Asian Mums are more SUPERIOR?

[csc]

Allow me to share my piece about piano learning.


I know nuts about pitch and tones and I have never sat down with my children when they are learning the piano. All I did was that nod of approval when they play a piece well.

It has always been a struggle for them to balance their demanding school work and piano exams. However, since last year, there has been a major breakthrough in my daughter's learning process.

She has been the playing the piano a few times a day, not in preparation for her next graded exam but simply playing her favourite Korean and Taiwan pops.

My son was soon influenced by her and also began to wind down his stressful week day by playing the piano too.

I am so glad to see this breakthrough and to me, the ability to apply their musical talent and interest in their daily lives is the greatest achievement so far for them! :lol:

[Chenonceau]

csc:

Allow me to share my piece about piano learning.


I know nuts about pitch and tones and I have never sat down with my children when they are learning the piano. All I did was that nod of approval when they play a piece well.

It has always been a struggle for them to balance their demanding school work and piano exams. However, since last year, there has been a major breakthrough in my daughter's learning process.

She has been the playing the piano a few times a day, not in preparation for her next graded exam but simply playing her favourite Korean and Taiwan pops.

My son was soon influenced by her and also began to wind down his stressful week day by playing the piano too.

I am so glad to see this breakthrough and to me, the ability to apply their musical talent and interest in their daily lives is the greatest achievement so far for them! :lol:

That's great!! Little Boy made up his mind in Kindy that he didn't like music. They sang in Kindy and he could neither hold tune nor follow beat.

In P1, he went for music class. In P2, there was again music class... and he had to SING!! SOLO!! In P3, they made him do it again. He came home and asked me why they keep making him do music.

I said \"Because some children may have talent for music, so all children do music just in case\".

He looked at me in disgust \"In P1, they made me sing. In P2, they made me sing. In P3, also... and I cannot sing and I told Teacher I don't like music. How long does it take them to LEARN that I don't like music?\"

When trying to improve his Chinese, I suggested to learn Chinese songs. He again looked at me in disgust \"I don't like music. What makes you think I will like to learn Chinese with music?\"

:stupid:

[toddles]

Chenonceau:

When trying to improve his Chinese, I suggested to learn Chinese songs. He again looked at me in disgust \"I don't like music. What makes you think I will like to learn Chinese with music?\"

:stupid:

He's got a point there though!

try other routes like comics for a start? boys like comics.

[csc]

[quote]When trying to improve his Chinese, I suggested to learn Chinese songs. He again looked at me in disgust \"I don't like music. What makes you think I will like to learn Chinese with music?\"

[/quote]This is a good one ! :rotflmao:

I am also hoping that my children will use their talent to serve..I know of a friend's teenage children who play the guitar at the old folks' home on weekends. This mum is no Tiger Mum or super mum but a great mum who can encourage her children to have a passion to serve the needy in society.

[phankao]

2ppaamm:

phankao:

You are amazing. And you have 2 pianos in the house? We have 8 persons living in a 1100 sq ft - no space for too many instruments. I thought your elder daughter did violin at NAFA? Thought was your no.1 & no.3 that did piano at NAFA.

We have now three keyboards in the house. #2 was in NAFA violin when #1 was doing piano in NAFA. We then had to move to China for a few months and did not take the internal exams. As such, both were out of NAFA. When we returned, NAFA took #1 back (first in history) but I didn't bother to ask for #2 to return, because I really couldn't help her much on the violin. The violin is so small, and I get a neck ache from playing and scrambling for the strings, and I was too stingy to buy a full-sized violin. She then asked me to teach her the piano. I did, until grade 5, even though I did not have any qualification. I then got #1's teacher to teach #2 and #3. By then, I had taught #3 to grade 3 as well. We didn't put any more children through NAFA, in fact, we stopped #1 attending NAFA regularly as well when he was asked to repeat a grade despite scoring a distinction in ABRSM. I felt it was a demotivational thingy but I understood that NAFA was trying to 'make the best out of him'. Sometimes, I wonder if that was the right decision, but it's not important to make the right decision. We RIGHT every decision and move on.

Haha - it's really up to the child! A friend who had one in violin nafa says piano in nafa is not the way to go - i'm not sure about the specifics. Anyway, hers had a really wonderful teacher who's not from nafa and she really plays beautifully and sensitively. Finished her dip at 11.

[phankao]

2ppaamm:

We had a thread we highlighted the boo-boos we made. I think no one could top mine. I forgot to register my oldest boy for primary school.... :!:

Nevermind - that time not compulsory schooling. won't get arrested. :lol:

[jtoh]

Chenonceau:

csc:

Allow me to share my piece about piano learning.


I know nuts about pitch and tones and I have never sat down with my children when they are learning the piano. All I did was that nod of approval when they play a piece well.

It has always been a struggle for them to balance their demanding school work and piano exams. However, since last year, there has been a major breakthrough in my daughter's learning process.

She has been the playing the piano a few times a day, not in preparation for her next graded exam but simply playing her favourite Korean and Taiwan pops.

My son was soon influenced by her and also began to wind down his stressful week day by playing the piano too.

