learning is fun when we do it together..

I want to start the post by sharing this quote from Gary Chapman, the famous author of The 5 Love languages series.

“Inside every child is an ‘emotional tank’ waiting to be filled with love. When a child really feels loved, he will develop normally, but when the love tank is empty, the child will misbehave. Much of the misbehavior of children is motivated by the cravings of an empty ‘love tank.’” -Gary Chapman

Since Renzo turned 6 recently, I've noticed quite a bit of change in his behavior, in a very positive way. I mentioned he was a little confused and distracted for the past half a year, and based on my research it might be related to growth spurt around the age of 5.5, when some kids start to have stronger self awareness and develop this trace of rebellion in them. 

At the same time, I also did some self-reflection and realized what Gary Chapman mentioned here, about filling up the kid's emotional love tank, is so important! With a lot of changes at work place this year and a rather aged body, I often couldn't commit for enough quality bonding time with the kids at home. Throughout this year, Renzo has developed strong interest in building Gundam models and often for the whole weekends, as long as we do not have plans for outdoor activities, Renzo is seen hiding in his room for hours, building Gundams with his daddy. They talk in the funniest way ever but most of the time, I could barely understand their topics. I'm not complaining at all and indeed I'm really grateful that Daddy Chan is bonding so well with Renzo. Believe it or not, nowadays he seldom raises his voice and Renzo reacts promptly to his instructions. I just wish I could be more engaged with Renzo's daily activities and I told myself, there must be something Renzo could enjoy doing together with mummy, besides rolling on the floor and watching cartoons or running around the playground together.

The first challenge I took on was baking as Renzo requested to learn how to bake a heart shaped cake. He was jumping for joys when I cut out a smaller heart shaped sponge cheese cake for him to decorate. But boys being boys, I can't expect him to spend his weekends in the kitchen with me. So I was determined to find out something of his interest instead and drawing tops the list immediately since that's my favorite hobby since young too.

It's really rewarding to see Renzo feasted his eyes on this wedding portrait sketches I drew recently. And when I explained to him about how to create different kind of effects with different types of sketch pencils, I could see the sparkles in his eyes! 

And the following day, he started designing Gundam models using 8B pencil instead of the usual HB ones he uses, yes it's absolutely amazing observing him trying out different pencils to create the result he wants! I am super proud that I could "connect" with him through drawing and honestly sometimes, I am not sure if I am the one inspired him, or the other way around.

Another new skill I am trying to pick up in order to have better bonding with Renzo, is PIANO!!

Yes that sounds totally insane! I remember one of the reasons we stopped sending Renzo for piano lessons at Yamaha, was because of the fact that one parent is required to sit in for the lesson with kids below 6. And I found that a rather torturous experience as both Daddy Chan and I have no interest nor talent in music. Never in my life ever have I thought about learning music as it's simply not my forte. I mentioned in a post before that once Renzo completes his Grade 1 prep test, we will let him make the call on whether he would like to continue with his piano lessons. And when I read the positive and encouraging comments from the examiner about his performance during the prep test back in September, I had a feeling that he's capable of playing it well but just need a little push as it's not really something he's extremely interested in. So I was secretly hoping that Renzo might put in more efforts in practicing if I am doing that with him together.

I went ahead with my self learning journey by following an online piano tutor. After getting familiarized with the basics, I then requested Renzo to be my teacher and since then, I joined him for every practice session. There's no more "practice daily for 15 minutes" rule, instead, we have this "musical goal" to achieve each time we both sit in front of the piano together, which is to make sure he teaches me well enough till we both can play the same song, four hands together on piano. It's often a challenge for us both, but Renzo has definitely gained confidence through his teaching experience. Sometimes this impatient teacher could leave the mummy practicing alone while he takes a short break on the sofa.

