PDF Last week my daughter announced that she was going to give a concert at the park. Ok, I thought, I’m just going to roll with this. She had put a couple of songs together and she planned that she would perform at the next park day. She asked my advice about how to get started and I suggested that she just take out her guitar and start playing; If people were interested, they’d listen and if not, she shouldn’t take it personally and to just regard it as practice. She seemed ok with the idea and began to plan her “set”.
When we got to the park, it was mobbed! We hadn’t realized that the public schools would be off that day and there were dozens of kids running all over the place. We got out of the car to go play and she left the guitar in the car, she hadn’t counted on so many people being there and was unsure about whether she wanted to follow through. Trying to give her the room to make more of her own decisions, I stayed silent. She played with her friends and met some new children, we had lunch and then she whispered to me, “Can I have the keys? I want to go get my guitar.”
She got her guitar and walked over to a picnic table that was just a little outside of the play area. She opened it, set up and began to strum. I stayed at my table so that I could stay out of her way and let her figure out what she wanted to do on her own. After a couple of minutes, she started to sing.
Her friends were already gathered around her (we have the most supportive group, ever!), but then an interesting thing happened; more children started coming over from the play area and sat down on the ground in front of her.
At this point, I decided to set the camera to video and record a little bit:
She was so good and so brave that I thought my heart would burst! After she was done the kids ran up to her and hugged her and told her what a good job she had done.
On the way home that day, she said, “Mom, I thought I was going to throw up, but in a good way. Do you know what I mean?”
I do indeed sweetheart. I do indeed.
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She was very brave and did an awesome job!
.-= Julie´s last blog ..Home =-.
What an awesome daughter you have.
Thank you Sara! I think so too.
Your daughter is indeed brave, and I really like the way you let her make up her own mind and simply be there for support.
I found your blog through the Foodie Blogroll and very glad too. I am adding it to favorites so I can come back and read more of your unschooling section.
Thanks again for sharing.
Christine
.-= Christine´s last blog ..Green Smoothie #2 =-.
Thanks so much for visiting! Sometimes it’s really hard to just let them find their way, but I’m getting better at it.
This is too cool. Awesome girl, awesome mom.
.-= Alicia @bethsix´s last blog ..Psychotic and Feral =-.
@Alicia @bethsix, Aw, thanks!
@Christine, I see that you’re using my fancy schmancy comment emailer!!
.-= Alicia @bethsix´s last blog ..Kyoot! =-.
oh how cool! she is so brave!! :biggrin:
.-= Holly Garza´s last blog ..Siraj Wahaj, Yasir Qadhi, Muhammad Alshareef, & Mohammad Faqih all at once =-.
@Holly Garza, She really was, Holly, I was so proud.