How Do You Babyproof A Violin?

Teaching a three-year-old to play the violin is hard. Teaching a three-year-old to play the violin while taking care of his soon-to-be-mobile little brother is even harder. Doing it all while sleep-deprived is nearly impossible. Like all little babies, Charlie seems to gravitate towards the things that are most dangerous and inappropriate for him to play with. This includes Joshua's 1/16th size violin and bow. Many practice sessions have only nearly missed calamity. Then at last week's lesson, a small disaster: Charlie finally got ahold of the violin. As is the routine of a mother, I was running late and juggling too many things with babe in arms. While I was busy taking the violin out of the case, trying to get Josh's wet shoes off, and keeping Charlie from grabbing the dog's face, Charlie saw his opportunity and triumphantly reached out and grabbed the little instrument right out of my hand. He threw it boldly onto the floor of the teacher's entryway. The chinrest popped off, but thankfully the wood didn't crack. Our wonderful teacher was able to fix everything good as new, and the lesson proceeded successfully, although Charlie kept making lunges towards the bow whenever he could.

I actually believe that Charlie is going to be the violinist of the family, long after Joshua has moved on to some other pursuit. In the spirit of the Suzuki mother-tongue approach, Charlie will have heard the songs and watched the techniques almost from day one of his life. Who knows what grows in these little acorns? As long as they find happiness, I'm sure it matters not.