You, Not Them

One of the principles Dr. DeMille shares as an effective key to teaching in his book A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the Twenty-first Century is called "You, Not Them". In a nutshell, if you want your child to excel or be interested in something, you try it out first. My good friend Amanda W. has told me that has been the driving force in her homeschooling. If a son likes to draw, she studies and practices drawing. If a daughter is interested in a foreign language, she starts to learn Spanish. It is amazing how by leading out like this, your children will follow.

I've been noticing that my son who loves to play the piano has gradually stopped practicing. Instead he tries to cram the day of the lesson and usually ends up frustrated and his love for the instrument has diminished. Instead of harping on him about practicing, I decided to try out the "You, Not Them" principle. I sat down at the piano and learned a song. I excitedly called him over one day and played it for him. "That's cool Mom," he said nonchalantly.

I still didn't see him practice but I kept plugging away learning new songs. Pretty soon without a word from me, he was practicing regularly again and not only that...he was enjoying it! Now we have "piano wars" we call it (...hey...he's a little boy ; ) and at the end of family council on Sundays we see who plays their song the best. I lost last Sunday, but he cheers me up by saying that he still loves me even though he'll beat me next week too...

And I think...it'll be Me, Not YOU! Isn't that how it goes? Oh, not really..You, Not Them ; ) Try it, it really works!!