Let's Write A New Book!

Oh and dont assume I spelt it right, I didnt use spell check and I dont spell as well as my 8 year old

Mandabplus3 wrote: Let’s start teaching baby at home. All by ourselves. Hooray!...

If you got the ‘Soft Mozart’ program, it means, that you already started believing that it is possible. All is left is to make it happen! The first step is the most difficult, because what we afraid the most is to mess up something. Please, no worries! With our program to mess something up is quite difficult. In fact, it is impossible indeed.

THANK YOU!!!!
Now I am inspired to keep going!!!!

For a small child mom – is someone nurturing and taking care of, and a teacher – is someone, who is giving instructions. This is why you can play up and show off with parents and to be shy, intimidated but cooperative with a teacher. This is where all the problems of the home schooling come from and sometimes it is way too overwhelming for the parents.

Do not be afraid! Merely try to remember simple rules:

1. Make the impersonation into a teacher and a student a ‘ritual’. For instance, change clothes ‘for school’ or place in your home ‘to enter to our classroom’. You also may buy a little bell and make it as a signal for starting the class. It would be also very helpful to ask your baby to wash his/her hands and comb his/her hair ‘for the classes.’

2. Change the tone of your communication. Now you are a Teacher. Please, forget all these nice nicknames for a while. О ласковых прозвищах надо забыть на некоторое время. Treat your child with respect, but do not be harsh.

3. Try do not ask: would you like to play with cards? Just give your student an option to choose. Offer nor more than 2 choices! But the best way is to simply captivate your child’s interest with your own enthusiasm. ‘Music cards – wow! It is so cool! Would you like to play?’

4. Use specific levers of encouragement. If ‘ you are great!’ – let it be a sticker or color figure from construction paper. Always try to find an unexpected opportunity for the encouraging. For example, your child calmed down and got focused. You give him a ‘present’ and abruptly say: wow! You’ve got concentration! Give the presents for anything: when child stopped talking, became perceptive, stopped wiggling, played one note correctly.

This process should be like crocheting or knitting needles: ANY positive moment should be used as a an eyelet for the future growth.

4. Always finish your lessons BEFORE your child got tired and Всегда заканчивайте занятия ДО ТОГО, как ребенок устал и preferably at the most exciting moment.

5. Do not be afraid of stamping on one place. In teaching young children the most important goal is not the result of learning, but maintenance of the desire to learn.

6. If your child is preoccupied with something and doesn’t want to start the class, try to win his attention with your colorful ‘flags’ or ‘presents’ that he can earn after getting the certain amount of ‘flags’.

7. If this is not helping either, get yourself to the instrument , learn a piece and give yourself a ‘flag’. Don’t give your spot up to your child immediately after requesting, if asked. You have to send him/her a message that classes and ‘flags’ for them are the most fun, valuable and precious for both of you. Teach your child to value your time too and experience too.

When you are about to end your session, say: ‘Now we are mom and daughter/son again! Let’s count our trophies and convert them into real presents! What to use for the present is up to you.

I use saying that all the ineffective methods in teaching music are very creative in different approaches and all the most effective are very similar. It happens because effective methods are all limited by boundaries of common sense.

Another important point is that emphasis on ‘personal approach’ in learning basic skill is nothing else, but indication of the weakness. You can listen to such statements here and there from some enthusiastic piano teachers: ‘each child is an INDIVIDUAL and I use my own (secret, trade, unique) approach to find a KEY to open the talent… Let me disappoint you.

As very beginners in learning any skill from learning letters of Alphabet, learning how to swim or play piano we are all the same. Most of us have 2 eyes, 2 hands, 10 fingers, 2 legs, can see as most human see and can hear as most human as well. So, don’t buy the sentence about uniqueness of your child or yourself and (as unflattering as it sounds for you) take it with the grain of criticism.

I am not saying that one and each of you are not an individual! I am saying that teaching basic skills are based on very simple rules: from simple to advanced, from concrete to abstract.

Some of my readers are waiting for me to describe the particular lessons in this book, but I am trying to avoid personal peculiarities. But in this field - in the pace of learning - each of us an individual! This paradox we have to understand very clearly!

In learning music sometimes 3-year-old toddler may have faster pace then 7-year-old student. But it doesn't mean absolutely anything! I know some famous musicians who were slow starters.

I do not think it would be right to compare the results of your child’s music learning with others. This is why our program makes you compete with yourself only.

Another point to ponder is that instructions should be plain and simple.

This is why I am not going to describe mine lessons, one by one, but will try to present the information in more general manner.

Games that are not… games!

I would not call all of the Soft Mozart games ‘games’. They are programmed upon an advanced algorithm that registers your every move and gives you a different route based on your performance. If you are making more and more mistakes the software not just slows down ‘till the complete stop and gives you more and more hints, but also change its progression. It would keep you on the levels that you fail as much as needed for understanding. But if you ‘got it’ and make no or almost no mishaps, the game will push you as hard as you can handle.

In the process of playing such ‘games’ the program not only developing your music aptitude on brain subcortex , but also music vision – that is the ability to focus on small objects and shift eye focus from one similar looking object to another.

In the process of ‘playing’ such ‘games’ the first complex skills are getting built: fine motor skills are getting developed in conjunction with hearing and eye-sight. We use computer keyboard keys as a prototype of piano keys that makes future challenges more gradual and smooth.

In order to make the game fully and effectively functional and beneficial for you, please pay great deal of attention to them and… be very cautious. They are very intense. I had many music educators during their Soft Mozart training sessions, who were literally groaning trying to beat the games and facing a lot of sudden challenges. Some even were happy to be smokers maybe first time in their lives (having ‘excuses’ to take a break and let their minds to cool off was nice then).

So here: with the very young beginners the ‘games’ should be started as a ‘medicine for brain’ – in small and strict doses. Take one game and work on it during an entire month for 1 – maximum 3 minutes of the GAME TIME. Watch what duration is the most comfortable for your child and stick with it for a month ahead. During your next session stop the game by pressing F1, when the same time is being expired regardless of the game progression, even if the ‘coins’ didn’t fell into the chest. Write the score down and compare the results. Keeping track of the progress is absolutely necessary! The positive results are the indication of your child progress in many fields, including attention span and focus endurance (I am not mentioning music development).

It is better to have short session many times than once, but long. If your child doesn’t like to play our game, it means that the measurement that you prepare for him/her has to be adjusted. There are certain parameters that have to be considered:

1. Time. Session can’t be too long or too short. Watch your child and stop the game before your child start wondering around. Even if the game time was just couple of seconds! This is the child’s ‘starting point’. We’ll build from there

2. Goal. The goal of each game is to get more ‘coins’ for the same amount of time. Show your child your appreciation when the goal is being reached! They quickly ‘get’ the math and will look for the figures in future.

3. Mistakes and spider are our friends. Explain your child from the start that our spider is our friend. If we lose, he’ll get some fruits for his family at the start. But build ‘competition spirit’ with spider any way!