Kubla loves music. We always have music playing in our home. He loves to find ways to make music with his toys. For awhile, we have a family piano lesson, but it doesn’t stick.
When Kubla tells me he wants to learn guitar, I figure it’s a phase. He likes the lessons, and even practices a bit, but we can’t have any activities beforehand, or he doesn’t want to go. No lesson is worth ending a play date.
About six weeks in, he has a play date before a lesson. “Kubla,” I tell him, “it’s time for guitar.”
He immediately picks up his gear and tells his friend, “I have to go.”
In the car on the way to his teacher, I ask him what changed. “I think maybe guitar is my destiny,” he says. “I don’t want to mess it up.”
I spend a joyful weekend making a list of over 350 songs for us to listen to together. A couple songs from each decade of the 20th century leading up to the first ever rock song, then a few songs from each year 1955 through the present that I thought were important, famous, or just that he’d enjoy. It takes five months to play all the songs. He’s been initiated. He feels like a real musician.
What do you do to foster passion in the children you love?
In two weeks I’ll give a free Kidorable Umbrella to whoever makes my favorite comment and shares this post on the platform of their choice.
