Teaching piano lessons has become
increasingly more difficult.
and it’s all because of this…
My loyal readers may remember that two weeks ago, Babycakes did a front flip off of a favorite toy. You can read more about that here. A few days later, she pulled the filing cabinet over and the drawers flew out, the picture fell, & the lamp came crashing down narrowly missing her. In the last fourteen days, she has learned to climb every piece of furniture in the Football House including the ottoman, sofas, small tables, & the dining room chairs. While making lunch yesterday, I turned to find her sitting at the table on our fabric bench. She receives my undivided attention all day long EXCEPT for during piano lessons.
And that doesn’t make her happy.
On Monday, we had almost 4 hours of lessons. By the last hour, she was jealous for my attention but luckily, her Daddy came home early to “help” out. After eating half a box of crackers, I suggested that he give her a few blueberries. The keyword here is “few” — next time, I will clearly define “few” because on return to the kitchen after lessons, I found that she had eaten her weight in blueberries. This morning, she pooped out a smurf.
On Tuesday, she was so disgusted with the situation that she began pushing the children trying to remove them from the piano bench. When her physical efforts were unsuccessful, she turned to more violent tactics using her Dora the Explorer ball popper as an assault weapon. Eventually, her passion settled down long enough for her to cleverly decide to straddle & ride on her Little People Farm. Our poor hardwood floors… I just hope they survive toddlerhood.
We have four lessons today. F-O-U-R.
Wish me luck, pray for me, send me your best ideas for keeping a kiddo happy & busy…
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I have no ideas on keeping a kiddo happy and busy (which is sad, seeing as how I’ve spent years of my life getting paid to keep kiddos happy and busy)…but I AM laughing at loud at this post. She looks so freakin’ adorable in that picture, too. Good luck!
So funny – I am thinking about tutoring in my home but your post is making me reconsider. I read the other day about putting a glob of jelly on the highchair for them to play with – maybe you could do that during your last lesson so you’d have time to clean her up. Good luck today!
OMG…I LITERALLY choked on my lunch when I read about the Smurf. My four year old daughter was beginning to panic and had the phone ready to dial 911. That was so freakin’ funny!!! I still have tears running down my cheeks from laughing so hard…ya know, AFTER I recovered. Gotta love our coaches!!
Good luck with Babycakes! I’ll say a lil’ prayer for you today.
Robin
~Coach Wheat’s Wife
I have no advice except that this will pass? (not unlike the smurf) I swear you are raising the reincarnation of me (except I am not dead of course, but you get my point) How my poor mother survived I’ll never know but I am going to ask her if she has any tips for during lessons. good luck.