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!