stressed

I came home this evening from a late piano make-up class feeling pretty stressed.

Z had a bad lesson.

She did things like instead of playing a triad 2 times allegro and 3 times andante all in a row with no stops she would just play it allegro like 9 times... *sigh*

She was totally off.

Threre were some circumstances - she seems to have another cold (damn summer camp) and the class was from 6:30 to 7:30 tonight, which is kind of late for Z to be focusing.

She also barely practiced at all last week. Last week was summer camp, Shakespeare, agents, auditions and other things that seemed to keep practicing from happening.

Of course this bad practice session has to happen just after her teacher saw a competition with five year olds, some of whom were little prodigies. She told me again that Z could be doing that if I would just have her practice a hours everyday.

I told her again that I don't want Z to be a prodigy. Z doesn't want to either. I think Z would like to learn to play piano so she can write her own music, music that she would probably want to sing. (I am not a clairvoyant though, so I can't say for sure)

I know I need to have Z practice more. I knew that today. But when it was time to practice Z was in her room talking to herself, immersed in some fairy game and playing so nicely that I just couldn't bring myself to interrupt her.

And then later I let her go swimming because I knew she was really looking forward to it.

I try to consistently make the right decision in Z's life. There is such a mix between school work, performing arts practice (piano, acting, & singing), playing with friends, doing normal kids stuff (swimming, riding her bike, playing with LEGO's , watching t.v.) and having down time to relax and create and pretend - plus all the time spent with me doing my normal household errands, well is it any wonder that I am stressed?

I know she needs to practice piano more and now that she is not wasting almost five hours a day on summer camp I know we can get back on track.

I know auditioning might end up taking a lot of her time - but I can bring her homework with us to work on while she is waiting if I need to.

Really, thank God we homeschool. I would never be able to do all this if we didn't. I don't know how people are able to send their kids to school all day and still have time for playing and relaxing much less homework or enrichment classes. (They must be better planners than me.)