First Piano Recital

As a piano teacher, I had no intention of starting my kids on lessons until they're older. Eight or nine seems to be a good age. But Seth insisted he wanted to start (and it was a great way to check off the 'music' requirement for homeschooling), so we started! 

He's done really well for a five-year-old boy (attention span = 15 seconds). He doesn't always like to practice (shocker), but he really loves getting a reward for practicing, so he'll do it without much complaint. 

His favorite song at the moment is a nursery rhyme called "Once I Caught a Fish Alive." He & Catherine will sing it over and over again. Eventually he asked me to teach him the song on the piano, so I sat down and picked out a simple version for him.

I also wasn't going to make him play in a recital, but he was excited by the idea. The theme was "Around the World", so we just assumed his song was probably English and put him in the "England" category. 

I wasn't worried about him at all. He'd been playing the song for months and was at the point where he could play it blindfolded and upside down. And he wasn't nervous at all...

...until we got to the venue. Then he suddenly got super shy and started panicking. He was halfway to tears, but somehow we got him to sit in his chair with the other performers. He was second in line (so we could bail out early--it was Aaron's bedtime). 

I had to go up with him and basically force him to announce his name and piece, but he did it. 

And he played it beautifully (minus the part where he kept pausing to scratch his nose).

He bowed and we exited quickly and (not so) quietly to go get his bribe: 

A doughnut!

Catherine gets one for being so supportive.

Aaron doesn't get one, much to his dismay.

Hopefully the next recital won't be so scary since he knows what to expect.

But then again, maybe it will be MORE scary since he knows what to expect...