I am so glad to see this breakthrough and to me, the ability to apply their musical talent and interest in their daily lives is the greatest achievement so far for them! :lol:

That's great!! Little Boy made up his mind in Kindy that he didn't like music. They sang in Kindy and he could neither hold tune nor follow beat.

In P1, he went for music class. In P2, there was again music class... and he had to SING!! SOLO!! In P3, they made him do it again. He came home and asked me why they keep making him do music.

I said \"Because some children may have talent for music, so all children do music just in case\".

He looked at me in disgust \"In P1, they made me sing. In P2, they made me sing. In P3, also... and I cannot sing and I told Teacher I don't like music. How long does it take them to LEARN that I don't like music?\"

When trying to improve his Chinese, I suggested to learn Chinese songs. He again looked at me in disgust \"I don't like music. What makes you think I will like to learn Chinese with music?\"

:stupid:

I like your little boy. He's got a mind of his own.

[rosemummy]

2ppaamm:

rosemummy:

2ppaamm, after reading some of your posts, I think you're such an exceptional mum with amazingly gifted kids. Yes, it's definitely more difficult to train a child to discover their passion, than just disciplining and pushing them to do what we want.


Mind sharing where your 14 year old girl is headed for university? What is she going to major in?

behind every sad/bad situation, there us always a positive end. My daughter how i struggled with my asd chikd abd could not find help. or perhaps shefound some interesting characters on cable tv. She now wants to be the best psychologist in singapore one day. She will be majoring in that.

Your girl is probably the youngest ever to be reading psychology at university level. To make it to university at 14 is highly unusual, and most, if not all of them, are majoring in music, maths or science. Not many at that age has the maturity to major in social or behavioral science. Is she doing it locally or overseas?

Btw, my girl did psychology as one of her electives in general education at 16. Most of her classmates are a couple of years older. She didn't have the maturity to do well in the subject though it was an area she had been fascinated with. She did much better in the business subjects, particularly law, accounting and economics.

I suppose having a special child in the family would give your girl the motivation to study the subject nothing else could. And she certainly is more motivated and matured compared to even the regular undergrads. All the best!

[rosemummy]

Chenonceau:

That's great!! Little Boy made up his mind in Kindy that he didn't like music. They sang in Kindy and he could neither hold tune nor follow beat.


In P1, he went for music class. In P2, there was again music class... and he had to SING!! SOLO!! In P3, they made him do it again. He came home and asked me why they keep making him do music.

I said \"Because some children may have talent for music, so all children do music just in case\".

He looked at me in disgust \"In P1, they made me sing. In P2, they made me sing. In P3, also... and I cannot sing and I told Teacher I don't like music. How long does it take them to LEARN that I don't like music?\"

When trying to improve his Chinese, I suggested to learn Chinese songs. He again looked at me in disgust \"I don't like music. What makes you think I will like to learn Chinese with music?\"

:stupid:

Haha. I was also like that. Never like music. In fact, I hated music lessons. And PE too. That's why I don't think it's ever worthwhile to force a child to do something he has clearly no interest in.

Perseverance can be taught by other means, like in areas the child is interested in.

[phankao]

2ppaamm:

On the piano, I am grade zero. When I was a eleven, I wanted to play the piano. My mother put me in piano classes but my father would not allow me to move the piano into the house even though my mother had already paid for it because his friends told him so (I still don't understand why). So, I made a keyboard out of a piece of drawing block, drawing lines and colouring in the black keys using black coloured pencils and covered it up with the plastic wrapping paper that we used to wrap books with. On that plastic silent piano I made great progress. I finished Grade 1 books in a week, then moved to Grade 4 books in a year. Whenever this plastic piano gets torn and tattered, I'd spend time making an even stronger one by putting a stronger backing to it. Strangely, even playing on these silent self-made pianos, I had developed a perfect pitch by 'hearing' the pitch in my head and playing the music on my fingers.

One year later, my father moved to stop my piano classes because of PSLE. He wanted me to focus on my studies instead of humming to that piece of paper. So that's the end of my piano exposure. Loved it, but never had a chance to pursue it meaningfully. I did well for the PSLE, we did not have a T-score, but I knew I did well because I went to the top girls' school, and I was placed in the top class. In those days, you don't need tuition or study very hard to do that, so I did not understand how that plastic piece of joy would have made a difference. It was sad for me.

<snip>

In secondary school, I picked up 6 other instruments by my own, and completed Grade 7 theory through self-study, I scored distinctions for all the grades. Somehow, I was identified gifted by a SSO flutist who wanted to keep me as an apprentice. I didn't believe a word she said, I thought she just wanted me to pay her $10 more per month, now how could I ever be gifted?! Then, I dropped the flute as well, even though I made it to the best orchestra for youths at that time, and shared the stage with the most famous musicians. I never thought I was anything talented.
.

I just realised that by your definition, I am Grade Zero at Violin too! I was only saying that I practised until I could play pieces of grade 5 to 7 standard, but I never did do exams. But I know I can handle. However, the very very fast parts my old fingers just cannot manage - I tried - so many times, really fail. *oops*. haha.

As I mentioned at the start of this thread though, my kids do agree with Amy Chua that \"nothing is fun until you are good at it\"! Math, music, etc.