The children’s choir that Joy is a part of sang during the church services a couple of weeks ago. Joy sang all the words and did everything she was supposed to do. Someone even commented to her afterward, “I enjoyed watching you sing your heart out!” As she sang I couldn’t help but think that it didn’t seem so long ago that she was making a spectacle of herself in the Christmas concert! That is one of my favorite stories about my children. I will have fun sharing it with her when she is grown.
Shortly after that “school” concert Joy sang in our church choir. It was only going to be two songs and not a whole hour of her standing on stage, but I was a little worried about her not cooperating. For the first song the directors handed out maracas for the kids to shake while they sang. This was perfect for my little girl who had a really hard time standing still. After the song the director went around with a box for each child to return their maraca. I saw the twinkle in my daughter’s eye. I knew she was up to something. I watched closely. When it was her turn to put the maraca in the box she smiled sweetly, put her hand in the box, and FAKED returning the maraca. Oh she was so proud of herself. With her other hand she held it behind her back and her face just beamed. This might have worked well for her had the next song not had motions. She didn’t know what to do then. She looked anxiously around and finally dropped the maraca on the floor! One of the directors had to go and pick it up.
Recently my little boy did not cooperate during his “school” concert. Is it always my kid? Ah well, children are an adventure. It is so fun to see them growing and maturing…and a little sad.
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“Be sure your sin will find you out.” (Somewhere in the book of Numbers.) She is always a jump ahead of everyone! I think I learned to be good mostly because that is the way it would always turn out for me.
These are always so fun to capture on video because inevitably there are some kids not into it, picking their nose, doing something funny. Aren’t these the ones that end up winning $$ on AFV??? I love to go back to my kids preschool productions and look at the video. Priceless!
Curious…Is that the kind of thing that you and your husband would discipline her for? Not really an incident that happened on accident and was then embarassing, but more so something she decided to do that was clearly not what she had been instructed to do. All families are different when it comes to stuff like this. Curious to what your parental response was.
@Jill Great question! I don’t remember exactly what we did this time, but I would say probably not. If this happened at home or in her classroom, we wouldn’t see it so much as disobedience as her playing a prank. We would laugh and say, “Okay great joke now put the maraca away.” Although we would see it differently on stage during church, the crowd didn’t phase her at all at that age.
how funny. She’s quite the character.
You are right…raising children is always an adventure, that’s for sure!
I remember when I was little, I always got caught for whatever I did wrong. I saw other people getting away with stuff, but I never did…
Always great to look back at these kind of experiences – not so funny when you are in the middle of it! A very LONG time ago when my 20 yr old daughter was 7 she was on a softball team. She was the most stubborn child and if you ever praised her or cheered her on she would do the opposite of what you were praising. One day she hit the ball and it was going to be a home run, everyone was cheering and excited. What did she do… she stopped about 3 feet from home and sat down and played in the dirt. I was mortified!!!!
Kids are too funny sometimes. I bet she will listen next time she is told to do something by the director 🙂
Nope, not just your kids. It is sometimes hard to realize that tho when they are the only one that day to do it.
I wouldn’t have punished her either, she already had her moment when she had to drop the macara.
She FAKE returned the maraca-haha. That is too cute!
To answer the “Is that the kind of thing that you and your husband would discipline her for?”, I think there are a lot of situational factors that would need evaluated by the parents. Such as: Her age, her attitude, and whether or not she was nervous. Sometimes people do things they normally would not do when they are nervous. Maybe she took it because she was not thinking clearly due to being nervous. All of these things would need evaluated by the parents, as they know the heart and mind of their children better than anyone else. If this were a problem that the child had and the parents have clearly instructed her not to lie and steal, then I think it should be dealt with in a way that the parents deem best.
Yes, I agree, lots of things to consider with regard to whether or not to discipline. However, I guess I asked because it has been something I’ve observed with homeschool parents, myself included, that use church activities as their tool and opportunity to gain socialization and instruction from someone other than themselves. Not a bad thing…Some definite benefits to that. But, having been involved in serving in those ministries and doing the same with my own kids, I’ve noticed that sometimes (not always, and not everybody) parents say they that is what they use it for, but don’t actively engage with what is going on with their child in those activities and with those instructors. My guess is that these children had practiced this particular performance a number of times for many weeks prior. They were no doubt well instructed what to do and when. Part of disciplining our children, in my opinion, is training them to take instruction not only from parents but from others in authority. And of course, it is a process, and is different with each child and personality. My personal thought…I think I would have had her apologize to the instructor. I don’t think she was embarrassed at all, so there was no real consequence or uncomfortable feeling to train her for next time. Just my opinion 🙂
That is great advice Jill. I really don’t remember what we did, but it would have been good to have her apologize.