for me to come back. But this time, I could hear her play the keyboard from afar. I can hear her frustrated stokes when she does a key wrong but I would hear her continue to play. I'm giving her plus points for patience amd perseverance.
Then when I finally came back, I just observed from a distance and I can see she's really in the zone. So I let her be. I let her figure out what she needed to figure out. Then came the next struggle. Sungit, the cat in our house that loves to cuddle ONLY with my daughter, went to her.
Sungit did not approach her in a subtle way. She up and stepped on the keyboard, throwing Aya off the zone. Might I say, there were tears of frustration and anger. I thought my daughter would stop practicing already.
Ut she pushed through. She told me later on that she wanted to be able to play wothout looking at the keys or at the sheet that's why she wanted to practice some more. Needless to say, out little Sungit trained my daughter today in the discipline of patience, perseverance, and determination.
She still needs a lot of practice with her keyboard skills but this is actually more than I could really wish for. I'm not in that much of a hurry for her to memorize the keys or the song. I'm there for her journey. That is where all the lessons take place.
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