I must say it really requires a lot of efforts to pick up a new skill at this age though as an adult, I have highly developed logical and critical thinking skills as compared to kids, but learning piano is not just about being able to absorb complex concepts, it's about practice, practice and practice too! To play this simple and easy piece of my favorite Pachelbel's Canon in D, I probably practiced daily for 15 straight days and sometimes I spent a quick 30 minutes and on days when I do not have other agenda, I can practice up to 6 hours. Yes I am serious, it's that difficult for a rookie like me. Even Renzo "allocates" time for me to use his piano and he once commented, "You are still not able to get it right? But you are not giving up on your Canon in D right?!"..

By learning piano together with Renzo, now I totally get to understand his struggles because I too have difficulties getting my right and left hand synchronize, and I too have to pause for seconds or even minutes to figure out what those "tadpoles" on the music sheet represents, and of course, I too have wished the keys on the piano are clearly labeled with alphabets just like my computer keyboard.

So yes it's more work than telling Renzo to practice for 15 minutes a day, but in the end, this will be much easier than the agony of forcing him to adhere to the mandatory 15 minutes of meager, unmotivated efforts. After all, children might close their ears to advice but open their eyes to example! Learning is more fun and enjoyable when we get to do it together!

piano lessons, to continue, or not?

I am not sure if it is fated, somehow Renzo's piano learning journey has not been very smooth from the beginning. Since September 2012 till now, it's been almost 3 years and he has changed 4 teachers. First 2 from Yamaha music school and he followed them for a total of 6 months, just to learn music appreciation so he left Yamaha without being able to play a single piece of song. And after a 6 months break, he followed a home teacher for another 1 year, made some pretty good progress in terms of learning to read notes and getting the rhythms right with proper counting. And then we switched him to Ossia Music School for one on one lessons since last December. In a way, I am totally not impressed with Renzo's progress thus far. 3 years of learning is definitely not a short period of time but despite being able to read notes independently, his playing is still, nothing much to be shout out about...

According to the teacher Ms Yvonne, Renzo's progress is rather fast for his age, as he could read notes well. Well, what I love this school the most, is that the teacher communicate effectively with us through the record book. The first 3 months, I've been hearing all praises and Ms Yvonne has also recommended to let Renzo take the Grade 1 Prep Test which is going to happen this September. But recently, more often than not, I got the feedback that Renzo has not been practicing well, which is 100% true. We tried out many methods to encourage him, but often he's dreading his practice each week and we see an unhappy Renzo spending an hour in front of his piano, with probably the first 20-30 minutes whining about how difficult it is to play especially when he's required to use both hands. We all know that for sure, either Daddy nor I had learned how to play piano before and, we have no plan to pick it up moving forward, simply because, it's just too difficult!

So we fully understand Renzo's pain, it's not easy, it's never easy and it will not get any easier. But it's not meant to be easy anyway.  To encourage him to take up the challenge, I even learned a simple piece in less than 5 minutes from Daddy Chan, don't judge me on my hand posture, skill, or rhythm, I did this simply to prove to Renzo that as long as we are willing to, anyone can pick up anything new and difficult even if we know nothing about it.

Another effort we've made to get him into a better practice routine, is to shorten the practice time. Instead of letting him spend a full hour on a Saturday morning once a week, we make sure even if it's just a short 5 minutes, he MUST, touch his piano on a daily basis, no matter how busy his schedule is. I am glad that the boys have long formed this great routine after they are back from the childcare. So by 8pm they are all free to work on any kind of activities and sparing a short 5-15 minutes to practice piano, is not a problem for Renzo at all.

He seems to enjoy this routine much better as I keep reminding him that he's not required to sit down and practice each and every piece of song since he has ample time to do it the next day. And the result is almost immediate, because the following week, he received 3 stars and a "very good" comment from his teacher. He perked up and regained his confidence, and of course, is willing to practice more.

Just a few weeks ago, all of us were struggling to make a decision on whether we should continue his piano lessons, since obviously, he's not too interested, nor very talented in that. And back then I told him that I do not wish to see him easily give up on it just because he finds it difficult, and I believe if he practices more, he will master it and find it easier slowly. And since he's committed to go for his Prep Test in September, we will only bring up this topic and make a decision after he's done with the test, be it he passes or not, we will respect his choice about whether to continue his lesson or not, of course, provided he could justify for himself.

