Posted by Rebecca in VA on 7:13 Sep 14
In Reply to: My children don't forget things; however, they need practice using them in more and more sophisticated ways.... posted by Rebecca in VA
in an eerie way and need much less practice. My children are like that in music. My son was composing pieces on his tiny violin at the age of three that were just beautiful. He can still sit down at the piano now at age 16 and make up gorgeous, imaginative pieces. He doesn't know how he does it -- the music just comes to him. My daughter earned two superior ratings at Level 5 at last spring's piano festival, and her teacher immediately advanced her three levels. She hit the ground running and is playing at Level 8 with no problems at all. Neither child has ever spent much time practicing beyond the required 30-45 minutes/day, and they're not especially serious about music.
I don't know how they do it. I just think they're truly gifted in the music realm. So my previous comments about incremental progress don't apply quite so much to their particular situations. However, my daughter (my son hasn't taken lessons for several years) does get many, many pieces assigned to her. She just flies through them at a faster rate.
My kids do very well in school -- they're very competent in their schoolwork and don't have any academic difficulties -- but they're not highly motivated overachievers who are setting the world on fire. I think they're "smart" (remember this conversation from last year?) but not "gifted" in that realm. So maybe there's a continuum that goes:
Typical student (needs repetition, incremental progress); then
Smarter student (doesn't need repetition but needs to carefully cover all material making incremental progress); then
Even smarter student (flies through material incrementally at a rapid rate); then
Truly gifted beyond any doubt student ("knows" material instinctively and can use it independently and with ease to the point that holding him back seems absurd).
Even on an accelerated board you can't class all students as uniformly gifted. Some students here are at the "Smarter Student" level and some are at the "Truly Gifted Beyond Any Doubt" level.
However, even with truly gifted students, you have to be sure they're not developing gaps or weaknesses.