Rockin' and Rollin' . . . or not!

Most of you know that we enrolled Sophia in her first "school" back in February. (See here for the story of her first day.) This May, they invited all the parents to their first Music Festival - a supposed demonstration by all the musically-talented children of what they had learned in the past few months! I must admit, the school has an extremely talented music teacher who is a gift to the youngsters, and as excited as they were pre-concert, things quickly changed once they had an audience!


(Of course, being that I am all American and punctual, we were among the first parents there! I must remember showing up 20 minutes late actually means right on time. Nearly 10 years, and I still haven't gotten the hang of that!)

Both the older and younger groups were quite lively, clapping, laughing and dancing around the garden!



But as soon as Sophia's group emerged, they sat in their chairs, stone-cold, no smiles cracked, no funny facial expressions, no clapping, no singing. Nothing. Stares. Four whole songs they sat there like that - these lively rambuctious creatures who normally won't sit still for 8 seconds much less 8 minutes. At one point they were given instruments, and again, they listlessly banged on them (still with stone-cold stares) while their teachers sang away happily (and a little embarrassed) to the songs!




Nevertheless, they received a huge applause from all of the in-love-with-their-two-year-old-parents, and of course the second they were done, they ran for their parents and watched another group perform.


And then ... suddenly, they all came to life! Jumping and dancing and shrieking - most likely making up for the eight torturous moments of silence they had endured earlier!


I suppose Sophia wanted to set the bar low so that if she cracks a smile in her next performance we'll see it as a grand improvement! Smart girl.