Our family progress diary

Madsen wrote: This will be the progress diary for my two daughters and myself in our Soft Mozart adventure (SM adventure does not sound right )

I agree! I think, learning experience is the right word for that!

My girls are 2.5 and almost 5 years old. So far they have only shown a little interest in playing, and although I try to encourage them I don't push the issue. Especially my older one can be quite stubborn, and if she feels forced to do something she will react strongly against it. On the other hand, if she puts her mind to something she can be quite persistent with it. I am hoping I can create that spark in her.

I think, your personal experience and 'money' or 'points' or 'butterflies' or little 'flags' from construction paper and little 'party favorites' that she can buy after collecting 10-15 of them would work!

My youngest daughter can not quite figure out the keys for any of the games yet. She has attempted to play alphabet game, note duration and guess key. Alphabet game worked well if I handled the keys for her and she just pointed on the screen where she wanted the pictures.

Madsen, I am impressed! Note Alphabet is very challenging game for kids of that age. Did you also work on cards with her? At the beginning toddlers intimidated a little, when game 'pushes' them. With cards they can do it on their own pace.

We only played for a short time, and I had to help her a lot, but I was actually a bit impressed with how she knew where to put them.

You are doing everything absolutely correct! 'With her' and even 'for her' in her presence. Make it like quality mother-daughter time. In a while, after feeling more confident, she will say: MEEE! - and will step in. I remember a Russian mom who started teaching her 2-year-old son to play piano. She sent a video for me, where she was literally holding both of his hands, when he played 'Hot Cross Buns'. In semester or two of this guy was featured as a 'prodigy' playing Beethoven and Bach (from our program,of cause )

The point is: make their start as pleasant and relaxing as possible. Reward them all the time for any little step that they make!

[/quoteThe note duration game was hard for her, she didn't get the idea at all, and I started to worry about the health of my space bar. [/quote]

Again, take her hand and gently play 'for her'. After that give her 'money'. This is extremely important game! It develops not just understanding of note durations, but also eye-hand coordination and how to shift eye focus alone with small object (essential skill for reading). Very important game for every toddler to play!

For the guess key game she tends to just ignore the computer. However, she likes to push the keys and say their name (they have stickers on them). I figure that is a good start for her.

It is really great that she says the notes' names. Sing them with her! It would develop her voice, hearing and will bring her to perfect pitch! Please, play the game with her no longer then 30 seconds - 1 minute this month!

I have tried to play little simple tunes on the piano, but she usually tells me to stop

You tried to play for her?

My older daughter gets the games and seems to like them. I often don't get her scores recorded as she likes to play alone (especially without her sister which usually means I have to take her out to distract her).

I think, your daughter is 'mature' enough (as much as girl at her age can be ) to stop the game by pressing F1 at, let's say, 5 minutes of the game time. Ask her to write the number in treasure chest in her little notebook (please, buy a notebook! no papers here and there! Keep it in one place! ) If next time number is greater - 5 'butterflies' or 'flags'.

Kids of this age like concrete motivation. They love to see their growth literally. 'Yesterday was 10 coins - today 15' works better for them.

I'd love an automatic recording of scores after 1, 5 or whatever minutes as I mentioned elsewhere. The few scores I did write down were on a loose piece of paper which I seem to have lost, so unfortunately I don't have any hard numbers to report (yes, I now have a little book dedicated to it!)

It is very important to build their self-esteem and discipline in learning. It will pay off in academic study.

Gentle piano: She is not terribly interested in playing

I would suggest to find more pictures and movies for her, where characters playing piano. 'To play piano is COOL!' - this message is very important to give our kids.

She likes listening to songs, and I got her to play a bit in the demo version, but now she says she wants one of the other games.

I think, the problem here is that you are learning 'Sarabanda' and she has to do 'Hot Cross Buns'. What do you think?

Guess key: This was her favorite games for a while. Funnily enough she would always complain after very short time (a minute or so, perhaps even less) that she didn't like it and didn't want to play anymore. I'd just say "that is fine, just stop then". But she didn't know how to stop the game and the fruit kept falling, so she kept collecting it. Once she gets a basket she gets excited and wants to keep going. She really likes the idea of helping the little gnome feeding his family and wonders how many baskets of fruit they need. It is very cute.I encouraged her to sing the note, which she ignored, but after a while she started doing it on her own.

