Piano Lessons

I had been thinking about letting Joshua learn something new early this year. It can be swimming or art or music. In July 2010 we enrolled Joshua in an art class that taught him how to use oil crayons to colour the pictures. He attended for about four months and did not seem as keen to continue with the art lessons. At that time, the art school also raised its fees and we asked Joshua if he wanted to continue. He said no, so we allowed him to drop out of that art class.

Early this year we had been thinking of enrolling him in swimming classes since there are swim coaches who teach children in the condo swimming pool. However, Joshua kept saying he did not want to learn swimming. Besides his daddy had been teaching him how to swim and now he can tread water and lift his head up while swimming longer distances. The only thing was his strokes might not be accurate. Hence we asked him what would he like to learn. He said he wanted to learn music, like how to play drums since his daddy played drums in church previously. But his daddy said it would be better to let him learn piano because that would give him a good foundation in music.

The only thing holding us back was we were not sure if he was serious about learning music, in case it ended up like the art class. Besides, we would need to buy a keyboard for him to practise if he wanted to learn piano. Learning piano is a heavy investment afterall. And so we sought the Lord about it. It was many months later that it became clear to us what type of enrichment class we should put him into. My aunt gave us her daughter's keyboard in August and we thought that was a clear indication. Afterall, we did not even have to spend money on a keyboard. Secondly, it allowed us to observe how Joshua was taking to the keyboard. That would be another indication of his interest. Indeed it turned out that he liked fiddling with the sounds of the keyboard and he told me that he wanted to learn piano.

We then looked for a suitable music school and found one near to our home. The lessons would be conducted over a 30-min period on Thursday noons. It was a good arrangement for me because we wanted to keep our weekends free for family time. I brought Joshua for his first piano lesson last Thursday. I was observing him from outside the room where his teacher was teaching him. He seemed really interested and enjoying himself. I was happy for him. I asked him if he enjoyed the piano lesson and he said 'I told you I loved music, right!' Afterwards when he reached home, he was so eager to show me what he learnt by practising on the keyboard.

Finally I was so relieved! Thank God! This issue had been on my mind for a long while and now that we found an enrichment class that Joshua would be really interested in, I can put my mind at rest. I know it would be futile to force him to take up something he did not like because that would not be enduring. Hence, even though this issue took a little longer to be settled, I was happy to have waited because I know it is the right timing. It is the Lord's timing and I did not rush into it by blindly enrolling him in other enrichment classes.