Before Officially Starting

@mandabplus3 & @hellene, thank you for your replies - they are comforting! and yes, i wish you both lived closer!! i have kept my skype open since reading the replies!

i AM however, still beyond frustrated with this. if it weren't for the fact that i'm not typically a quitter, i think i would have quit LONG ago! luckily, i WAS able to get the new usb/midi cables to work with the keyboard - yay! it took less than 3 minutes. i was stunned, especially because i spent ALL of 3 days, maybe more, unsuccessfully trying to get the other ones to work. after properly connecting the keyboard, cable and computer, i then spent considerable time trying to get the "try now" demos to work, since i was blocked out of the program that i had installed on our home computer, since i don't have the usb key anymore *sigh*. the note duration game, which is all i think he's ready for at the moment, i couldn't get to work to save my life! i tried the other free demo, but there's definitely some steps missing in his training (he has none, although i have been trying now for 3 months to get it to work lol). he's not there yet with trying to play it properly :-/ so! today i tried to download the free demos (march 1 - 15 promo). STILL no luck on trying to get them to work on my computer. what is .rar file, anyway? why am i hitting so many walls. i'm not actually a tech dodo, but maybe after the two kids i am now *shrug*. anyway, some good news: he loves singing the free solfegio song ( www.softmozart.com/images/trynow/Music%2...2001%20Track%201.mp3 )

Queriquita,
To open .rar files you need to download this free program:
download.cnet.com/Free-RAR-Extract-Frog/...2250_4-10804840.html

oh, thank you all for keeping me encouraged! especially that comment about solfegio really helps!! i do this thing where i'll psych myself into thinking i'm so far behind and missing the boat on everything with him - it's insane! then i have to be logical and talk myself back to reality and realize that they're both happy kids and that they will be fine. but STILL, i DO guilt myself that i'm not getting the windows of opportunity at the right time :-/ lol the 'poor' kid is in SO much already, and i'm frustrated bc it's taken this long to get this going? maybe it's the fact that tonight i am adding guilt for having missed the spring soccer session registration and now he'll have to wait -gasp! - 6 months! or the fact that he'll be 3 in a few months and - eek! - i haven't been more disciplined with right brain activities or even ordered twiddlewink yet! lol in any event, i have the hope that 'maybe i'll get it "right" with my daughter, since she's only 9 months' haha
more good news - i got the demo version finally working tonight! YAY! so, no note duration or any of the other stuff, since i don't have my usb key anymore but at least we can FINALLY say we're going to be able to start

so, this means that i have some actual questions:
1) how are you introducing this to the routine for your wee ones?
2) are you doing it for 5, 10, 15 minutes daily/every other day/3x/day?
3) how are you doing it - right hand, then left or together?
4) did you just explain what the elf, flowers, and butterflies meant and the kids did it from there? (i feel like i'm missing some key steps to guide my child - and myself - to learn to play these songs)
5) is the curriculum the songs, itself, as in the order based on the back of the guide that came with the disc or is there an actual curriculum that ties in with the other 'games'? (thankfully i still have the case - not that the case does me much good without the disc haha - and the guide with my invoice)
6) what sort of progress are you getting from your kiddos? (i'm assuming this ties in with the first few questions)
7) what sort of emphasis are you giving (or do you suggest giving for a 2.5 yr old) re: hand positioning/placement/posture? (i keep thinking to ella's video from when she was 2.5 and how how fingers were doing such a great job! i question whether i'll be able to guide him to that step vs pecking the notes, which i'll take over hand-slamming the keys!)
as to respecting the keyboard vs allowing it to be a fun process: how are you handling this?? for example, my 9 month old LOVES music, it's so obvious already. she will stop whatever she's doing and turn her attention towards songs - head bop, body shake, and knee bounces to boot! she makes her way over to the keyboard and really gets a kick out of 'banging' on it, and the more i allow her to do this, the more i get the impression that she's really getting 'it' - some sense of what is going on and her highs from her lows. so, when do you phase this behavior out? is it 'fair' to expect more from my now 31 month old? yes, but how much more? there seems to be a joy from having it do anything, and so i don't want to strip him of that and take, along with it, the desire he also has for pecking out scales and finding where the notes are.

today i caught him doing two cute music related things. he was playing with his trains and instead of counting them, he was 'solfegio'ing them - up and down. the other thing was that on more than one occasion, without prompting, he excitedly approached the keyboard and announced that he knew where 'dodi's house' and 'carla' were, and correctly found the d and c notes on the various octaves. again, this is due to the fact that all we've had to go off of, aside from my random singing and a few lr parent-uploaded music files, is kinderbach, which gives each letter a named animal "carla the caterpillar, dodi the donkey", etc.

so, yes, silver lining

so looking forward to your answers and i'm so happy you guys are here, ready, willing and able to help! it makes a huge difference.