u/Careful-Guidance4205

My son is 13 and recently switched piano teachers. His new teacher refuses to let him use his ear to learn pieces and insists that he learn everything from sheet music.

He has a significant difficulty with visual tracking. He loses his place on the staff, confuses notes that are close together, and sometimes has to reread the same measure several times.

What I don’t understand is that he can usually hear a piece once or twice and play it back from memory, including pieces he has never been taught. He can work out the notes by ear and generally only needs help with fingering, technique, and expression.

If he can hear a piece and reproduce it accurately without being shown how to play it, why is his teacher insisting that he learn it through a method that is particularly difficult for him? Is reading music really more important than actually being able to play?

My son plays 11U travel ball, which means from March through October we’re at the ballpark every weekend and usually two or three nights a week. Like everyone else, I drag my younger daughter along because, obviously, baseball is a family commitment.
The problem is she’s developed kind of a selfish attitude about it.

For example, she keeps asking if we could “sometimes do something she likes.” I told her we literally do. Sometimes we watch GameChanger on my phone while we’re driving to tournaments instead of talking about baseball.

She also insists that sitting in a folding chair for 11 hours while her brother plays two games and we stay to watch the older age groups “isn’t fun.” I bought her a second folding chair so she’d have options, but apparently that wasn’t what she meant.

Last weekend she asked if we could leave between games to go to a nearby science museum. I explained that if another family needs a guest player, my son has to be available, and besides, what if one of the coaches wants to discuss launch angle with me?

She’s also requested not eating concession stand nachos for three consecutive meals, occasionally stopping at parks that don’t have baseball fields, not being volunteered to keep the scorebook because “I’m eight,” and having one Saturday this summer where she doesn’t hear the phrase, “Watch your brother’s swing.”
Honestly, I don’t think she’s appreciating all the opportunities she’s getting. She can identify an infield fly before most adults. She knows the difference between USSSA and Perfect Game tournaments. She has ranked every gas station between here and Omaha based on the quality of the bathrooms. These are life skills.

The latest issue is that she brought a novel to the tournament and asked if she could stay in the car with the A/C for an hour instead of watching warmups. I said absolutely not because that’s not what families do. Families stand behind chain-link fences discussing batting orders.
Now she’s started sighing whenever I say, “Good news! We picked up another tournament.”

Any advice on how to get her attitude back where it should be? I don’t want her growing up thinking weekends are for her own hobbies and interests. I’d really like her to understand that her primary role in childhood is supporting her brother’s baseball career.