One daunting part about teaching my own kid the piano is the consistency. When you have a private teacher, the weekly lesson is something concrete that you are committed to that forces you to keep up at least that part of your schedule. Since I'm the teacher - and I'm also the mom to more than my piano student child - carving out our lesson and practice times can be a challenge. We have a spot on our week devoted to a lesson, but of course, life happens and that time gets whittled away frequently by doctor's appointments, the flu and hysterical little brothers.
Our solution: have a snack. Some days we just can't devote a decent amount of time to a full-blown lesson or practice session, but that doesn't mean it has to be all or nothing. If we don't have time for a lesson but have five minutes here or there, I tell WonderGirl it's time for a lesson snack and we sit down to do a few drills on her latest song together. Or if I need to take care of something unencumbered for a few minutes, I tell her to have a practice snack and work on one piece (or piece of a piece). Scientists say it takes 21 days to form a habit, so a bit of piano every day - even a snack - helps contribute to turning WonderGirl into a piano junkie!
3 comments:
I have a hard time with lessons too. I usually aske my daughter to play me some music on the piano while I cook, then I'll ask her to play a piece from her book. I don't know about your wondergirl, but I get a whole concert, singing, music playing and then happy dance at the end!
I love the mental visual you've just given me! What a sweetie you've got there :)
Nice. And great wording to get her excited.
Post a Comment