We’ve been finding it a challenge to get our 9-year old to practice his cello, with procrastination on his part & yelling on ours for him to practice being the norm. At his last 1:1 lesson, he finally admitted to his tutor that he wasn’t enjoying playing the cello because he’s hated practising the newer exercises she’s assigned him.
I should have picked this signal of dislike from his procrastination so I was felt quite angry with myself when I heard this aloud.
H has been a splendid teacher (I wrote about how she used an analogy she used a few weeks ago), & she did something magical again. Rather than berate him for not having done what she’d assigned him, she simply asked him what he liked. He said he liked the cello, and wanted to play pieces of music, rather than just do exercises. She took out a different book, and played a beautiful piece for him. She then got him to play it along with her, occasionally playing duet.
You could see the change in his demeanour instantly. His posture went from slouching to sitting up straight, his eyes twinkled as he smiled at me. She said so to him, & he was beaming from ear to ear.
She assigned him passages from the book to work on during the week, and showed him where the techniques he has to practice too come into play (pun intended).
Practice this week has been a breeze, twice as long as usual, with little procrastination & no yelling.
A little change in approach. A disproportionately larger change in behavior.