For now, I am hoping that the new routine will change his attitude towards piano practice and boost up his fighting spirit to conquer it, and hopefully, to continue with his lessons and enjoy the learning experience!

Ending this post with a cheeky video of Renzo practicing his piano and yes he's been pretty cheerful recently when he's asked to practice every night, so I am pinning much more hope than before that he would continue his learning journey happily and carry on with this only one real enrichment we sign him up for..

back on the piano topic, again...

From September 2012 when Renzo first started the Music Wonderland course with Yamaha, which lasted for only 6 months due to logistic concerns, till we restarted his piano lessons in October 2013 with private teacher at home, Renzo's piano learning journey has not been all smooth. And a month ago, we finally made the call to switch him to a school in the same building as his childcare center, so that he could attend his lessons once a week during school time, just like his GlobalArt lessons. He follows a teacher for one on one lessons and the techniques taught are very similar to what he's been learning under his previous teacher in the past one year. Now he's totally free on Saturdays and Sundays and he could play all day long, what a wonderful childhood, seriously!!!

The new piano teacher commented a few times that Renzo's previous teacher has built a solid foundation so he knows his theories very well, and Renzo is extremely good with his rhythms. Hence he's progress is rather fast because the new curriculum is indeed easier than the previous one. I do feel sorry for Renzo as we have been making so many changes to his routine within a short span of 2 year, yet he's able to cope well each time.


Up to now, I think it's pretty clear to us that Renzo's interest and passion in music is just not as strong, wait, was he ever keen??!! He could spend hours drawing or coloring but 15 minutes of piano practice a day, is still something he is not willing to commit to. He needs a lot of encouragement and discipline. Just this morning, he was pretty upset when we forced him to practice. I had to "threaten" him by asking him to choose between piano and his toys, so if he chooses NOT to touch his piano anymore, I will choose NOT to let him touch his toys anymore. Well, I know it's not fair but once a while, I do have to remind him that I AM THE MOTHER! Okay authoritative parenting is not my style for sure, but, just once a while... I meant, who doesn't face such kind of challenges with toddlers at home?!

The "threatening" didn't work out very well, although he continued to practice, he wasn't happy. I then showed him a video of his cousin playing a difficult piece without making mistakes. He seemed a little more inspired and carried on to do better and better.

At one point, I caught him beating his own left hand when Daddy reminded him to keep his fingers naturally curved, as he was accidentally pressing 2 keys at a time with his left hand. That act of him, was a wake up call to me that kids might not understand or react well with criticism, but they definitely feel embarrassed, or even shameful while being criticized and we as parents should take care of their feelings, and motivate them to come up with better solutions on their own, which are often way more constructive.

So I explained to Renzo that there's no need to "blame" his left hand, and the fact is, he's still young and when he's fingers grow longer, he will definitely be able to play better. But for the time being, a better solution would be, practice, practice, and practice more...

GlobalArt lessons for Renzo

Right before I start off this new post, I re-read what I've posted earlier this year, about Renzo' great interest in coloring. I somehow "admire" my own foresight in spotting Renzo's interest and strength in coloring. Back then, I mentioned that we have no plan to enroll him for any art class. For those who know me well, I am never a fan of enrichment lessons at all, so, it's pretty interesting that merely half a year later, guess what I just did? I signed Renzo up for a weekly 1.5 hours art lesson with Global Art School near his current childcare center.

So, why? Why the change in decision?

Let's just say, I was being forced by my 5 years old to send him for art enrichment, yes, that's the truth!

After casually discussing with me about his plan of taking art class, 3 weeks ago, he finally dragged me into the Global Art school nearer to our place after I fetched him from childcare, and happily attended his first assessment there, by drawing and coloring an apple on his own, and coloring another apple by following instructions given by teacher using the color blending method. He did pretty well on those tasks and I was advised to enroll him to Foundation level 2 lessons.

 

 

I gave myself another day to discuss about our plan with Daddy Chan, while letting Renzo have a second thought about his decision again to make sure that's really what he wanted. On the following day, I brought him to another Global Art branch in the same building as his childcare center, and re did the assessment again there. I was quite amazed that he wasn't frustrated with doing the exact same stuff again and indeed, he performed even better. This time, it is confirmed again that he's qualified for Foundation 2 level.

