With love to The Beatles

February began with the dreaded PTA election. No one raised their hand, so we all looked down and waited trembling for the announcement, "Hey mom, please be an officer." I was prepared for the dreaded judging time. However, there were many applicants and the selection was peacefully decided by lottery. Everyone is proactive. Amazing. And the mothers have already formed friendly groups. I've had trouble communicating since I was a child, so starting from "alone" is the best part of spring. Spring is finally here.

The other day, I received a message that the school bag will be shipped on March 17th. Thinking back to a year ago, I received a request for a school bag like Nobita's. I had many discussions with my husband, a core fan of Doraemon, and Google Sensei about whether it should be navy or black, but in the end, I was told, "You can decide, mom." I thought, "Eh?", but I decided on it. It's a great color! If Nobita were to say, "That's the same as my school bag," I'd have to.

However, it's difficult to live like Nobita, who goes home and starts reading manga and taking a nap right away. I'd like him to do some after-school lessons so that he can use his time more meaningfully.

So far, I have taken two lessons: drum lessons and swimming lessons.
I think drum lessons are a minor extracurricular activity for a 6-year-old. Fascinated by a music program broadcast on NHK Educational TV, he became obsessed with foreign pop music. He's a cocky guy, even though he's Nobita. However, he can't even speak Japanese well, and English is impossible, so he sings strange lyrics (Question: What kind of song is "Same Belly, Michael Zone, Lalala Michael Zone"? *Answer at the end of the sentence)
I thought that Yamaha was the best music school for kids, so I went to a trial class, but the moment I got there, I was shocked when the teacher said, "This is not it," so loudly that I could hear her. When I asked her for more details, she said, "I want to play in a band with lots of instruments, like guitars and drums." I thought, "Is this really the kind of thing you would say at this age? Let's start a band..." but I did get that image in my mind and thought Yamaha was not the right place for me, so I tried drums, which have a simpler sound than guitars.

As a result, I quit after four months. It was too early.
I didn't follow the teacher's instructions and just played as I wanted. If you sing a song, it will take shape as you want, but to play an instrument, you need to practice. I don't think I understood that. I felt sorry for the teacher every time, so I decided to stop.

Even when I see him practicing writing, I think he may not be good at saying, "I'll try to do it the way the teacher tells me to." Even if he can form the characters, the order in which he writes them is a lawless zone. However, when I ask him, "Why do you write them in that order?", even my mother doesn't know.

Meanwhile, the pool lessons continue. Apparently she has mastered the crawl and quick turn. I'm attending with my mother, and she seems to have mastered the butterfly stroke. It's pretty scary when a 65-year-old approaches me from 25 meters away in the butterfly stroke. I'm determined to avoid going to the pool with my mother.

Aside from the digression, I think the reason why I continue to do this is because, of course, the teacher is good at teaching, but I also understand the teacher's instructions as an experience. I can simply experience, "If I move my body like this, I will float and move faster." I can follow the teacher's method because I can convince myself, and it will become a part of me.

However, once students enter school, there will be more things like "I don't know why, but it's the rules" like stroke order. I've been thinking lately that it would be nice to increase the number of things outside of school that are "there are no rules, so just do what you like."

Have you heard of the Musee du Havre? Roughly speaking, it is a way for children to copy famous paintings, but I tried this at home. The subject was "Vermeer/Girl with a Pearl Necklace," and I was allowed to draw freely, which is what I came up with.

The brushwork is so ferocious that even Van Gogh would be astonished.
The color is somewhat similar. The artist's particular preference was to make the blue a color similar to lapis lazuli.

My son has recently become obsessed with collecting stones (why do boys like to collect stones?), but all the ones he chooses are of a dull color. I would choose something clear and beautiful in color, like amethyst, which sounds mysterious just from the name.

Meanwhile, my son's collection

Lapis lazuli, fossil (ammonite), topaz, and missing front tooth

In the end it's not even a stone.

He told me that when he bought lapis lazuli, he didn't have blue paint in the past, so he carved lapis lazuli to get the color. That idea stayed with him, and it seems to have landed on that painting. To be honest, it's hard to call it a copy, but the spirit of Vermeer blue was perfectly imitated. Nobita, you're thinking about it quite a bit.

"Trying things freely" may help to extract and reveal what the person considers important.

So I think it's important to "try things the way you like" when taking lessons. At first, you're more likely to "want to try" than "want to learn," so it's natural that you won't follow the teacher's instructions. I think that once you've tried everything, your feelings will change to "want to learn."

So I think I should try the drums again. When I asked him if he wanted to try it, he said, "Next time, I want to try the guitar." It's still a long way until I can sing "Same Belly" in English. Until that day comes, I recommend trying the guitar or bass. Because Ob la di, ob-la-da, life goes on, bra La-la, how the life goes on.

Profile/Eriko Seki