Today I saw one of my young students. He's five and a half, and has a relatively late lesson, and he's very tired after a long day at school. The hardest lessons are when he falls asleep in the car on the way. Some of these lessons end up being okay, but some begin with tears. He's usually willing to do things for me, but it's difficult for him to do his very best. I even have a video of him playing a Twinkle with tears streaming down his face. The fact that he'll play anything when he's that tired is amazing to me. I will admit that he usually is fairly happy by the end of the lesson. I feel quite grateful for that.
He came in this evening rubbing his eyes, and was obviously just up from sleeping. But he chose to take the first lesson before his older sibling. He willingly played several Twinkles, and worked on refining the rhythms of them. By the end of the Twinkles, he was smiling. When I was a little silly with him, he giggled and said "Don't be silly, Miss Suzanne!" because he was trying to not get too silly so that he could keep playing.
Then we worked on his prep spot of Lightly Row. He experimented with me on ways to not bump the A string when changing to the E. He was interested and engaged. I was able to introduce a new concept, and he was very proud of doing it.
All of a sudden my "duck quacked". (I always set an alarm on my phone to signal the end of lessons so that I don't have to watch the clock. My students are used to the duck, and know what it means.) I said in a mock angry tone "SHH! Duck--be quiet!" My student, still in playing position said "Turn that duck off--let's have a longer lesson!"
Later, he told his mom "I had a great lesson today! I think I'll do that again."
To celebrate the good lesson she took him to the "snack-spitting machine".
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