I quickly settled the payment and confirmed his weekly lesson on every Friday afternoon. I love the fact that there's no homework, though they focus a lot on coloring than painting which is not exactly what Renzo wanted initially. All the needed materials from books to crayons are provided together with a nice bag and Tshirt. And the best part is, the art teacher is taking care of the logistics since school is in the same building as his childcare center, so this arrangement will not affect his daily routine, we parents do not need to make efforts to bring him down for the lessons, and he doesn't need to spend extra hours on his hobby during the weekends. 

I explained to Renzo that besides daily 7am to 7pm childcare, I only expect him to attend his 45 minutes piano lessons every Sunday. And on top of that, he is allowed to pick one more enrichment lesson of his own choice. In this case, Global Art it is. If he wants to learn anything else in the future, he has to consider dropping one of those, which is clearly not childcare, and not piano (not anytime soon as I won't let him give up easily), so again, Global Art it is. He considered about it seriously and told me, "then I am not going to learn tennis mummy, can we ask daddy's friends to come and teach me how to play?". So, I totally didn't expect tennis is the next thing in his mind but nope, not for now. It's not just about financial factor here, we all know how expensive such classes can cost in Singapore. This Global Art lesson he's attending, costs about S$32 for 1.5 hours which is about 5 times more expensive than those conducted at community center. But my biggest concern, is TIME! He's already spending a decent amount of time learning in school and I just don't want him to spend his childhood rushing around for enrichment classes!!

So, after bothering me for another week about when will his first lesson begin, he finally had a taste of art enrichment on July 25th. He started with creating his own color chart and he really enjoyed it, that's all it matters isn't it?!

Renzo invented a new way to complete his homework faster

As I have mentioned many times in the past, I am not a fan of enrichment classes so Renzo has been attending one and only one enrichment so far - Piano.

He has a lovely piano teacher who sees him once a week for 45 minutes, he's learning the basics now and he has homework to do after each lesson, usually one page of coloring and a few pages of notes reading. I must say knowing his letters and numbers well before the age of 4 is an added advantage to him, as he could easily cope with his homework independently.

So besides some random, well indeed frequent "complaints" from his childcare teachers, about him being extremely slow in doing his school work, I think he's absorbing well in school. His teachers will update us on his progress, and let us view his school work on a monthly basis. Just some of the examples here:

But, getting him to do his homework at home, is forever a chore, not to forget he has only one type of homework to do at the moment, I can't imagine how to manage when there are more coming in the near future. Spelling being one of the many which his childcare will start in July this year. I am pretty sure many parents experience the same, pulling their hairs out to get their kids study, is nothing unheard of.

We have tried to give him monetary rewards and that's how he managed to get a few new Thomas train toys, but I don't like the moral value behind this, as if he should be rewarded for doing homework but in actual fact, it's his own responsibility and it's for his own good. And Daddy likes to time him, so you often see a digital clock counting down right in front of his face, while he's rushing to finish things up. But usually that leads him to nonstop cries and whines as he feels being pressurized, or even threatened. I personally don't like that idea either as I don't think he can deliver quality work when we set a time limit, though yes he for sure needs to get his work done in due time but that clock, just annoys me at the same time too =(

I truly think that kids are able to do well with things they are interested in, that is why we often promote the idea to foster good learning habit. Just look at the drawings from him recently, you can see he simply enjoys doing it, thus he takes his own initiative, puts in more efforts and does an awesome job!!

So I've found what I claimed the most efficient way to get him work on his homework. One night, I have some urgent things to settle for work so I told him that after shower, he has to sit down and do his piano homework, and I will work on my company laptop right besides him. That worked wonders! He managed to finish 8 pages of notes reading in one shot, whereby usually his best record is 3 pages. He even checked on me a few times and reminded me to "work hard, so I can get a better job with better pay (well nope I am not leaving my wonderful company and my boss)".