Guess key is not easy 'game'. It also develop all necessary senses to develop her ears and hand-eye coordination. Your little story tells me that your daughter is having very good skill of focusing and keeping concentration. We have to develop that to make her a great student in future! So, let's add math to the game and ask her to keep track of points and time.

Alphabet school: She has played this game, but I can see we really need to play the do re mi songs with the flash cards more.

She doesn't need flash cards of First Level then! We'll go to them later, when it will be time for the notes recognition.

Note duration: This is the current favorite (started a few days ago). She LOVES when the notes have "tails" and she gets really excited when she gets one of those right. Unfortunately the game has a tendency of freezing randomly which kills the fun

What OS do you have?

Fruit lines: I felt she should wait with this one, but she saw me playing it and wanted to try too. The "fruit hint" works really well for her, she quickly discovered the connection between basket and fruit. It is funny, because to me it means absolutely nothing if it is an apple or a neutral ball that falls.

Yes, because you , most likely, rely on your music ear and she needs visual stimulation!

Madsen wrote: Now to myself: I have had less time/energy to practice than I had hoped for, but things are going forward (thank you scores for telling me that, because it really, really doesn't feel like I am getting anywhere at times!).

With Soft Mozart you will develop your skills between sessions subconsciously. You don't have to sit at the instrument for hours like with 'traditional' lessons. Most of the time 'practicing' with traditional lessons was dedicated to figuring out one note at a time. Soft Mozart is 'turning on' your skills. Remember how you were learning to ride a bicycle? 10 minutes here - ten minutes there and you are good.

I don't record scores consistently. First, I am disorganized (figure that with my lost sheet of paper...). Second, I am often distracted when I play (girls!).

Oh, these pieces of paper I am originally from Russia, Our students in schools had to keep note books and diaries. Everything was in the same place. Now, when I visit my mom, I love to look at these diaries and see, what I used to learn and what marks I had and what curriculum I followed... I think, it is great to keep everything in one place. This little habit is not hard to gain!

This is what I have worked on so far:

Sarabanda (classical dances)
7/18:
R3 105/108 - 35
L3 68/70 - 55

8/4
R3 107/108 - 19
L3 70/70 - 33
P3 169/178 - 163

By looking at this numbers I can say that only challenge that you have is to coordinate both hands. I would recommend you to vut shorter sections of the piece and practice to play with both hands with shorter segments. There is an instruction, how to do it in your help file (F1). Ask me, if you need my assistance on that!

Garden (musical pictures)
7/22
R3 169/178 - 76
R3 178/178 - 45
L3 100/100 - 66
P3 269/278 - 251

8/4
R3 177/178 - 47
L3 98/100 - 47
P3 274/278 - 155

WOW! It seems like I gave you correct level! I like your score! Awesome!

I have not practiced this one much. Left or right hand alone is quite doable, but when I put them together there is no ROOM for both hands!

Agree!

Sight reading:


Polovetizian dance
P5 113/119 - 152 (got ALL #'s wrong...)
S
P5 115/119 - 108

Let's do the following: open the piece for sight-reading. If you see sharps or flats at Treble and Bass clef, press number 4. If there are none of them, play pieces on P5. I will teach you later how to 'feel' different tonalities and play pieces remembering sharps and flats later. You have enough problems already! Take it easy!

Largo
P5 116/121 - 139

Amount of mistakes is ok. Timing a little over the line. Amount of time should be the same or less then amount of music notes.

Hey diddle diddle
R5 31/33 - 10
L5 22/24 - 7
P5 57/57 - 39

Perfect! A+

Hickory dickory duck
P5 52/54 - 50

A!!!

Alphabet song
P5 47/48 - 13

Great!

Ba ba black sheep
P5 42/44 -25

Great!

I have not gotten around to making the video yet, I know that would be useful.

Yes! But even by reading your posts I can say that your family is definitely progressing.