Expert Article - Music Education

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Community Expert: Music Education Ashley Boothe Ivers

Music and Being Productive!

So many good reasons exist for paving the pathway for children to study music. BEING PRODUCTIVE is just one of them. Today, we live in a world of instant everything. Working hard for something and then celebrating the harvest is so important to realizing potential. But the instantaneous nature of our lives is robbing many of the joy of working really hard for something important.

Children – really, everyone of us – need hard things to do everyday. In the days of the old family farms where every hand was so important to providing for the family and making the farm productive, providing good, hard work and valuable use of time came naturally. However, today’s cultural and societal norms make schedules and hard things difficult to orchestrate. That is just ONE of the reasons why we have chosen to make music study and lessons such an important part of Boothe Music and the extended Boothe family. Not only have those musical lessons, recitals, and experiences provided opportunities for our children to learn new skills, develop talents, and feel good about themselves, but they also have required family members to work hard for a certain amount of time – depending on their age and proficiency level — every day on preparing for their next lesson.

They had to learn to plan the use of their time around school, friends, fun, and practice. Now, I have never known a child who loves to practice every day. But I also have never heard a grown child say “Why did you make me learn to play the piano?” They never dive right in with passion and enthusiasm to practicing every day, but they are never sorry when they do.

Helping children through “hard things” requires parents to be actively involved. It requires fun challenges and lots of encouragement to “dig in” and “focus.” Parents must provide them the opportunity to feel really good about a successful practice period. Make use of the opportunity to show them how they improved from the beginning of the practice session to the end. Compliment them on their attitude and their determination. Celebrate! Now give yourself a moment to celebrate your parenting by considering the many ways that practicing an instrument provides skill and preparation for other areas of life.

and even showing them what songs to play next during pep band.

Josh had an instant impact on the band when he arrived. That first year, the marching band won the state championship in their division, and every year since they have placed top three in their division. The last two years they also were region champions. The jazz band and concert band also consistently qualify for the state festival. And Mr. Hurst is currently in his last year of a master’s degree at American Band College of Central Washington University

Cambri currently works as a dental assistant for Mapleton Family Dentistry. That was a certification she completed in high school through the MATC program. Since then, in between band staff positions, she has been happily working as a dental assistant for almost 4 years. She has plans to continue furthering her career in dentistry over the next decade and attend dental hygiene school to become a dental hygienist. She also loves photography and works on the side doing couples and brides.

When it comes to past-time fun, this couple really enjoys playing board games. A lot. No, more than that. It is a big part of who they are. Any chance they get they try to set up game nights with other people and they have a collection of over 200 board games! They also love going to Good Move Cafe in Provo where they plan 8 hour date nights (rarely happens) to eat food and play games from their game library. One day they would really like to visit Germany to visit Essen Spiel, one of the largest game conventions in the world.

Their preferred places to eat around town are HuHot and Olive Garden. Josh particularly loves getting spicy nuggets from Wendy’s, which his students know and use frequently for bribes (such as tardy excuses…). Olive Garden is where they go for special celebrations and date nights and they always order the fettuccine alfredo.

Who knew a game of musical chairs could be so charming? Spanish Fork is happy to have the Hurst family in the community and we hope their circle of chairs keeps expanding!

Photos by: Sarah Watson

Nominate a family to feature in our magazine! Email their name and contact info, and why we should feature them to: sffamily@mycommunityutah.com

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