Simpedia

Cathy H., California

One thing I’ve learned from experience, is that when you take the time to educate the parents and the kids on how this Program works from the very beginning, then life is a whole lot easier.

This week, I started two brothers, 8 and 9. They came with Dad. I’m not sure who was more excited out of the three. Incredibly friendly, the boys immediately informed me that I had a mosquito in the house and wanted to catch it for me.

We went through The Foundation Session: policies, the Student Home Materials etc., and then moved to The Relationship Conversation. I explained about Coaches and talked about how dad is going to remind them of things I asked them to do. I then referred to the Domains Diagram, showing the ups and down in long-term relationships and talked about how it’s exactly the same as playing and learning piano.

They were convinced they would love piano forever. When I told them I knew they wouldn’t, they looked at me funny. They loved the chart with the Ups and Downs on it, made faces while guessing which pieces they probably wouldn’t like and giggled a lot. Then Dad said, “Boys, do you know why Cathy is telling you this?” They both smiled and said really loud, “Yeah, so when we get to a piece we don’t like we can’t say to her, why didn’t you tell us we wouldn’t like this?” Sharp kids and I got a good laugh out of that. But then Dad said “She’s being very honest with you, and wants you to understand that not everything will be easy, just like anything else in life.” So I finished up with the “dad makes you eat your broccoli even though you don’t like it” analogy, (only to discover that one of the kids eats broccoli with ketchup!)

After the lesson, Dad said that he was very excited about how everything was presented, and he appreciated the Relationship conversation.