Archive for October 9th, 2008

J started up violin lessons again this week. He’s so cute with his little violin tucked up under his chin. He’s only four, so we’re taking it pretty slow. My goal is for him to not quit when it gets harder, so making it fun is important. He has a fantastic teacher, so I know it’ll be ok. I know what it’s like on both sides of the music stand, as both student and as teacher.

But I’ve never been the mom of a music student. And holy heck, is it different! I have to force myself to keep my mouth shut during lessons. Part of that is because I was a music teacher for so long. But ay yi yi…so hard.

Not nearly as hard as finding out how much lessons cost. Now, I taught flute lessons forever and a day, so I know it is so important to pay a good teacher what he/she is worth. They do more behind the scenes than you see during a weekly lesson. A lot more. And if you find a teacher who is charging a great deal less than other teachers, please, don’t fall for it. That person is undermining the other teachers in the area.

But I digress.

I know teachers need to be paid. I know they work really hard for what they get (uh, hello? Keeping the attention of a four year old for 30 minutes? Amazing.). That said, I nearly swallowed my tongue when I found out that J’s lessons are going to be $27/half hour. And then group lessons twice a month on top of that, no idea what those are going to cost.

So being the music student mom is going to be quite the change for me. Because instead of getting the checks, I’m now the one writing them.