Monday's Question Of The Day - June 11, 2018

[MoochNNoodles]

Did you take extracurricular lessons when you were a kid?


I took several years of dance (not something I'm good at! ), flute lessons, one summer of swim lessons and one sewing class. I love to be in the water but my swim lessons were just to learn to swim for fun. I never wanted to swim competitively. I gave up dance to take the flute lessons but those were at school until I took a couple years of private lessons in middle school.

 

[micknsnicks2mom]

i took some ballet lessons as well as piano lessons, both briefly -- those are not areas in which my abilities lie.

i learned to swim as a young child, in the creek that ran along one side of the property.

 

[Draco]

I did Banjo for a year or so. I stopped when my instructor moved and we couldn't find a 5-string banjo teacher.
I did horseback riding for a few years.

my mom also enrolled me in a few art classes just for the fun of it.

 

[Katie M]

I briefly had ballet, swimming, and flute . . . not all at the same time

 

[Columbine]

I had dance lessons (ballet, tap and modern) from (I think) ages 5-10, piano briefly aged 8-10 (hated the teacher so never got far), classical guitar from 10-11, horse riding from 10-18, recorders from 12-18 (and beyond), baroque flute 14/15-18 (and beyond), shawm from 15-17, piano again from 12/13-18, voice/singing from 14-17, practial musicianship from 13-18 (and beyond)...and I think that's the lot! Oh, and sewing from 14-15.

The huge focus on music is because I later went to music college, majoring in recorders/early music Musicianship was part of the junior college (Saturday classes up to 18, entry by audition only) and was compulsory (and continued as compulsory into the BA course), piano was just a given (in that setting, the assumption is that everyone can play piano a bit), and the singing was because the musicianship classes often included bits of singing. As I had zero confidence in that department, the lessons were just to help with confidence singing in front of a class

Swimming lessons were just part of the regular curriculum in my schools, along with other sports/p.e.

 

[betsygee]

My sister and I took ballet and piano. She stuck with ballet, and I kept up the piano lessons for several years. I took karate lessons as a teenager for awhile.

 

[bodester413]

I took swimming lessons in the summer from 5 years old to about.....I think I was 12 or 13 when I stopped. I took tennis lessons one summer too.

 

[cassiopea]

I took Karate, soccer, horseback riding, target shooting, theater and violin.

And of course swimming lessons!

I always wanted to do ballet as a kid, my genuine dream and passion, but my parents didn't want me to (They believed in all the bad annoying stereotypes) so it wasn't until I was able to pay for my own lessons as a preteen that I finally managed to do it. Thankfully however, once they have learned more about it, they are both incredibly supportive now.

Other dances included folk, some lyrical and belly dancing.

 

[MonaLyssa33]

I briefly took clarinet lessons, but then I just relied on learning at school from there.

 

[muffy]

I took Tap lessons for awhile.

 

[Mother Dragon]

My mother hopefully enrolled me in ballet and tap when I was about 5. It didn't last too long because I have no sense of rhythm and the flexibility of a chunk of granite.

The swimming lessons I took every summer were equally fruitless because I quickly fell out of the correct sequence of breathing and stroking. I could (and still can) float like a cork, though.

In 6th grade I started attending summer band schools every year.

When I was about 7 or 8 my mother optimistically enrolled me in ballroom dancing. The teachers thought we should learn to be comfortable in formal dance attire, so every week the boys wore suits and the girls wore frilly dresses, patent shoes, and white gloves. You can dress a pig up but it's still a pig and I still had no rhythm. The teachers despaired and I was eventually allowed to escape. I never did learn to dance and to this day wouldn't if I could.

I played clarinet, so I took private lessons for about a year from a guy who eventually played with the Houston Symphony. I could finger the notes and sort of manage the rhythm enough to be in the first section.

I think my mom eventually gave up on trying to make a graceful swan out of me. I'm a clumsy duckling to this day.

 

[Winchester]

Piano lessons for 14 years (started when I was 4 years old). When I was finally able to quit, I swore I would never, ever take piano lessons again. And I didn't. For 45 years. I will start taking lessons again at the beginning of July. I'm sure that will be interesting.

 

[aliceneko]

I was quite busy as a child. I did ballet, swimming and drama at the weekend as well as the Latin, knitting, gymnastics and arts and crafts clubs after school overtime. I was also in the local church choir and later joined my secondary school choir. Played the piano and the flute too.
I'd love to get back into music, knitting and ballet again at some point. I really miss ballet and the piano in particular!

 

[Kitty Mommy]

I took horseback riding lessons and participated in a local drill team for several years.

 

[raysmyheart]

I did not have lessons outside of school classes, however, the skills I learned from "hands-on" classes in my school such as typing, sewing, home economics and art have gone a long way in forming my thinking and abilities in other areas. I am ever grateful for these classes. I had a lot of interests as a kid, especially gymnastics, French and shortwave radio and I feel I actually fared better than if we had the money for lessons because I taught myself about these areas of interest through my own curiosity.

 

[Willowy]

I took all the Youth Sports available on the military base. It was baseball in spring, golf in summer, soccer in fall, basketball in winter. Not that I was very good at any of them, lol. Although I was reasonably good at golf. The bases we were on weren't big enough to have separate girl's and boy's teams so I was frequently the only girl on the team. And I went to day camp most summers; they had a variety of sports and activities.

I faintly remember swimming lessons when I was little, someone teaching a group of kids how to turn our heads and breathe. But my mom says I didn't take organized lessons. Maybe it was during day camp, idk.