Musings On My Kids

My son, B, has been spending his afternoon playing with the electronic keyboard I got for M, my husband, for his birthday a few years ago. B loves music; he started beatboxing when he was tiny, and he's frequently found humming recognizable music themes, particularly from video games. After a few hours of noodling around, B started playing something different. I glanced up at M and saw him notice this, as well. It was the Metroid theme, and he'd figured it out by ear, including the bass line.

I am, quite frankly, amazed and astonished. I always knew B had a "musical ear", but to be able to identify what the right notes are, not just of the treble line but also the bass line, to make it sound like what he heard in his head, is a musical talent. I'm not surprised, per se, since both M and I have backgrounds that are somewhat musical anyway, but I love that he has this gift.

I want to get him some music lessons, but I'm not sure where to start in order to preserve and nurture this gift rather than get him bogged down in the basics. He needs to know how to read and write music, which will entail at least some measure of tedium, but I want him to be able to enjoy his musical talent rather than be bored with the learning involved. I'm not sure how to do this.

But for now, I can just enjoy that my kids are immensely talented.

A is 16, and wants to be an engineer. He routinely gets all As (as does B, but in first grade, that's less of a challenge, especially as smart as he is... the challenge is to get him to focus his energy and intelligence into schoolwork). A is whip-smart, and surprisingly mature for his age. I have outside confirmation of that, as he's accepted by my friends in our small "chosen family" for himself, not just because he's my kid. As an aside, I am immensely grateful to my "family" because they've been very up-front about it when A has been unintentionally offensive, and help him to improve. "It takes a village" doesn't have to mean geographic location.

A wants to be an engineer. He's already taking Calculus and, again, getting good grades in it. He's enjoyable to be around (when he's not unintentionally offending someone, but I cut him some slack because he's 16... he hasn't really had the life experience to figure out what not to say and how not to say things) and good at both following directions and being a leader.

Both of the boys are thoughtful (relative to their ages) and creative, and I look forward to seeing what they come up with in the years to come.