Homeschooler

Hi, I recently started to homeschool my 8 yo daughter who has been taking piano lessons since she was 4.5. The way it was taught at the beginning was really good as it was more kinesthetic and more holistic. Overtime, the teachings became too mechanical, my daughter was losing interest and stopped wanting to practice at home. Just wondering who had this experience? how are you progressing with Soft Mozart? What is your view on how music should be taught? I would love to connect with more homeschoolers.

Hi,
I used to be a homescholer and loved it, but now my girls are in school first and second grade as I had to return to work.
I also have a little one at home staying with my mother while I am at work. I really do not like public schools
But we still go on with piano lessons at home as much as we can in a home school style.

We too have times when they lose interest and then they like it again for a while and the they loose interest again....
What we did and worked and I can recommend is:
1. For all the chores they do, including piano, they get a certain amount of minutes that they can use to watch cartoons/movies or do a computer game. They could also choose other activities they like, but almost 100% of the time they choose screen time. For example for doing a piano game 10-15 min and playing a song double the times their age, they get 30 mins.
2. Over the time we have bought a blockflote and first I started to learn how to play it in order to display how learning piano can also help you progress in playing other instruments as well. After the blockflote we tried a violin which we boroughed from a friend and now we just bought 2 guitars (for the two girls) and we experiment on them. These are somehow making us use more time for music in our home. For example while the little 3 yr old plays "Hot Cross Buns" my oldest plays the same notes or chords on the guitar.

Hope this gave you a few ideas. And as for me I hope I can also find more ideas for my kids as well.

Best Regards,
Adeline

Thank you Adeline. Are you following the lesson plans from soft Mozart?
Cindy

Hi,

Andreea said it really well. Maybe my post sounded more discouraging because i said how we motivated our kids sometimes.
I am sorry about this, but as Andreea also said: we had a very active life and our family went through a lot of situations where we had to adapt to very different schedules. I know it easn't easy for us and it wasn't easy for our kids either.
But soft Mozart has always been with us. And this is the best part about it that it adapts to our needs and we alwasy found ways to make it work through the past 5 yrs.
None of us are mussically inclined so I had to follow Hellen's teaching plan. By doing this I always stood by the girls taking turns in playing and singing. This way I can also read music.
When i returned to work as my time is so little now, the girls are doing it all on their own and i am amazed how well they sefl teach them selves. My 9yr old also teaches her 3yr old brother and it is priceless. That is why this year they pick out the songs themselves and just go at their own pace. But even the 3yr old knows how well he is doing by the simple graphic of SM.
So far this has worked out for us just great. Hope it does for you too.

I have reccomended SM to all our friends, but because parent's work they do not see them selves able to teach their kids.
I am so thankfull i had a few years at home with my kids to get them started.
And I appreciate what you and Andreea are doing.