Today, after class, the moms, grandmas and I were hanging around and talking as the children ran back and forth in the large hall outside our little classroom. One mother was planning to take her three-year-old shopping for a birthday present for Daddy. Another mother mused that her four young children always buy Dad a present that they would like such as a matchbox car! This reminded me of my mother’s day experience.
I woke up on Mother’s Day morning, tired from being up with my seven-year-old. A nasty case of poison ivy on the face necessitated a steroid therapy which was giving him bad dreams. John tried to keep them quiet so I could sleep in, but by 8:30 everyone was in the bed with me. I was told to wait in bed (no argument there) until called out for the surprise. After being called, I sat in the place of honor at the dining room table where I was presented with a homemade “bouquet” of flowers made from creatively cut fruit on skewers. Clearly, this was the work of my 10-year-old. Next my 7-year-old pushed a stack of two books toward me. I recognized two of my cookbooks from my bookshelf. “Because you like to cook, Mommy,” he said as he put his homemade card on top. Then my five year old ran out of the room and returned with an unused holy water bottle which had been decoratively filled with crayons and corked up with something. Wax? No, a closer look revealed it was a piece of string cheese. Definitely made it himself and very proud of it as I ooohed and aaaahed. My 2-year-old? Nothing. She just wanted more of the chocolate-covered strawberries her sister had so painstakingly made and included in my arrangement.
One of the things I loved about my gifts this Mother’s Day is how they reflect the growth of the child. As the children grow, they become more capable of thinking from my point of view, thinking about what I would like. This indicates a use of the internal cortexes of the brain. Also, age and experience allow an older child to think more objectively, plan ahead, multi-task and problem-solve. This is why it is so important that children are introduced to music and faith throughout these growing years. As the children progress through the stages of objectivity, problem-solving, planning and brain growth, music and faith should be there. As my children have learned to give a gift throughout their life experiences in our family, they have grown in faith and in music throughout their entire lives. My 10-year-old could not have come up with such a thoughtful and well-thought-out gift if this had been her first exposure to the concept of gifting or her first attempt at gift-giving. Nor could I expect her to learn to play the piano well at age 10 without early exposure to music. Could I expect my son to be prepared for First Communion next year without the opportunity to grow through these stages in his faith?
Do not consider the limitations of your child’s age as a reason not to explore music or faith. It just needs to be age-appropriate. This is what we do at Making Music Praying Twice. We show parents how to do faithful music in a totally age-appropriate way. One area of this that is tough for parents, is that very young children don’t always express what they are learning. We help parents identify the subtle signs of musical growth and reassure them that trust in a child’s natural ability to learn is vital to all early childhood education. You may end up with nothing at first, or a string-cheese cork, but keep going and trusting and enjoying the journey. The chocolate-covered strawberries are so worth waiting for.
