Yesterday I decided to keep the appointment I had made Monday with a piano teacher. I almost canceled but, well I've just been soooooo anxious to get the 2 big kids started in music that I just couldn't wait. AN this was an interview type appointment so I figured what the heck.
When Emma was an infant I spent a week at a conference in Philadelphia at the Institute for the Achievement of Human Potential called "What to do With Your Brain Injured Child". It was an amazing week, and while I believe Emma would still be doing well had I not taken the course, I think she benefited from it tremendously and is likely farther that she would have been otherwise- and honestly I'm glad not to know anyway. It may have made no difference, but what if it did? One of the many things I learned there was Suzuki method of teaching music. We saw several examples of children learning under the method during the conference- all by children who carry such labels as : developmentally delayed, autistic, asperger's, down syndrome, etc. I was in awe to say the least.
In the early years we just couldn't afford to have lessons, as we added more children to the family that became even more of a problem. We have now reached a point where we can do lessons. So last week I set out to find a Suzuki instructor for either violin or piano that lives nearby. After many phone calls, several no's and passing on of names, we found a teacher. Her home has a studio built in and she teaches piano. It will be a drive of about 35 minutes to get there, but after the interview yesterday, I think it will be well worth it. She has summer sessions coming up, but because I have some logistics to work out, so we will likely start in the fall. She tends to follow the local school district for holidays, makes it easier for most of her families, but she was just thrilled to learn we were home schooling.
I left with the papers to be fill out and a CD to play as much as possible for the kids. I've already loaded it to my ipod so that we can listen in the car and in the house. Now we need to find a used piano and a place to put it! LOL!
What is just as exciting for me is that I will get to learn along side them. I have always wanted to learn to play the piano. I took lessons for a bit when I was a kid, but not long enough to get past one handed playing. I have very specific memories of me frustrating my piano teacher because I would frequently just "play by ear" instead of trying to read the music. If only my parents had heard of Suzuki and found the nearby Piano School (she's been teaching in this area since the early 80's so I could have had lessons from her if they had known!)
The new semester will start in September, so that is how long I have to figure out what to do with Olivia and maybe Evan for 3 hours while we go to piano. Plus we have to find a piano.