Hi Cheri! I am not remembering a lot about the workshop presentations that I have heard at the moment, but I wanted to speak about your daughter's passions for just a moment. I wanted to tell you the short version of my story. I was a good student, but more interested in music and drama than other subjects.Smoakhouse wrote:I have been listening to many of Mr. Hazell's workshops over the last few weeks. They are great! I highly recommend you listen to them if you have not already. He gives lots of tips you can begin using immediately as well as many things to ponder.
As I reflect on what we have done in the past and how I want to change for the future, I'm not real sure how it works in real life. I'm thinking specifically about my 10th grade daughter. I guess I worry more about #2 because she is so different than me. #1 is more like me and more academic minded. I will have to change my approach to fit #2.
She is not particularly academic inclined, she love drama, dance and singing. But I think we can rule out Broadway.I'm perplexed on how to help her see how to use her passion for life and God. I try to point out her strengths as a people person. She is very good about making others feel comfortable and included. But it's hard to even get her to think about her future, let alone make goals. I thought having something to work toward would increase her motivation. She is very much a here and now person.
Mr. Hazell suggest that students should start focusing on the things they enjoy and are good at once they are in High School. But how do we keep up with the required English, Math & Sciences while leaving time for drama, dance & voice lessons? Not to mention performances & recitals. I want to be sure she has all the credits she needs to go to college which in TN means 4 years of math & 3 years of science. She struggles with these classes and they take a large bulk of her day. We are most definitely not finished by noon.I want to be sure she has time to develop her writing skills which would be beneficial in any type of performing art career. I'm also trying to be sure we cover life skills and bible study. All those things you wish you had known when you got married.
It just seems like so much to work in the next 3 years! I had planned to limit the number of extra curricular activities, but the more I have thought about it, those may be the very things she needs for her future career. Not more algebra. What is a mom to do......
Thanks for "listening". I think getting it on paper helps a lot. I would love to hear your thoughts.
Around my freshman year I got the idea to make a list of goals for myself and to really think big. I can't remember who told me to do that, but someone did. I kept the list for a long time and one of the goals was to earn our state's Academic Honors Diploma, while another goal was to have a lead role in one of the annual musicals. I had other goals, but I won't bore you with them all.
Well, I took the classes that I needed to take for the Honors Diploma - and made the grades needed, too. But I also worked with my counselor to figure out how to get my foreign language done in less time (taking one language for 3 years instead of 2 languages for 2 years each) and I even took a correspondence course over the summer one year to get a credit out of the way for something. Those credits allowed me more time for electives my senior year so that I could be the editor of the school newspaper, be in the advanced choir, swing choir, and have leading roles in the musicals, and also take "band" for my pom pom squad/dance team! I am sure I drove my parents just a little crazy with all of my activities! However, I had to learn how to manage it all before going to college and while I was still under the roof of my parents' home.
So, I took the math and science that I needed, but didn't do extra and I used my electives for the areas of study that I really had a passion for. I am glad that my parents gave me that freedom because they could see that God had placed that desire in me. I ended up getting academic and talent (music) scholarships for college and went as a voice performance major. In my sophomore year, I decided that I didn't just want to perform (where it was all about "me" and spending lots of hours in a practice room by myself), but I really wanted to work with other people, especially children, and eventually have a family. I chose to change my major to music education. I enjoyed teaching children in schools, but now over the last several years I have also learned how to lead worship, lead church choirs, and home educate my own children. God gives us talents (like musical ability) and also personality traits (like wanting to work with other people, or not), and it can be really cool to see how He keeps teaching us and showing us what we can do for Him with those abilities!
So, if your daughter wants to do some of these other things and you are helping her to get the academic studies completed each semester, God may have a plan for some of those other areas that one day will become clear to her. He may have need of her abilities in music or drama in the future. You never know and even if she doesn't become a professional, she may gain confidence and skills that help her in other areas of her life later down the road. The arts can play a huge role in teaching memorization skills, presentation skills, working with other, and communication. They can be fun, but they can also teach us many things. Yes, I lacked cooking and cleaning skills when I got married just days before turning 22 and never really had lived on my own, but I'm still working on lots of things!