Dabbling
This month is about free trials. My thinking in setting them up was something like "Hey, free stuff! Cool! Also, it's fun to try new things and see what you like." It's been a reminder for me of what a dabbler Dutch is by nature. She loves all activities - if it involves social interaction and getting to experience the intoxicating first slope of a learning curve, it lights her up, and she gets really excited. I can't think of an activity she DIDN'T like trying since she got past infancy. The problem is that she can't do everything, due to constraints on parental time, money, and energy.* I think we probably have just stop introducing her to new activities, because You Just Can't Have It All. Stupid free trials.
I also see that we will soon begin really experiencing what it's like when she finds herself on a flattening learning curve. We've had that a bit with school, and also with swimming. She really doesn't want to do swimming anymore, because she ran up against trouble (with side breathing) that she couldn't easily get past. That dilemma is on hold, because the wintertime (indoor) pool is much harder for us to get to than the summertime (outdoor) pool, so I don't really want to deal with swim lessons until spring anyway.**
Free Trial #1: Tomorrow she will finish up her 4-class trial at a kung fu center in our neighborhood. She absolutely loves this class, and came home from class yesterday ecstatic to have been granted a white belt.***
Free Trial #2: Today Dutch had a trial piano lesson. I bought a cheap digital keyboard off craigslist last week, and it's been getting a lot of action, mostly in deploying all the silly "voices" to their maximum annoyance capacity. Cook also taught Dutch how to do a couple of scales, and she really likes that. The piano teacher she met today was about 15 (okay, maybe 25),**** and very cheerful and nice, and she loved spending half an hour with him, messing around with a piano.
So... I'm thinking this kid is not going to be an expert at anything, but she will have tried a LOT of stuff.
*We expect to be somewhat richer soon, once various tangles of red tape are untangled and Cook and I get to start our new jobs. Not rich enough for Dutch to take lots of expensive extracurriculars, however.
**I am, however, going to force her to keep doing swimming, for many reasons, including my belief in the value of working through plateaus (a belief I rarely put into practice in my own life, but I still BELIEVE in it). I'm going to work pretty hard to bribe/force/cajole/trick her into doing swim team this summer.
***This class is perfect for Dutch - it's great exercise, the teacher makes it really fun, and it involves rigid hierarchies and rules, which is pretty much Dutch's favorite kind of learning environment. However, it's crazy expensive, and there are all these martial arts weirdnesses, like everybody bowing to the photo of the founder of the discipline. So Dutch will not be signing up until we win the lottery, and even then I'd have to work through my feelings about the cult-y elements.
****The place is a co-operative music studio. It's adorable. I think we'll probably sign her up - both Cook and I, in spite of our personal lack of musical training or talent, believe that learning music theory and gaining some competence on an instrument are really valuable, even if you are, like Dutch, pretty much devoid of musical aptitude.
I also see that we will soon begin really experiencing what it's like when she finds herself on a flattening learning curve. We've had that a bit with school, and also with swimming. She really doesn't want to do swimming anymore, because she ran up against trouble (with side breathing) that she couldn't easily get past. That dilemma is on hold, because the wintertime (indoor) pool is much harder for us to get to than the summertime (outdoor) pool, so I don't really want to deal with swim lessons until spring anyway.**
Free Trial #1: Tomorrow she will finish up her 4-class trial at a kung fu center in our neighborhood. She absolutely loves this class, and came home from class yesterday ecstatic to have been granted a white belt.***
Free Trial #2: Today Dutch had a trial piano lesson. I bought a cheap digital keyboard off craigslist last week, and it's been getting a lot of action, mostly in deploying all the silly "voices" to their maximum annoyance capacity. Cook also taught Dutch how to do a couple of scales, and she really likes that. The piano teacher she met today was about 15 (okay, maybe 25),**** and very cheerful and nice, and she loved spending half an hour with him, messing around with a piano.
So... I'm thinking this kid is not going to be an expert at anything, but she will have tried a LOT of stuff.
*We expect to be somewhat richer soon, once various tangles of red tape are untangled and Cook and I get to start our new jobs. Not rich enough for Dutch to take lots of expensive extracurriculars, however.
**I am, however, going to force her to keep doing swimming, for many reasons, including my belief in the value of working through plateaus (a belief I rarely put into practice in my own life, but I still BELIEVE in it). I'm going to work pretty hard to bribe/force/cajole/trick her into doing swim team this summer.
***This class is perfect for Dutch - it's great exercise, the teacher makes it really fun, and it involves rigid hierarchies and rules, which is pretty much Dutch's favorite kind of learning environment. However, it's crazy expensive, and there are all these martial arts weirdnesses, like everybody bowing to the photo of the founder of the discipline. So Dutch will not be signing up until we win the lottery, and even then I'd have to work through my feelings about the cult-y elements.
****The place is a co-operative music studio. It's adorable. I think we'll probably sign her up - both Cook and I, in spite of our personal lack of musical training or talent, believe that learning music theory and gaining some competence on an instrument are really valuable, even if you are, like Dutch, pretty much devoid of musical aptitude.
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