Perseverance

Lil Miss N tends to be discouraged all too soon as exhibited in two incidents described henceforth : she was practising her violon when she slouched and played like a cricket croaking without any effort whatsoever, Petit Suisse made smart-alec* comments such as 'C'est nul, tu fais tout faux' and her reaction was to just give up and bawl her eyes out... all the while complaining that Je ne serai jamais capable de jouer au violon

the second involved her braiding woolen strings into a bracelet, she stumbled and made one or two consecutive mistake and decided that she had had enough and toss the unfinished bracelet into the garbage bin.

Shrek had one of those fortifying talks to Lil Miss N to iron out any self-doubts she might have been harbouring.

As a kid Shrek was not given opportunities to learn to play a musical instrument or have very many extra-curricular activities outside of school. Given that we do our best to give our kids exposure to and the opportunity to learn musical instruments the very least is to give it their best shot and persevere. Practice and effort makes perfect although we are not in any way aiming for perfection, I do aim to give them a well-rounded education with music, literature, scientific discoveries and philosophy. They can then decide what they want to do with all that knowledge and know-how but the most important lesson Shrek and I want to instil into our kids is 'perseverance'. Perseverance is a virtue unto itself but more than being virtuous it is a dogged approach to life that can 'keep them moving forward' borrowed from the 'Robinsons'