Teaching Kids to Practice: 3 Things Parents Can Do…Today!
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Music lessons are an investment into your child’s future. The benefits of learning music and playing instruments will help your child succeed in all aspects of their lives. What is the number ONE reason kids stop music lessons? PRACTICE!!
How’s it going over there with your music students’ at home Practice? I’ve been doing this a long time and I know that there are always times during the course or music lessons when at home practice starts to fall by the wayside.
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The biggest “reason” is time management (also known as “we’ve been too busy“). Who are the biggest players in making sure practice is happening outside of lessons? PARENTS!!
Let’s formulate a plan TODAY to get your music student back on the track of making more progress in their weekly music lessons.
In my full time career as a professional private music educator for over 25 years I have taught hundreds of kids and parents how to achieve success in music lessons and how to successfully practice at home. It’s not a magic formula but it does require one piece of magic which I like to call “CONSISTENCY“.
The number one question I get from parents about lessons is “How much should he/she be practicing?” I expect from my beginning private students 15 minutes a day 5 – 6 days a week. That amounts to a MINIMUM of 1 HOUR a week of at home practice between lessons. 15 minutes seems like a long time to kids especially today when they have so many “fast” distractions. Starting with a 15 minute time block is achievable and helps kids to establish daily consistency. Think about the time and money “investment” you are making in lessons. An “investment” in lessons mean you should be seeing a return on your investment and in music lessons a “return” on the “investment” means steady forward progress, EVERY week so that the next “building block” of music can be put in place.
3 things you can Do today that will immediately IMprove your child’s at home practice routine
FIRST…
MAKE A SCHEDULE: Kids in music lessons are building new brain neural pathways when they learn music. To make these pathways “stick” so that they can continue to move forward they must be looking at their lesson materials everyday.
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Choose 1 or 2 days when you know that it’s not going to be a great day to get it in as your “OFF” days. This can vary each week or stay the same, it’s up to you! On school days, practice ideally should be as soon as possible after school. Practicing music is a TERRIFIC “brain break” from school work and will engage your child’s brain with high firing neurological activity which will help with attitude, focus and attention, finishing homework, reading and memorizing.
Keep a spare calendar set aside just for recording practice time if that is helpful for your child. Some kids really love to keep “track” as they go.
PRACTICE PITFALLS: *Avoid saving music practice until the last thing of the day – this is very unproductive. Try to schedule it as a “break” activity from other studying earlier in the day – you might really be surprised at how it improves other things.
Second…
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USE A TIMER!
Younger kids especially have a hard time with “TIME”. If you say “practice for 15 minutes” that is hard for them to understand. The best way to solve that problem is with the TIMER.
The “Practice Log Timer” in your student portal is a great tool to use because you can use the timer feature or enter the time manually. Using the Practice Log will also give you a running total and stats as you go. There’s no “so-so” guessing, your Student Portal Practice Log will keep track of it for you and all you have to do is log in and use it.
It’s really that EASY!! and Before you know it that 15 minutes is going to be turning into 20, 25, 30 minutes because it becomes “do-able!”
THIRD…
SET UP A REWARD SYSTEM!
