Update and Upgrade

Haven't got the time to update this as often as I would like to.

The past few weeks was rather busy. When I brought Rachel to the Suntec Convention Halls for the Kidz Academy exposition, we signed up for trial ballet lessons 2 lessons for $25 and at the same time brought home a ukelele. The ukelele remains more of a toy than a musical instrument, since she loved to sing along with Barbie and the Diamond castle and some almost 10 Barbie dvds, its great fun to watch her strum and chantez!!

The first trial lesson at JM Dance was not exactly fun. Rachel was scolded much and criticised from "weak knees" to "poor balance.". I thought the young teacher was not as patient with little girls and thought that my kid will probably HATE ballet after that lesson. Quelle Bonne surprise!!! She WANTED lessons every week!!! My kid can take strictness and demand.

At $240 per term for 11 lessons, throw in registration $25 and uniform $98, its $363 for term one and $240 for subsequent terms. Surely there are cheaper alternatives. So I went to enquire the francise Crestar. Personally I am not so keen about tuition and enrichment francise chains, something tells me that art and business do not gell well etc.

I deeply admired teachers who impart not just the skills but also their passion for the art and many do so without charging huge fees. I read that Joshua bell was often given free lessons by the great Joseph Gingold. Then there was the ultimate teacher, life-changer Leopold Auer who had all these famous students as Heifetz and Elman on scholarships. My violin hero Yehudi Menuhin set up a school that would admit any talented kid regardless of nationality and income. In essence no gifted child would be denied a place to study at this prestigious school, now complete with a swimming pool, if his parents can't pay the fees. Many conservatories and also Julliard now offers scholarships to the priviledge few.

Well, for Crestar, the fees are cheaper $173.30 but with a $100 deposit and registration $21.40 and the fact that the parents need to purchase from a separate shop the leotard, shoes, tutu, stockings at approximately $75-100. I visited the shop in Roxy Square nearby but felt that if my kid were to continue ballet lessons as a form of social exercise and discipline, perhaps the Suntec location is more ideal in terms of teacher/student ratio, location where the mum can shop for 45 mins..HEE and mainly no deposit rule. Often times, I find it a HASSLE to request for MY deposit upon termination etc etc.

Still we are half-hearted. It's two trial lessons already and Rachel seemed keen. We just upgraded her violin from 1/16 to 1/10 at $300 plus complete with new bow, rosin, European strings, for better sound quality and a cute case. To pay another $370 seemed sacrilegious!!!!
So, after consulting the kid, we decided to resume the ballet lessons at Suntec next Jan if she is still keen and in the mean time to practise those stretching pilates exercises she had been taught.

At the end of the day, I thank God for a GREAT kid. Each day when I supervised her on the violin and piano (sometimes dad takes over) she showed great interest, understanding and desire to learn. She came up with a motto "PRACTISE AND LEARN" We often let her know that music is an art and as with all art, one gets better each time we practise and appreciate it. She loves all things music related. She has seen many video footages of young violinists maturing from being a cute kid to who they are today and told me one day she will play a full size violin, have her own concerts, albums etc. I told her the difference its they really love playing the violin and enjoy making it sing. If you do, we know GOD will help you and bless you too.

Lastly, like us she enjoys all the reality TV programmes like Amazing race, American's Next Top Model, and Survivor etc. Imagine at 1am our entire family was watching the Amazing race!!! Cheers to home-schooling!!!