Since that night, I formed a habit to sit near him, work on my laptop or read a book while he's doing his homework. I feel that I am setting a good example by studying/working at the same time, rather than sitting down with him and bossing around.

But interestingly, he has slowly found a new and fun way, to make himself even more efficient - MULTITASKING!!

Take a look at this video, by repeating the notes of a song he learned at pianica class in his childcare center, he sets a right tempo and gets his homework done even faster!! As he repeatedly sang the notes, he wrote row by row and moved extremely fast to the end of the page till he couldn't even believe in his speed!!

So 30 pages of notes reading in 2 weeks time, of which, he finished about 6 pages during week 1, and the rest 24 pages were all done in week 2 after we figured out the above 2 ways!! Amazing isn't it??!!

Renzo loves coloring..

I always believe that kids will learn academic knowledge from school without the need of attending any enrichment classes, of course with regular coaching from parents. Other than that, they should go for another type of enrichment classes related to arts, like painting, dancing, piano, etc, or related to sports, such as swimming, taekwondo, soccer, etc, based on their own interest.
For Renzo's case, clearly, piano is not his interest as he's too young to tell us what he likes and what he wants to learn, he did mention a few times that piano is difficult but he never said he doesn't want to learn it. Unlike swimming, he's been telling us ever since he could talk (when he was about 2?), that he's scared of water and he doesn't want to learn swimming.

So, if you were to ask me, what is his true interest then?

Well he's more interested in academic stuff like reading (anything related to letters and words), maths (anything related to numbers), and science (I meant it, word like "carbon dioxide" is not something totally unheard of to him). And at the same time, he might not realize it yet but I do think he's pretty good at painting, or rather say coloring at this age.

The first time I noticed his "talent" in coloring, he was about 3 years old and he brought home a "mother's day present" for me - a basket of flowers he colored in school. His coloring work is neat and meticulous, and I especially love the choices of colors he used, I must say it's really great contrast and combination. He often mumbles "do not color out of the line" to himself, while he's busy with his artwork.

Then there's one day when I sent him to his childcare center in the morning, I noticed the coloring done by his class, his masterpiece was the first one hanging on the wall, and honestly I think he did a pretty good job.

One of his piano homework is always - coloring, and he seems to enjoy it very much as it's always the first thing he does after his class. And it's quite hilarious to notice he even added "toy cars" for his "spotted cat" to play, although he's supposed to color the given objects in the picture only. And it's through his piano homework, I found out that he knows how to use black colored pencil, apply with less strength, use minimum pencil pressure, to achieve the "light grey" shade he needs for his elephant!

And just this morning, I was amazed by his coloring done in school again! As you can see most kids did very well and some even used nicer colors or colored neater than him. But what made my jaw drop, was the colors he used for the "decorations" on the photo frame. The stars/moons on the left and right side of the photo frame, were colored in perfect symmetry. Whereas the colors he used for the circles at the top and the bottom of the photo frame, were in perfect inverse orders!!

So do I want to send him to learn drawing/coloring? Not at the moment!
I am pretty sure mummy and grandma has some sort of "talent" and "potential" to guide him along for the time being, though I do not think he needs much guidance, art is all about creativity!

first assessment for little Renzo - I CAN READ

The highlight of the past busy weekend, was an assessment I scheduled for Renzo at I CAN READ school, to understand how's his progress in terms of reading, or simply put, to test his English skill.

We arrived at the school on time at 2:30pm and this lovely teacher who's going to conduct the assessment, was already standing at the door and waiting for Renzo. Daddy decided to let Mummy go in with Renzo since Mummy is always more concerned about Renzo's learning progress.

The assessment lasted for about 20 minutes or so. The teacher first asked Renzo about his name, his age, his school and his class, and lastly he was asked if he knows when is his birthday, which according to the teacher, not many kids could answer. The only thing he could not answer, is "which year were you born?", and the teacher jokingly commented, no answer is better than an answer of "a year of rooster, or dragon" that she got from most of the kids she assessed. And Renzo didn't seem to be disturbed by the teacher's strong Australian accent, he could understand and converse well.

