You've Really Got to be Kidding Me!!

UGH! Why does it cost so much to have well-rounded children?!

At the boys' latest well-visit, our pediatrician (whom we love dearly) strongly recommended that we look into Suzuki violin lessons to help keep the boys challenged. Mind you, this suggestion came after the boys told him he looked like Woodrow Wilson, recited half of the state capitals and a handful of chemical symbols, and accurately rattled off a few very simple addition problems that he posed for them. He kind of sat there on his spinny chair with his chin on the floor for a moment and when I sheepishly admitted that I wouldn't know what to do with them all day if we weren't learning something, he thoughtfully suggested a language or an instrument. Since we're kind of working on Spanish (to the best of my ability anyways, which I admit is pretty pathetic), music peaked my interest. I played the violin for quite some time, I'm quite familiar with the Suzuki method of instruction and its benefits on the young mind, and I'm going to be brutally honest here... there is just something flat out sexy about a man dressed up in a nice suit playing the violin!

So here I am... the boys are quietly napping while I peacefully sip a cup of maple sap coffee and research Suzuki violin lessons for 2 year olds. I about spit out an entire mouthful of coffee all over my computer screen when I see that the tuition for 10 months of toddler violin lessons will set us back nearly $2,000!!! Per kid! You've got to be fricking kidding me!! Realistically, how much is a 2 year old going to learn here? We are very well aware that by putting the boys in violin lessons at this age, we are not going to have musical prodigies on our hands by the end of the summer. Or ever. We just like the idea of introducing the boys to something new, of trying to spark that love of music and learning to play music, of having one more thing that the boys can work on (or more accurately "play" with) to keep their minds challenged and active and to momentarily keep them from trying to scale the refrigerator yet again. But $4,000?!?! Unless you are going to guarantee me that those little fingers are going to be banging out a piece of Mozart by the end of those 10 months, I'm going to tell you to go jump in a lake. A deep one.

But when I say that, I will be sad. A little piece of my heart will break. Again. Because I wish we could provide all of these wonderful life experiences for our boys. I wish we could have started French lessons at the French Institute of Bloomfield, but we can't afford $400 for 8 weeks worth of lessons, much less a few years worth. And as much as my family will tell us its not worth it, I desperately wish we could send the boys to preschool at Cranbrook... where they would balance their time between playing and learning, where they would study their French daily and sit down to eat healthy, home-made, family style lunches with their friends and teachers. But there is just no way we could even fathom affording the $6,000 yearly tuition for three half-days of preschool.... per kid. And apparently we can't afford to tap into their mighty brain power and their young love of music to teach them how to play the violin either.

So... I guess we'll just continue our "home-preschooling" as some of my friends like to call it and we'll have to settle for learning Spanish from the Curious George and Eric Carl books I picked up at Barnes and Noble while I continue to search for more affordable ways to expose the little tots to worldly experiences and/or quick ways to get rich. I'm not sure which option is more well worth my time as I'm afraid both are dead ends! However, if you would like to donate to the "Help Caleb and Matthew learn to play the violin" fund, please feel free to email me with the amount you'd like to contribute! In three years, I promise that at least one of them will be able play you a rousing rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to say thank you for your donation!