Age is just a number. Even more so when it comes to little ones and music.
Little do I care, or better yet - I DO NOT CARE AT ALL about what people think of parents taking their toddlers to classical music concerts or art museums.
If music is your kid’s passion to the point that he’d rather watch a classical music show than Elmo, you just can’t go wrong with taking him to a classical music concert. He’s gonna love it!
If art is so important to your kid that he pulls a Claude Monet album off the bookshelf 3 to 4 times a day and begs you to see it with him, rest assured: he’ll get something out of a trip to an art museum.
And you know what else? No one knows better than you, his loving and caring parent, what your kid likes and what he is ready or not ready for anyway!
I am a teacher: by trade and at heart.
I do not impose.
I do not overwhelm.
I use my intuition.
And patience.
One needs quite a bit of both with a young kid, especially when introducing him/her to the wonderful world of music and art.
As you all know by now, on Saturday, December 4th mom and I took Troy to
Vienna Boys’ Choir Concert at the
Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.
None of us three cared one little bit about the funny looks and sarcastic vibes that people were sending our way in the parking garage elevator.
We did not care, but we did take notice.
The looks clearly read :“Look at this weirdo taking her baby to this concert! What a waste of money and time!” Someone asked with a grin on his face ” Did you have to pay full price for the baby too?”
As we approached the symphony hall, my heart started racing.
Could those vibes have kicked in after all?!
What if they don’t let Troy in?At all honesty, the concert ad said “Children 6 & up are welcome”.So by some quite unexplainable instinct, I picked up my 22-month old and held him up as high as I could (as if, by some miracle, sitting higher would make him look 6)!
Luckily, we had no problem getting in: in their usual manner, the
Meyerhoff ushers paid more attention to the tickets than the faces. The sure thing was that Troy was the youngest (and back on his own two feet) the shortest member of the audience that night!
The lobby was beautifully decorated for the holiday season. Piles of artificial snow around a blue ice rink, Nutcrackers of different sizes and shapes, toy trains and large spiky snowflakes hanging from the ceiling made it all look quite magic.
Our seats were in the middle of Row N (12th row).
As soon as we sat down a senior couple in front of us turned around, and gave Troy a much worried look. I bet both were nervous that he would ruin the concert for them!
Those of you who have read the review know how fabulous the concert was and what a great time everyone had.
At home my son has recently got a new nickname ”Hurricane Troy”.
He is a very active little boy. However, nobody would believe that looking at him at the concert.
He was just perfect the whole time. Switching back and forth from my mom’s lap to mine, he clapped to the boys and was very excited.
He was particularly fascinated with the way the conductor moved his arms, and at one point stood up on my lap and started “conducting” and kept "conducting" pretty much through the whole concert.
During the intermission people told me what a wonderful listener Troy was. The worried looks were gone and replaced by looks of sincere admiration.
People told me that they loved watching him.
I don’t know if there was ever a night in Troy’s life when he was more popular!!!
It seemed like every member of the audience was willing to know his name, praise him, smile at him, and shake his hand with a lot of warmth and approval.
We spent the rest of the intermission outside. I felt that Troy needed to get out and have some fresh air, to be ready for another 45 minutes of the concert.
The concert ended with a long standing ovation. I lifted Troy up and turning around, showed him all the people rising on all the tiers of the
Meyerhoff, clapping their hands off in utter delight and screaming
Bravi.
I could swear that for Troy it was
the moment of the evening!
All of a sudden, he realized how many people were actually there, around him enjoying the music together with him.
He never saw anything like that! He was surprised and excited, pointing to all the people around us. The fusion of clapping hands, screams, excitement and glowing faces was just like another show. Being able to share and experience the real triumph of music with Troy was wonderful.
As we were about to leave, the senior man from the once “troubled look” couple turned to Troy and said: “You did very good, son”.
Out in the lobby people kept coming up to me to say more wonderful things about Troy and that they had never seen a boy like that before. They kept asking me how old he was and if it was his first musical outing. I said that he was 22 months old and
oh no – it was not his first musical outing.
I guess by now, you get the idea: Troy made me very-very proud of him that night.
Remember in my review I called
Waldhansl (the Styrian clapping and stomping dance) "contagiously happy"? Just about how contagious it turned out to be we were to find out at home.
As soon as we got home, Troy started walking around with his knees half bent, just like the boys did in Waldhansl. Every once in a while, he still does it.
He had been pretending to conduct even before the concert. It has been a routine thing for him to do while watching Andre Rieu’s show.
Now, since the Vienna Boys’ Choir Concert, he has been "conducting" everything and everywhere!
Whenever he hears music.
He is pretty good at getting the right rhythm and tempo and has the happiest of faces and the biggest of smiles when he does his “conducting”.
Around the same time mom and I took Troy on his 3rd visit to BMA.
I guess you could call me an
artsy mom, but mind you, an artsy mom who knows when to start and when to stop.
Proportion is everything when you start your child on art.
Being a very powerful source of inspiration, art can also be quite overwhelming for a young and inexperienced viewer.
Therefore, here are some thoughts on a kid's art immersion.
No matter how much your kid loves art, you always have to be aware of him still being very young. A young kid is someone who is able to take the beauty in fully and whole-heartedly, and… get exhausted as fully and whole-heartedly within... minutes.
So you have to be smart and most unselfish here.
Your visit to an art museum with your kid should not last longer than 15-20 minutes.
Yes, you had to plan this trip around your kid’s sleeping and eating schedule.What else is new?
You had to drive.And pay for the parking. And for the tickets (not in our glorious city of Baltimore though – our art museums are free and open to the public!!!)
And
yes, because you want your toddler to love art, you
have to leave
that soon.
Simply tell yourself: I am here for my kid’s sake today. Only!
That said, follow your intuition. Don't be stingy!
Look at your kid’s face. Try to see what he/she likes. Tell him/her about this or that painting or sculpture in your own simple words. If he/she is not interested in a piece, do not be pushy – just move on.
We were one of the first BMA visitors that morning.
While checking our coats in, we noticed that several children’s strollers were available to borrow from the coat room.
So we got one and Troy was happy to hop right in.
This time Troy was excited to see this painting
and called it
Mama. .
I explained to Troy that the man is playing the cello, demonstrated how he would do it and even quietly (to the best of my ability) imitated the sound the cello would make.
Troy loved it and started “playing the cello” right away. The museum guards had a blast watching him, while he, loving all the attention, kept "playing".
I tried to show him other paintings in the room, but he would still stretch his neck from around the corner, peek at the Cellist painting, catch the guards' eye and “play” for them again.
Somehow music and art met and stuck together for Troy that morning. He definitely got a lot out of his 20-minute museum visit. Now to the instruments that he already “played” (the violin and the piano), he added a new one: the cello.