Then she went on to flash a full page of items, there are 27 of them, and Renzo could recognize 26 of them (except for the word "witch" which we have never introduced to his vocabulary), and when he recognized "igloo", the teacher looked pleasantly surprised.

She then went on to test Renzo the first sound of all those 27 items, he got them 100% right.

The next page of questions are very repetitive, he has to read the letters from A - Z, and tell the teacher what sound does these letters make, and in my opinion, these questions either make the kids more confident, or bored. For Renzo's case, I guess he was a little bored.. LOL..

He was then tested on a handful of letters and their sounds randomly, again, not a challenge to this little 4 years old who grew up with Leapfrog..

Next he was asked to read a whole list of words, from simple ones like "THE", "ONE", to slightly tougher ones like "COUGH", "THOROUGH", Renzo did not complete that test as he was already exhausted (probably from the morning dip in the pool and 1 hour of piano class) and couldn't focus well. I noticed when he wasn't sure about his answer, the moment the teacher questioned, "Do you know that?", he will shake his head without any further attempt to figure it out. So if you are coaching your kid to read at home, boosting their confidence level is definitely the key! It doesn't matter if they could not pronounce correctly but try not to ask this kind of closed-ended questions, because it's very easy for them to give up trying and say no. Some of these words here, he could definitely read if they were put into a context of a story. So I strongly believe that Renzo reads mainly by sight words, his strong phonic foundation helps but it's not all about phonics, when they are not trained with a proper system on how to read, breaking down the words or relating them to something they know, is the way most people learn to read. For example, if they know how to read "rice", most likely they will figure out words like "price", "thrice"..

The last part of the assessment, was a short paragraph and a long paragraph for him to read, he finished 2/3 of the short one and we had to stop there as he didn't wish to continue anymore. Then the teacher proceeded on with the pronunciation of "ch", "sh" and "th", it was a breeze for him and he told me he learned all from his Leapfrog although I always thought he wasn't paying much attention to that disc which teaches blending of 2 letters like these. Lastly he was tested on the first sound, last sound and middle sound of words like "elephant", "fish", "hen", etc, I heard that kids usually struggle with middle sounds, but I bet Renzo's ability to recognize middle sounds, must be the clincher for the teacher to decide which class he's qualified to attend at the end.

Renzo looked absolutely ecstatic when I told him that the assessment is over and as promised, he can go and eat his chocolate icecream!

Back to the assessment result, the teacher had only one thing to say: " Mom, wow, I have to consult my senior colleague and come back to you again.."

So we waited for another couple of minutes before the teacher re-entered the room, and shared this programmes recommendation chart with us. According to her, Renzo is ready to take I CAN READ Programme straight away, but problem is, that is a 1.5 hours lesson and he will be sitting in with another 6-7 kids who are definitely older than him, but some might not be able to read this well like him. For his age, it's hard to handle that. But if they were to put him at one level lower, which is the ICR Preliminary program, he will get bored easily so the best recommendation she could suggest, is to start him on the I CAN READ Programme but get him a one on one teacher, so that he could have one hour of lesson catered to him based on his pace, with the teacher's full attention. But such lessons cost around 80 dollars per hour and are only conducted during weekday afternoons, apparently we just couldn't afford to send Renzo for it.

I looked through the I CAN READ textbooks and I do love their system, their teachers (or at least the one who did assessment for Renzo), and most importantly, it addresses my concern about spelling, which I have no clue about how to teach Renzo at all. Daddy is never in favor of enrolling Renzo to any kind of enrichment class for now, he even thought the assessment questions are like "What is your favorite color?" kind. So we both agreed that Renzo's skill of reading based on phonics or breaking down the words, definitely requires reinforcement, but whether to reinforce by sending him for an enrichment lesson at I CAN READ or not, we will probably wait for another year to figure out..

the one and only one enrichment for Renzo - Piano

About exactly a year ago, we brought Renzo to Yamaha music school for his very first enrichment class, and 6 months later, we withdrew him from the class due to the fact that the class schedule didn't work out very well for us, and he was not enjoying the lessons due to change of class and teacher.

