Monday, January 13, 2020 by Bethany Coad | Uncategorized

Spring Recital Date is Sunday, May 3rd at 3:00 at Zion Lutheran Church. 

Save the date!! 

Saturday, November 23, 2019 by Bethany Coad | Uncategorized

NO lessons this week (25th-30th) due to Thanksgiving Break! 

Enjoy your Holiday! 

Saturday, October 5, 2019 by Bethany Coad | Uncategorized

5 Practice Tips for Busy Families

Fall is in the air, and with it comes a bluster of activity. Everything from soccer practice, volleyball, dance, mid-terms, piano lessons, Halloween and the overwhelming need to make soup. How do you balance all of these activities - plus usual chores and homework with music practice? Here are several tips designed to make your life easier while prioritizing a healthy practice routine.

1. Routine - our family lumps instrument practice with homework. When the kids come home from school, they get a snack, they do their homework and practice before anything else. Combining practice with the homework they already know they have to do makes it an easier transition to become a habit.

2. Prioritize - make instrument practice important! Our boys are obsessed with video games (what kid isn’t??), so setting the rule “no screen time until you’ve practiced” makes a great incentive for them to follow through with. Use the old reward system to teach them what’s priority and what is for fun. They might get the added benefit and find out that practice can be fun too!

3. Quality - setting time limits can be helpful for some kids, but can be limiting (see what I did there) to others. It's better to get a few good run throughs in a short amount of time, than to sit at the piano messing around and waiting for your time to run out. If they know they can accomplish their songs quickly and efficiently, they will be more encouraged to practice on their own. Then they will find out on their own that it's fun to play, and may play longer on their own!

4. Incentivize - reward system at its best! Come up with a goal - say, practice 4 days a week - and create a practice chart. At the end of four weeks, give them a small incentive. (Our studio does this with students, and found it to be very effective with some, but not others, so know your kid!) Clear goal-setting is a great thing for everyone, and helps kids to see that their practice actually pays off (maybe not in the “joy of playing” but it can lead to that. ;)

5. Encouragement - the parent can make or break practice time. There’s a line between setting healthy boundaries and being firm with practice time, and pushing so hard they get discouraged. Be involved in their music and encourage them, and praise them for the things they do well (even if it’s small!). They won't always be happy about it (homework isn’t always fun, but beneficial) but it's well worth the small struggles. Show them it's a priority to you too. If there's a conflict for a lesson, or a practice time, help them overcome the obstacle by finding time to make it up.

We have found these tips to work well for us, and for others, so if you’re stressed out by the amount of things you have to juggle, do not fear! Music CAN become a routine and a great influencer in your child’s life.

We’d love your feedback! Let us know what YOUR family does to make YOUR music.

Music for communication; music for community.

www.littlehillsmusic.com

Piano lessons, guitar lessons, violin lessons, voice lessons for the Saint Charles area.