Titus, 3yo and Juli, adult Progress Diary

So, we are just now going to be starting to learn piano as a family, but I wanted to start by saying where we are now.

I (Juli) played a bit of piano as a child in Russia, but then never continued when I moved to America. I kind of remember the different notes and have re-solidified that a bit through Little Musician, which I have been showing my son, but other than that, I don't really know much (and all the notes I do know are on the treble cleff, not the lower one (forgot its name:-).

My husband (J) has never played piano.

My son, TJ, loves loves loves music and can actually clap to a beat at 19months. He loves picking up nay instruments we have around the house, form a baby guitar, to a beating on a drumset, to playing the keyboard when I turn it on (he will press individual keys as opposed to just banging, but not in any particular order yet). He breaks into dance whenver any music is turned on in the house:-) He has inspired us all to take music education more seriously and learn with him:-)

I just wanted to share my son's enthusiasm for the piano! We have not tried to purposely teach him anything yet (at most we have watched lots of Little Musician). But, whenever he gets near it, he just has so much fun:-)

OK, so we got Soft Mozart in the mail. There is a lot to read and a lot to digest, and I am not entirely sure how to get started. Found this though: www.softmozart.com/teaching/how-to-get-s...it-for-yourself.html (thanks forum members!) and also, on Hellene's blog, found the book she is writing and actually reading through some of that is helping too.

I also added home-made stickers (from the downloadable guide I bought) to the piano (I also made circles around them with colors from Little Musician, so it is more of a continuation for TJ. TJ is loving the stickers and even though we have not done much, I did notice just from them being on there, he pays more attention to what he is hitting.

I am not sure how to get in contact with teachers here and I saw that Hellene is on skype sometimes. How do I set up something? Are others on skype as well?

I am ok following things for myself and my hubby, but I am not sure how to go about this with TJ.

Here is a video of TJ enjoying the new stickers:

Ok, havn't had much computer time last week or so, and lots going on, but even with everything, we did manage to get some progress with starting Soft Mozart. I printed out the flashcards and put them along the wall in the hallway, so we "sing" them on our way to bed and on our way to the kitchen (that way, up and down).

I also imported the flashcards sonya post made for Little Reader, and have been showing TJ those, and also replaced the Little Musician symbols with the symbols Sonya post shared that incorporate the LM colors with SM symbols.

We also have been going downstairs and trying on the keyboard to name notes. I will play five notes and ask for their names (he is still just copying words I say, but I always pause in case he wants to answer, and he can sometimes guess Do or Mi, but not others). Then, I let him hit five notes and I say them quick as I can. He thinks this is funny, but will sometimes just try to hit many notes at once.

I am personally making my way through Hellene's book. I am super busy though and have gotten only a quarter of the way through. I have also been practicing the Hannon stretch exercise, and have played a few of the SM games just to try them out.

We did try the Guess Key module with TJ today and he did ok when I had my hand on his just making him pause to listen, then he would move his finger to the right key, but if I just let go of his hand entirely, he would just bang with both hands without pausing to listen or look at the screen, but towards the end, he was understanding that we are trying to hit one key at a time, and that we are looking for specific keys.

I had fun playing the note duration game, though I noticed a weird anomaly, though I may be mistaken, but seems if I get several wrong, the whole program slows down, but since this is a duration game, this is confusing to me, as what used to take two beats now takes four until I get it right a few times, then it is back to two beats.

Anywho, those are my thoughts for tonight. I will take some videos and write down actual results in the next few days.