Dovecote Academy - A Concert of Provision

Jun. 9, 2008 - A Concert of Provision

Spring. The season of year-end concerts and activities. It is one of the busiest times of the year, but also one of the most enjoyable.

The season began with a band concert, but not my daughter’s concert. Every year the military band that my trumpet player and I are part of joins the local high school in their year-end concert. Since the high school has only 1 band, it would be hard for them to put together a full concert on their own. So we play for half an hour, then they play for half an hour, then we do a couple of pieces together as a mass band. It is a fun evening. This year we brought our children along to enjoy the concert. When my 8 year-old saw the program she noticed that the high school band would be playing the theme from the Pink Panther. She was very excited about this, and when we joined our kids for the high school portion of the concert the first thing she did was to point that fact out to me. She excitedly waited for the piece, and relished every note when they played it. As one who loves Henry Mancini’s orchestrations, I relished that my daughter has an appreciation for good music.

As I listened I remembered the days of my own high school band concerts. I realized suddenly that I felt no pang of regret to be listening instead of playing. Before I joined the band almost 2 years ago whenever I attended a concert and heard a band play my enjoyment of the music was always tinged with regret and longing – a strong desire to be part of the band instead of merely listening to it. I was torn between wanting to go hear the music I love and not wanting to experience the pain of not being part of it. On this night I realized that feeling in the pit of my stomach was gone, erased by almost two years of making music in a band again!

I continued to listen and wondered how the music made my children feel. Did my oldest listen with an excitement because she is part of a band? Did the others listen with anticipation of when they, too, could be part of this wonderful experience? My son will be joining my oldest at the other high school in the fall, he in the grade 7 band and she in the grade 9 band. But my girls…we may not be living here by the time they are old enough for a band class. Will they have the same opportunity the older two have had?

While my nature would lead me to worry a little about this, my faith reminds me that it is not necessary. Time and time again over this past winter I have been filled with gratitude for the opportunity my daughter – and soon my son as well – has to learn an instrument and enjoy the band experience.

Eight or nine years ago, when we had first decided to home educate our children, I remember hearing some of the oppositions to homeschooling. Some of the more silly things were, “They won’t get to ride a school bus,” and “They won’t have a prom.” There are quite a few things that children educated at home miss, some more important than a bus ride. Things like science labs and sports teams. But as I thought about those things I realized that the only thing on that list that I could not get them outside of a traditional school was a band. I could enroll them on sports teams. I could do science experiments in my kitchen (many homeschoolers mummify chickens and dissect frogs!), but while I could give them private instrument lessons, I would be hard pressed to give them the band experience.

It was the only thing about home educating our children that made me sad. Music is in my blood, it runs deep in my husband’s family, and I knew that my children have it in their blood as well. But we believe home education is best for our children, so we made the sacrifice. In fact, I was so sure my children would miss out on the band experience, that I didn’t even look for an opportunity for them.

Until one day last spring, on a band trip, when I was talking with another home schooling parent in our band. Her son plays the flute and my daughter had been learning the flute. As we talked the band teacher from one of the high schools happened to overhear our conversation. She asked why don’t these two students join her band. There are some legalities involved between the school boards, but it was only her hearing our conversation and inviting the students to join her class that prompted me to investigate the possibility. It had never occurred to me before that this might be possible, and without that connection with the band teacher, it might not have been possible.

A few phone calls with my school board and the school principal and it was all set: Victoria would join the grade 8 band class at one of the local high schools. And while this was the one thing I had wished through the years that my children could do, I had assumed they could not. But it all happened in spite of me.

What I realized last spring was this. All those years ago when I had said that the only thing I was sorry my children would miss because we chose to home educate them was being in a band, God must have smiled. He knew even then that He would bring it about that my children would not miss out on even one thing of importance. Band was the one insurmountable thing that I sacrificed to keep my children at home. Yet God took my sacrifice and returned it to me in this wonderful opportunity for my children.

Over the years I have heard many reasons why parents think they could not home educate their children. Of all these reasons, not one has been an obstacle that can not be overcome with God’s help. What I have learned is that when we truly listen to God’s direction we may find ourselves going in a direction we had never considered before. We may even have thought it was impossible. But when we follow the direction God leads we don’t need to worry about the details. He has them all worked out before we even start. All we have to do is follow in obedience.

When I wonder where we’ll be when the girls reach the high school age, and if they’ll have an opportunity to join a band, I need only think of how God provided this for my oldest two, and I know He has it all in His hands.

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