Spackman Kids

We got Soft Mozart a few weeks ago but with my brother's wedding and Christmas we haven't put any serious practice yet. Yay for school starting on Monday.

I have three children that will be using Soft Mozart. Peter is 5.5. He is learning "Ten little Indians". His highest score is P3 36/40, T 80. Soft Mozart has been great for him- he is really motivated by the idea of getting a high score. Since I have had a hard time getting him excited about piano, this is a lifesaver.

Helen is 3.5. She is learning "Mary had a little Lamb". Her highest score so far is P3 55/63, T. 311. Let's just say that she loves to stop and smell the roses. She gets excited about seeing butterflies and spiders every time she practices, which is cute, but hardly conducive to fluency, lol. She was doing really well color-coded things I was doing with her before, so I'm thinking SM will be more of a supplemental thing for her. She loves it though, so I'm happy to have lots of options to keep things fun for her.

Patrick is 2, and he loves doing whatever his older siblings do. We haven't started learning an actual song yet, but he loves to play "Guess Key School" and laughs when he sees the leprechaun (is that what he is?) pop out with his basket. His highest score so far is 15 in 2:36.

Starting Monday they will be practicing every day.

Hello Tamsyn! Welcome to the forum
Yes I agree once school starts it is much easier to get into the routine HOWEVER here once school starts we are so busy, soft Mozart sometimes gets forgotten. it's a balance thing...I haven't aced it yet. :oops:
Peter is of to a flying start! Has he done some music reading and piano before with you? I noticed you chose P3, horizontal rather than vertical. The vertical presentation really helps tamale connections between notes on the staff and keys on the piano. If he has that already then fine but if not so much try P1 for a couple of months first.
Helen will enjoy the novelties like the butterflies and Mr Oops for a little while, but it won't be long before she gets the idea. My son often leaves the piano half way through a song ( yep with the timer ticking) to make himself a sandwich! He usually comes back and finishes it after wards! :lol: 311 is not an unusually long time for a beginner at that time. I have heard others get over 500 and we saw a number of 300's before he got the hang of it.
As I am sure you already know Patrick is learning through just being there and he will gain a lot from playing guess key. Some mums used physical objects in a bowl ( balls, cars) to count out the correct notes selected. Sometimes the game is a bit abstract for 2 year olds.
Can't wait to hear more

Yes, I have tried to teach Peter piano off and on for a couple of years now. P3 is better for my kids because they like to see what is coming next and how long they are supposed to hold the notes down. On P1 Peter and Helen were both frustrated and tended to play the note quickly several times before it was time for the next note. I'll start with P1 for Patrick and see how it goes, but because we are doing Little Musician every day too, I don't think we will stay there long.

So, I was all excited to start school and the last couple days have been sick days. :whistle: That's the way it goes. I scheduled a talent show for our local homeschoolers, so that will give my kids a recital opportunity and some good motivation for me to get them practicing.

Tamsyn wrote: So, I was all excited to start school and the last couple days have been sick days. :whistle: That's the way it goes. I scheduled a talent show for our local homeschoolers, so that will give my kids a recital opportunity and some good motivation for me to get them practicing.

What a great idea!

This is a video of my 2-year-old playing Hot-Cross-Buns and the Guess Key School game. I need to get a video of my 3 and 5-year-olds now.

One thing we have struggled with a little is that when they don't play the note long enough, they have to play it again to progress through the song. That's all fine except when they see that a note will be repeated a few times and they just go to town repeating the note over and over again. We're making progress with that, but I'm sure I'm not the only one that has struggled with that. My solution has been to tell them to hold the note down until they see a butterfly.

Nice job young man. We are always telling the kids to wait for the butterfly. They are all really good at pressing Do, Do, Do, Do endlessly. They do get past that. Now Philip is saying - Oh, what's up there" "Oh, that's a Re."

I noticed no stickers.... So, enquiring minds want to know how you get your kids to practice consistenly without giving you a hard time Mrs. Spackman.