So this time, on October 06, 2013, we finally manage to send him for his real piano lesson with a private tutor staying near to our place.

I guess many parents have the same questions in mind like us, Yamaha music school or private tutor?

Here's a great read:
http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Forum/2/topic/008222/Number/0/site_id/1#import

You have to believe that there's always 2 sides of the coin so there's no real right or wrong. So let me just highlight the cons (skip the pros as I believe people are more concerned about the cons when comes to such kind of thing, LOL) of these 2 options:

Yamaha Music School:
- One parent is required to attend the class together with the kid, for kids aged 4-6 years old , which is definitely time consuming no matter how much we parents love music, or rather say love the bonding with our kids.
- They do not teach  CDEFG, instead they use Do Re Me, there's a huge difference here because under Yamaha,  teachers focus on ear training and music appreciation, and they do not really teach much about how to read the notes, that means if it is a piece of new music, students won't be able to play it right away simply because they could not read the repertoires independently
- Teachers could not focus much on each kid as they have a whole class to take care of, hence bad hand posture and loud playing habit become  more and more common among kids

Private teacher:
- Since parents are not attending the class, we might not get to understand what was taught each time during class
- more expensive?


So the answer is pretty clear, we are getting a private teacher for Renzo!! Don't get me wrong, Yamaha Music School is definitely great, it's just that we prefer a different approach and arrangement for Renzo in this case. And we quickly bought Renzo a new Yamaha U1 piano which makes him, and his didi Rynus super excited!

We are lucky enough to meet this great teacher introduced by my sister. My niece has been attending Yamaha Music School for 2 years but my sister had the exact same concerns like what I listed above, hence she decided to switch her to a private teacher. It's in a way tougher for my niece as she needs to forget about all she's learned under Yamaha, but she managed to adjust quickly and her improvement is so obvious that even I know nothing about piano, I can tell by looking at her videos recorded and sent to my sister by this super caring teacher! That action of recording and sharing class videos from the teacher, addressed the one biggest concern I have with private teacher instantly!

Renzo enjoyed his first lesson, and his strong interest in numbers and alphabets definitely helped as writing / coloring is required for his age, and he could read the lyrics on his own when comes to learning songs. Practicing the song he learned during piano lesson has been added to his daily study routine at night, and it's pretty fun to hear little Renzo asking frequently, "Mummy, did I wash my hands?", that basically means he has just washed his hands and he wants to play piano!

bye for now, yamaha music school..

Renzo has been attending "Music Wonderland" class at Yamaha Music School since last September. We started him with that course in hoping that he could appreciate music through listening and slowly progress on to Yamaha Junior Course in this coming October.

He was doing relatively well when he first started the course. We've met another Aug 2009 boy with his mother we got to know through internet, and that made Renzo more interested in the lessons as he felt like he already has a friend there. Unfortunately, due to work commitment, we could not continue him with the Tuesday 7pm class any more, and we finally made a tough decision, to switch him to the only other available slot at 6pm on Saturday. I don't know how good the course is but I know he could memorize most of the songs he learned during class, and he seemed to be in good mood all the time during that period. He even insisted to take a cab and attend his last Tuesday night lesson despite a super heavy downpour.

I have to admit, changing him to Saturday class is truly a bad move. First of all, Saturday schedule does work better for us as both Daddy Chan and I work 5 days a week, that means we can take turns to accompany him for lessons. But 6pm is not a good timing for Renzo. He is either having his nap, or being extremely tired and distracted at that time. Secondly, Renzo being a very "single-minded" boy, is not adapting well to the new environment and somehow, he keeps mentioning about his Tuesday class teacher and expressing his willingness to follow only that teacher.

After observing Renzo and discussing with Daddy Chan for a few weeks, we finally made a even tougher decision, to withdraw Renzo from the Music Wonderland course for now, and wait till October, before we decide if to enroll him again (since the schedule might not work for us still), or wait for another year and start him on private tuition (either with Yamaha teacher or outside tutor).

