I'm new.

duckens wrote: I have just had the pleasure of meeting Helene at a local homeschooling conference in Iowa.

Welcome to this growing community! There are many moms posting about their children learning to play with Soft Mozart. I have two boys, both of them one year younger than your daughters.

duckens wrote: I have just had the pleasure of meeting Helene at a local homeschooling conference in Iowa.

We are so lucky to have two beautiful daughters in our home:

Bugaboo is 6. She has been learning piano with a traditional piano program for two years under my limited teaching abilities. She is nearing the end of "My First Piano Adventures, Book B." She can read easy music, sometimes play with two hands simultaneously, identify all of the notes on the keyboard, identify many of the notes on the staff, recognize Mozart and Beethoven, and knows a limited amount of theory (dynamics, time signature, accents). She is a hard worker!!! I hope that SM will be a nice addition to our practice time.


Duckiedoo just turned 2.5. She has ALWAYS been musically motivated, by dancing to music in the environment, playing on the keyboard, preferring books I sing to her, and simply NOTICING music in the environment.I hope that SM will be a way to encourage her genuine musical interest beyond what I have done with her so far.

Taking into account each child is different and you daughters have their own background in music (congratulations for how you educate them, bu the way!) I am very interested also to see how they learn and react while using Soft Mozart. Every student sharing progress is teaching a lot to others in this forum.

duckens wrote: 1) Is there a specific starter curriculum for beginners of either child's age? I have seen "credit" requirements listed for Fall 2012 and Spring 2013. Is that a good place to start for dd6 in spite of the looming deadline? Or will there be new beginner criteria for the summer or fall?

There's a sample curriculum for young beginners in the Soft Mozart package ("1.0 Start HERE. 1 year lesson plan.pdf"). Write me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you have trouble viewing it.
We suggest following the Soft Mozart Academy credits, which is the curriculum to follow for steady progress and also receive recognition for each learning level. The credits are combined with free online guidance for each student. Piano teachers with great experience give individual advice for pieces to practice or other suggestions that will improve playing piano and technique.

Till May 31st we have the International Recital online. DD6 can join too! We have nice prizes . Here are the rules: https://softmozart.com/forum/62-international-soft-mozart-recital-2/10261-recital-rules.html#10261

After that, we have graduation followed by the summer curriculum (ear training, composing, transposing and writing music down). Then a new year of the Soft Mozart Academy begins and we'll have curriculum for each semester dedicated to different categories according to age and level (early learner beginners, 5 and up beginners, Level 1 graduates, Level 2 graduates).

duckens wrote: 2) When someone starts a personal log, do they keep that thread for all future postings, or does each new videoed accomplishment receive a new thread?

The usual place to post is in Progress Diaries: http://www.softmozart.com/forum/33-progress-diaries.html
All the posts with videos and images are in the same thread, except when it's mentioned otherwise. The graduation recital, for instance, as you read in the link above, is to be uploaded in a dedicated section.

Hope this helps.

PS: We've just uploaded the new User Manuals in PDF format:
softmozart.com/technical-specs/d...d-documentation.html

Andrea

Andrea, this is Laura. Laura, this is Andrea, she is the president of our PTO. She is from Romania. Laura is fromt he middle of nowhere, like me.

Now that you are officially connected, Laura promised to join the PTO ASAP.


Andrea, do the new CD's have the reformatted curriculum on it?

Laura, the curriculum is on the CD not in the forum. There should be a video on the the CD that says "Start Here" or something like that. I have an old copy and this is not my area of expertise.

Here a link to my dropbox with beginner files: It has the cards and some other things in it. I will leave this link active for a week or so. Hellene promised the cards free to those at the conference. I noticed they are not free in the store. Please download these ASAP. It also has the solfege wheel and a couple other things in it. dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/60668524/Sof...Beginner%20Files.zip

Laura, you are not going to use the curriculum. No one here does. For your two year old, I would start with the cards and guess key school so she can get used to the solfege symbols. Here is a link to power points with solfege scales. I would start with one scale and then move on. www.softmozart.com/forum/31-share-files/...ching-solfege-1.html

Be careful going to the downloads section, there is a ton of free stuff, it is easy to become paralyzed by the options. I would start with the cards and the power points for both girls and let them learn to sing solfege. And recognize the notes. For your six year old, I would also let her just play on Guess Key School a minute or two. The time should read between 60-120 on the right hand side. record that in a notebook. You need to also start a progress diary and post her scores there. Also, let her play Hot Cross Buns in setting one. If she does well, move to setting 3. Record her time and score and post it in her newly started progress diary. Someone will help you from there. Mostly likely multiple someones. LOL