A big hit, a big big hit. Rose announced to me afterwards that she was learning so many new languages--English cursive, Hebrew script, and now music. She can now read quarter notes, half notes, and eighth notes. She's got numbers for each finger and can read when to play that finger on which hand.

We knew there would be no problem with practice, at least no problem getting her to it. The bigger problem is getting her to share the keyboard. I was pleased her teacher gave her Halloween songs, and Rose is having a dandy time learning them.

Rose taught her cousin everything she learned. She taught me. And we all know how much teaching helps reinforce learning.

I do have one confession to make--she's not a protégé. I just assumed she would be brilliant. Because she is rather brilliant at things related to memory and words, so I've gotten in the embarrassing habit of assuming that everything she touches turns to gold. Not the piano keys. She stumbles and plods and backtracks and occasionally takes a really bad tumble. Just like any other kid. However, in addition to being quite quick in some areas of her life, she is also a very hard worker. I've seen it in the monkey bars and in jump rope, and I'm guessing she's going to get the same exciting results from just plugging away at the piano. And she's having fun which is what I really care about.