I find it a tough decision because being a persistent and determined mummy, I never like to give up easily this way, especially when comes to education. But then, we know for sure that the purpose of sending Renzo for piano lesson, is not for him to pass different grades and become a pianist, or to hope that he could grow up to be a more dignified and noble person. We just want him to enjoy his time while learning something new and fun! And seeing his response to his new Saturday lessons, I am more afraid that he will soon lose his interest in music (though I am not even sure how interested he is now, LOL)...

A close friend of mine, who is very talented and good at playing piano, suggested me to start Renzo at the age of 5 - 7, and meanwhile, bringing him to concerts to cultivate interest, might be a good idea. The decision we made to withdraw him from the lesson for now, really buys me a little more time to decide on what brand/model of piano/electone to get for him (I've been in a dilemma on what to buy for a year), and let's hope his new teacher will be able to advise me by then. And for now, we just want to let him focus on what he really enjoys first, such as working on math activity book!

The real challenge begins, now....

On September 25, Tuesday, I brought Renzo to Yamaha Music School for his very first enrichment class - Music Wonderland course for 3 years old toddlers before they could start the real piano lesson around the age of 4.

Okay both Daddy Chan and I did not have the chance to learn how to play piano when we were young, in fact I have totally zero interest in musical instrument. But it's a "No-brainer" decision to send Renzo for piano class as there are just so many benefits of learning it. I deem it as the real challenge to us because we have never sent Renzo for any kind of real enrichment class, basically he just goes to full day childcare on a daily basis. And he used to attend some once a week junior course at "Josiah Montessori" for a few weeks and tried out one session at "My Gym" and that's it. I could not say he enjoys such classes much as his attention span is usually as short as 20-30 minutes and being the "anti-social" kind, ah alrighty I should used the word "introvert" instead, who needs quite a while to warm up, he is just not as attentive and enthusiastic as most other kids in class. Moreover, we have been teaching Renzo on most of his academic stuff such as alphabets, phonics, numbers, colors and shapes, etc at home. We have no idea about how much he could absorb when we expose him to a school environment, to learn something totally new and professional, which both Daddy and Mummy have no knowledge about.

So knowing our son well enough, I've preempted him many times about his piano class (well not the real one yet) for weeks and months. Luckily he is still showing interest whenever we talk about learning to play piano. Indeed my mother is the one who's super into sending Renzo for piano class, after she witnessed his first encounter with piano at a hotel lobby a year ago. And since then, Renzo has been bugging us to get him a piano especially after his every visit to his cousin's house (yes our niece Cherry is learning piano and has a brilliant piano at home that makes Renzo curious and excited every time when he visits her house).

Anyway as Daddy happened to have some other commitment, he could not go for the first class with Renzo, so I had the chance to learn with Renzo together in the classroom. I guess I won't have much chances in the future as we agreed that Daddy will accompany him for his every class since obviously, Daddy has way better note reading ability than me.

We paid for his learning materials in school (that's not included in his school fees), a whooping 100 bucks allows us to bring home 2 textbooks, 1 CD, 1 set of stickers and 1 percussion set.

After entering the classroom, we picked a seat at the corner of last row and Renzo got super excited with the keyboard in front of him, as a result I had to remind him again and again to pay close attention to teacher's (Ms Chan) instructions. Frankly speaking the class at this stage is pretty much the same like other music appreciation lessons that encourages kids to sing along and dance around. But the lyrics and rhythms seemed tougher than those usual lullabies we know by heart. I am sure it helps to arouse children's interests in music but I am not that certain about how much Renzo really appreciates music, it seems that he just wanted to play with the piano most of the time during the class. But of course he was having quite a bit of fun together with others in such a conducive environment, at least for a good first half of the class.

On our way home, Renzo told me that he wants to go to his piano class again next week. But when I played the CD attached to his textbook, which has the same songs Ms Chan played during the class, he gave us a big smile with a surprised look at first (must be thinking why am I hearing this again??), but within 5 minutes, he swapped that disc with his alphabet/phonics disc on his own!! Well, we are not expecting a genius pianist anyway so for now, let's just be patient and let him enjoy what he likes I guess...