Sampling

With school starting and the fall season coming, many parents are now actively trying to figure out their family schedule for the year. Hours can be spent on this as they try to "get everything in". Some reflection may be needed at this time of year to discover why families select their children's experiences they way that they do. After all, it is very hard work and management on the parents part for sure.

Parents are always seeking great experiences and events for their children. So much so these days that children are now in the habit of only attending classes and training, such as dance, gymnastics, swimming, music, martial arts, sports, etc, for a short time before going off to the next adventure. The major excuse that they give is "all their friends are doing something else and they want to be a part of it".

If children are constantly wandering from experience to experience, never staying long enough to learn the full scope of the experience and only sampling, the world will change drastically and not necessarily for the good. After all, if little Michael Jordan wanted to play every sport and only sampled basketball, he would of never of been as great as he was when playing for the Bulls. Same for Kevin Durant of the OKC Thunder. If Tiger Woods only sampled golf instead of putting hours of training in, he would of not made such an impact on the golf world at such a young age.

Think about it, no more Misty Copelands, Travis Walls, Maria Tallchiefs for the dance world. No more Michael Phelps of Nancy Hogsheads for the swimming world. No more Nadia Comaneci or Gabby Douglas for the gymnastic world. How horrible would that be?

Our world needs heroes and leaders in all parts of our lives. If Mozart or even the Beatles only played around at composing music, instead of working hard at mastering it, there is no telling what we would be listening to today.

Can you just hear Mozart saying "but mom.......everyone else is doing soccer". Or how about  Shirley Temple crying "but mom..... Sally's mom says she can pick and choose what ever she wants to do".

The point is this. Children will sample at everything they do if they are allowed to, and are not guided towards finding one or two things they can become great at. Children will continue to want to follow their friends, not because they really want to do what the friends are doing, but because they are afraid of being left out of the group. Children will do this because it is what they do. Unless they are guided towards those experiences that have the greatest life value, they may continue the pattern even as an adult.  Parents have a choice of guiding them towards possible greatness, or allowing them to wander from one thing to the other, never becoming great at anything.

Becoming great at one or two things, instead of mediocre at many things, is how leaders and heroes are trained for the future. Finding experiences that teaches self esteem, self confidence, self trust, team work, cooperation and yes even  how to be an individual that is not afraid to go out on their own may be a better direction for our children. This means selecting one or two experiences and helping them to dive in and swim around for years so that they have time to fully train and develop into great leaders and possibly even heroes of our world.

Sampling may be fine at a buffet to find out what you would like to eat, but over sampling many different experiences with no direction and guidance may be just as detrimental as over eating at the buffet in the long term.

Progressive parents, and parents of grown children that are now doing fantastic things with their adult lives, know and understand that if the adults of our world cannot guide and set standards to follow, children will never grow up to step forward to take leadership of their lives, business, country or world.

Guidance is a good thing. Learning to be an individual that can make strong choices they can follow through with is even better. Let's leave sampling to the buffet.

But My Child Wasn't Learning And Wants To Do Something Else

It's that time of year again. Your child want's to go do what their new friend is doing, even though you have spent hours and money in classes already. What to do?

The first thing is to talk to your child's teacher or coach you have been taking classes with first. Before any decision  is made. They may have some great insights for you to share with your child.

Did you know that probably 90 % of the time when a child is allowed to quit classes, change classes or even change where they have been training, that child was at a point of achieving something great in class, and then it is over by one decision to let them quit or change. When making them stick it out could of made all of the difference.

Adults that have a hard time holding a job for a great deal of time or have difficulty in following through and completing projects , have shared that their parents allowed them to start and stop things at a whim or for what was the most popular at the time. They, as employees, find themselves disorganized, unfocused and unable to make great life changing decisions. Most will say that they wish their parents had held to their decision about lessons and made them continue.

There is great value in being consistent and persistent when it comes to training for your child. And though your child may whine and want to go with their friends, constantly changing  may actually devalue the training you have already acquired.

What helps a child to progress in classes? Consistency mostly. Constant training from one great source of information and background. Year after year training with the same source is the most beneficial. It allows the students to grow and develop in skills, mature and become comfortable and trusting not only in their own abilities, but also trusting in the source of the training.

Persistency is also important. Those that are taught to stick things out through to the end are the ones that will see themselves completing their college education and following their dreams. They have been taught that there is value in following through to the end, and little value in starting, stopping, starting, stopping and starting again.

The performing and fine arts training your child is involved in can make a great difference in their lives. It can teach them that when things are hard, you just push a little harder. When things are tough, you work a little tougher. When you fall down, you get up. And when you friends are going off and doing one thing and then the next, you stick it out for the long run, because you may not be an Olympic Gymnast or a Prima Ballerina, but sticking with the fine arts for years in succession in one solid training ground, just may help you to be a doctor, physiologist, school teacher, nurse, writer, artist or business owner. Just like some of our former students that stayed in classes through their senior year in high school.

Yes, there is value is sticking things out. There is also great value in continuing your training under the same teacher, coach or institution. There is great value in the fine arts.

Music Fun Time Classes Now Registering

Music Fun Time is a theory based music class for ages 18 mo-3 yrs, 3-5 yrs and 5-7 yrs of age. Incorporating math and music science techniques, your young child will learn to read music and play instruments. Call us at 580-256-3262in Woodward or 580-747-4799 in Enid. New classes starting in January.