02/18/12

1.  Day 2 of the women's conference with Julie Beck.  Ben decided I am just like her (not).  One of a whole bunch of kids who grows up only to have 3 kids, and who is a piano-practicing drill sergeant.  See, totally the same!  She described piano practicing in her home as "combat piano."  I love that.  It feels like combat piano around here, too, sometimes.  But she made her kids practice two hours a day MINIMUM!  And she sat next to her youngest daughter for EIGHT YEARS, until she was 16 before her daughter finally was ready to practice independently.  I'm pretty sure I don't have that kind of stamina.

2.  Went to lunch at County Line with two women in my ward after the conference (Kelly and Jill).  I was dubious that I would find anything to eat there with my weird diet, but not so!  They offer a vegetable kabob plate with a baked potato, 2 kabobs with zucchini, squash, peppers, tomatoes, and mushrooms, and coleslaw.  It was good, but more expensive than the baby back ribs!  How is that?  Jill commented that nothing had to die to make my lunch.  :-)

3.  I laid down the law for Mosey and computer games this morning-- nothing after 10:00 AM.  Of course, being gone to the conference until early afternoon, I wasn't able to inform him that watching his brothers play computer games was also verboten!  Why is that fun??  But, at least he did spend the afternoon making lego fighter planes with Brigham.  I think Ben is a little skeptical that too much computer-game playing yields a very grumpy Mosey.  But you know, it's not just the computer-game playing itself, it's the fact that every minute playing on the computer displaces a minute in which he could be doing something else.  I've been thinking about the 10,000 hour rule-- how it purportedly take 10,000 hours of practice or experience before a person is an expert in something, or can perform at a professional level.  So, let's take a child.  Starting at the age of 5 (before 5 kids are mostly trying to learn the fundamentals of communication, mobility, and basic independence), and ending at age 18, 10,000 hours equals a little over 2 hours a day, 365 days a year.  So, the question is what am I training my children to become professionals in while they're growing up in my home?  I'm pretty sure there are lots of kids that end up as professional-level video-game players, or TV-watchers by the time they graduate from high school, but that's not my ambition for my kids.  Ben said, "They're not going to be professional pianists or violinists, either."  And that is true, unless I follow Julie Beck's example and start requiring a whole lot more daily practicing!  :-)  But that's also not my ambition for my kids.  My goals are for them to achieve expertise in responsibility, hard work, thinking skills, and faith, and for them to reach a competency level in a lot of other things-- piano, violin, tae kwon do, story-writing, and yes, lego-building and block-construction and drawing and any number of other things.  I think that the more interesting things a kid can become competent doing, the happier, more confident, more interesting person he will become.
But you know, what's good for the goose is good for the gander.  Or in my case, what's good for the goslings is good for the goose.  What am I training myself to become an expert in?  It's an interesting question.  After 4 years of homeschooling, if the 10,000 hour rule holds true, I'm now an expert teacher!  If I stick with music practicing with my kids, by the time Mosey leaves home, I'll be an expert practice coach.  But I hope I won't be.  :-)  But there are also a few other things I'm becoming an expert in which are not so good.  Like procrastinating bed time.  So, good night! :-)