Do you teach SM to your children daily?

Hi. joy mum!
Welcome!

joy mum wrote: Hi everyone,

I am a newbie to this forum, and hope to learn from Hellene and Manda, as well as other veteran parents in the music world.

I just have 2 questions which I hope you could help me with:

1. Do you do SM with your children daily?

It i up to you! Soft Mozart is like Montessori material. It works between 'sessions'. I am experiencing this phenomena again: after summer break non of my students lost any skills. In contrary, they play and read music even better then at the school year end. I think, smart learning ought to be this way, because it is based on established skills and abilities.

So, just listen to your heart and... share your experience on this forum. Especially keep track of the numbers. By them we'll be able to help you to decide, how many times is most effective for our kids to practice!

Is it at your request or your child's request?

Good question! I would set once a week as 'day for tests and rewards', when kids will show me, how much the learned so far (if kids are 6+ yar old). With younger kids I would do 5-10 minutes sessions here and there to build their attention span first (our software is a great stimulator for that)

I am unsure if I should be more disciplined and set a fixed time daily for SM with my daughter (she is 4 years old), or I should just continue what I am currently doing, which is to let her decide when she wants to play SM?

I would do combination of two. 4-year-old kids needs to learn discipline and appreciate that. Try to be a 'leader' and 'guide' during her learning experience. To make piano learning a routine pretend that it is like... brushing teeth every morning. Teeth has to be clean and we use our parents authority and time for doing that. If kids would decide to do it after every meal... well... good for them!

I am worried that if I set a fixed timetable, she may feel like its a chore, instead of enjoying the session.

If you will monitor her success in exact figures and let her know that she beat her last score, the chore will turn into successful learning.

2. My daughter is a bit of a perfectionist in that she likes to do things she knows she can do well, but is more reserved in trying new things, as she doesn't like to make mistakes. Does any other parents have kids who are like that also, and if so, how did you manage to draw him/her into trying new songs on SM?

I pay them twice as much for new piece ( I use 'music money, you know )

So far, she has played Ode to Joy and Three Blind Mice, which I was happy with,

Wow!!!

as we do not play SM daily. I try to get her to play other songs, but she is reluctant to try something new. Suggestions would be most welcome!

Thanks

I wish to know more about your daughter progress. Can you record playing at least one song to see her progress? You may record just her hands. It would help me to choose the best strategy for her development!

Joy mum, we do try our very best to play softmozart every day. Now our lives are very full here but music education is very important to me, so although a week or I suppose even a month may go by with no piano playing, we do still aim for daily playing.
How long they play for is far less important to me. I am perfectly happy with one attempt at a song of their choice. This may seem strange to some parents but my goals may be a little different to others. I want all of us to be able to play piano and enjoy music. I am not aiming for any of my children ( or myself) to be concert pianists. Already it is clear to me that this is not a career my kids would choose. As such we are a little flexible in practice schedules. They have years of wonderful, joyful piano learning ahead of them and will clearly all be adults who can walk up to a piano and bang out an acceptable fun tune.
I also find that by focussing on daily practice we actually get more overall piano time, even if the sessions are quite short. It is so easy to let a week slip by with no playing. Progress is made through practice. Plain and simple.
As 4 of us play here the fact that one of us starts to practice draws in the rest...a que at our piano is common!

Usually it's an equal mix of my kids deciding to practice and me insisting they practice. In this house if I say I want to hear that piano my kids know it isn't negotiable. I do think that is important to work towards. As in teh long run, practice gets more important. I always support their lessons, I am always close by or next to them to help. Truly they need that support to remain enthusiastic. Keeping it fun for the first few years is important. You don't want them to hate piano before they get good at it.
They all like to know their scores are improving and all find that very motivating. Often they will continue to practice just to beat their best score.
Hope that helps.