Teaching Younger Kids

[nixo1000]

I have been a private piano teacher for the past three years. I usually teach high school students and adults, however I will now start teaching elementary students as well. The problem with that is, I have never taught a young person before. I was wondering what type of tactics or methods do other teachers use to effectively catch a young students attention and also meet his needs.

[pianistimo]

some kind of tangible reward works well for a good week of practice.  my four year old lives for lollipops.  on the other hand, my daughter who is more interested in art than piano would like those watercolor pencils.  maybe just finding out their other interests and blending them in (a pencil at a time - and not a whole set).

i vageuly remember my early teachers always starting out the lesson - 'how did your week go?'  first i would tell if i had a good one or bad one - and about how much practice.  having patience with homework, reports that are due, etc. is nice.  and then, the extra practice they do when homework is not so busy.  patience is probably the key!

in the past, i've usually made them commit to at least the same amount of time as the lesson on most days.  and, i really like it if they bring back the chart i've made - to keep track of time and how they divided it up.  paper certificates work wonders too.  especially for parents when they complete each year of piano.  it somehow means something to pass a grade or year of piano - more to the younger kids (and helps the parents keep track of how many years their kids have taken lessons and what they know).

birthdays are important.  parties can be fun. crazy, but fun.  my family is all ages - so once i had a party including all my students (no matter the age).

[allthumbs]

Greetings

You may wish to check out the 'Kelly-Kirby Piano Method'.

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=U1ARTU0001826

Cheers

allthumbs

[cjp_piano]

Rewards work wonders

Patience is key!

Variety is helpful (playing, singing, clapping, dancing, marching, coloring, drawing, etc.)

Celebrate Piano (Frederick Harris) is an EXCELLENT piano method for beginners.  Its comprehensive and fun approach hasn't failed me yet!

[eastcountypiano]

I agree with the everyone else.  Stickers are a staple for me.  You will see a difference between 5-8 year olds and 9-12 year olds.  They all still want stickers though.  The youngest kids love familiar songs, like Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and the older kids will ask you for Disney tunes.  Supplementing these familiar tunes is a good thing to have on hand to rejuvenate their interest when if it starts to wane.  Lots of praise and notice when they are trying and tell them.  Listen when they talk and make them the most important thing during that 30 minutes.

Teach them how to practice.

I have found more success with having a student play their lesson 3 times in a row than demanding they play for 30 minutes a day.