Do You Make Your Kids Play an Instrument?

[SKL]

 I make my kids play.  I think it's important.  They don't love it either, but they tolerate it OK.  I think they will eventually come to like it as a leisure activity, once it becomes easy for them to play whatever they want.  I tell them it's like riding a bike - was it fun at first, no, it was scary and a lot of work.  But now it's fun.  And reading - well, one of them loves it, the other will love it someday.  :)

 

This year I will be their piano teacher, unless I can make an arrangement for them at their b&m school.  I tried lessons at home & at a third location, and they were just too stressful and not very productive for us.

[PeachyDoodle]

We have really waffled on this.

 

Dd took two years of piano lessons and was not bad. Her teacher was very impressed with her progress and her potential. She never complained about it, although she wasn't into practicing and hardly ever played on her own at home. After the second year, she asked to stop. I was so disappointed. I played piano from elementary through college and also played clarinet.

 

We considered requiring music lessons, because it's so good for brain development, but she was clearly not interested. In the months since, I've broached the subject several times with different ideas (homeschool band or orchestra? guitar? violin?), but she always just shrugs, "Not really." She has never really enjoyed songs, even as a little kid, and she can't carry a tune in a bucket. I think it's just not her thing.

 

This year we're doing Harmony Fine Arts, and she has been surprisingly into listening to the classical music. So maybe there's hope.

 

We will probably give ds a couple of years of piano lessons when he's a bit older. He tends to be more on the musical side, so I'm hoping he'll enjoy it more.