Because of our new military lifestyle, I have had to be a little creative about how to go about teaching piano again. I needed to be able to teach piano and not have to rely on Andrew being home to take care of the kids. His schedule is not nearly as flexible, plus there could be extended periods of time where he is gone. Teaching piano is important to me because it is a part of who I am. I love piano and I love teaching piano! So no matter what our situation, I always plan to teach, even if it is only a handful of students. With Emma and Samuel returning to parents day out a couple days a week, that opened up some free time for me. Because there are a lot of homeschool students in this area, I decided to reach out to the homeschool groups and offer daytime lessons. I now have seven students! This may not seem like a number to brag about, but I am super excited! I have missed teaching over the last several months and I am so thankful to return to it! At this stage in my life teaching just a handful of students is a blessing, and plenty to take on.

I wanted to share with you some exciting resources I have been using the last few weeks! I always love planning and getting ready for lessons. Sometimes taking on new students, particularly if they are transfer, can be a bit of a challenge at first. It takes time to discern and fill in any learning gaps they have so that lessons can become more flowing.

My studio set up is in our guest bedroom! I know it doesn’t sound ideal, but it is actually working out really well. Because our house is split level, I can have students enter through the garage where I have a sitting area for the parents and other siblings (it’s actually our play room), while I am teaching students in the bedroom. The lighting downstairs is not the best (buying brighter light bulbs is still on my to do list), so I invested in this really cool music light! I wasn’t sure about it when I ordered it from amazon, but it has turned out to be awesome! It has different levels of brightness, it can clip on or stand, and it’s chargeable. I love it!

One of the ways I am helping to motivate my students this year is by giving them a practice punch card. I discovered this on a website called wunderkeys! They have a lot of great resources that are free! The idea behind the punch card is like when you go to a business and they give you a punch card. At the end of all the punches you get something free. Well, when my students get to the end of their punches, by practicing each week, they get to choose a prize from my prize bag! 🙂 It’s so fun!

I am encouraging my students to visit https://www.classicsforkids.com/. This website will help supplement student’s learning of music history, composers, and different styles and genre of music. It also has a lot of other fun games and activities!

One of the websites I use frequently in my lessons is https://www.musictheory.net/. This website has a lot of lessons, exercises, and tools that are really great for helping to drill students in certain areas. Even beginning students can use it to practice learning their white keys on the keyboard!

Love,

PK