Mocha With Linda has begun a new weekly meme called Flashback Friday. She’ll post a question every Thursday, and then Friday we can link our answers up on her site.

The question for today is:

If you have a child in your life, your calendar for April and May is probably quickly filling up with end-of-year activities – performances, recitals, etc. Did you take lessons as a child? Piano or another instrument? Gymnastics or dance? Other types of lessons? Were they weekly? How much were you required to practice between lessons? Did you participate in recitals? If so, do any of them stand out in your memory? Did they foster a love or a hate for that activity? Did you want to take lessons in a certain thing that you never got to? And if you have kids now, how did your experiences with taking lessons like these impact the activities you had/have them do?

Sadly, no, I never took any lessons of any kind as a child or teen until driver’s training. When I was in about the 3rd or 4th grade, there was an assembly discussing violin lessons, and I really, really wanted to take them. But money was always tight and I just assumed we wouldn’t have money for such a thing. I kick myself now, of course, for not asking about it, at least.

I did take one semester of piano in college and enjoyed it, but as it took me five years to finish a four-year course as it was, I didn’t see how I could fit any more lessons (and especially the practice times) in. I know I could learn now, but I have no desire to play before other people, and the amount of time it would take to learn to play well enough for it to be enjoyable and not frustrating  is just not something I have right now, at least not in light of all the other things I want to do. There are still times, however, when I long to just sit down at the piano and play something, to be able to express myself in that way.

I did take a few crafty type lessons as a young wife. We lived near a Christian college where the Home Economic Education girls had  to take a class called Teaching Home Economics, and one requirement of that class was to teach a course having to do with cooking, sewing, or crafts over a few weeks. The classes were free and open to the community. I took cake decorating (but sadly, did not take to it. I didn’t have a natural knack for it and didn’t want to put the time into practice on something that was just going to be eaten up), quilting, and a few others.

The only other lessons I have considered taking are voice lessons, but I am too self-conscious to sing alone in front of a teacher. 🙂 Plus I don’t need to add the nervousness of stress of performing in public to my life.

As far as other lessons — gymnastics, karate, etc. — that just wasn’t done much when I was a kid, at least in our circles. We mainly just rode bikes and played outside. 🙂

When my kids came along, I did want them to take piano, if nothing else. I felt that was foundational to any other instrument they might want to learn, plus it would help the if they were ever in a choir. Though not prodigies, they all did fairly well (could have done better, if they had practiced more. 🙂 ) They all wanted to quit by high school age, and I didn’t let the first two: I had heard so many people say they regretted that their mothers let them quit, plus one person we knew who was greatly skilled at it shared that he had wanted to quit when he was younger, too. So the older boys took piano through high school. By the third one, though, I was just tired of dealing with the resistance, so we did let him stop taking lessons this year. He says he just wants to take a one-year break and then come back to it…but I doubt he will. 😦

My middle son tells me he asked repeatedly to take some kind of martial arts and that I kept putting him off by saying  we should wait a while and see if he was really interested. I don’t remember that at all. I do remember thinking about it and being afraid of the Eastern religious influence. I know now that, depending on the teacher, the skills and principles can be taught without getting into the religious aspect, and I wish we had checked into it at the time. (Sorry Jason!)

I don’t remember that we really got into other lessons. They all played sports at various times, and were all in choirs at various times. We wanted to balance giving them opportunities we never had with not overloading their schedules so they (and the rest of the family) never had any down time. Besides the martial arts, I don’t remember them asking for any other lessons…except that when Jeremy was in about 4th or 5th grade, they had someone come and talk to them about playing strings, and he wanted interested in the double bass. The only problem was that they only gave the lessons during recess, and at that time he only had one recess, and one of them each week was taken up with piano lessons. I felt he needed both the physicality and the social interaction of recess more, so we didn’t sign up, and I have regretted it ever since. He tells me not to worry about it, that he hasn’t been pining away for it all these years, but I do still regret it. I think I would have signed him up if they had had an after-school program.

So, this year for us we have no piano recitals and no concerts as Jesse is not in choir this year, either. As much as I chafed at having all these programs to attend in years past, I have to admit I do kind of miss them. Not enough to go watch the other kids, though. 🙂