Why Setting Micro Goals Each Day Leads to Happier, More Productive Practice… A Tale of Two Practice Days… Once upon a Wednesday, a parent and their child gathered to practice the violin together. The first ten minutes of practice time was spent begging, pleading, and yelling at the child to get on the footchart. The […]
Practicing
Restarting Your Practice Routine After a Break
Holidays can be rough on our goals to practice consistently with our kids. All the regular routines have gone out the window. Sometimes we’re traveling, or hosting relatives. And, for me where I live, it is winter. And that’s the worst. The dark days and gloomy weather just makes me want to hide in bed […]
Practicing with Interrupting Younger Siblings: The Unhelpful Helper
Shall we start this blog post with an embarrassing confession? Okay, great, here it is: Almost every time I finish practice with my adorable pre-Twinkler, I hide in my closet and eat chocolate for a few minutes. Between my daughter’s perfectionism and distractibility and my two year old literally throwing a basketball at us through […]
Helping Parents Practice: Plucky Violin Teacher Book Club Review
This is one of my favorite books about teaching and parenting, so I was excited to revisit it last month. As both a psychotherapist and experienced Suzuki teacher, Edmund Sprunger is uniquely prepared to address the obstacles Suzuki parents face when practicing with their child. Helping Parents Practice is laid out in such a way […]
How to Rescue a Quickly-Deteriorating Practice Session with Your Suzuki Student
Practicing with my son has taken a turn for the worse of late. There’s been more frustration and sharp words from me. There’s been more stalling and whining from him. Tough times. I’ve let my general level of stress and my unrealistic expectations change the way I interact with my kids. And I want to […]
Happiness is Not the Goal
Practicing a musical instrument with your child is difficult on its own. There is a lot to remember–assignments from your teacher, technical points, and more. You have to manage your time. You have to summon all your energy and creativity to make it fun and engaging for your child. You have to keep any other […]
How to Keep Your Cool When Practicing with Your Child
Like most parents, I began Suzuki violin lessons with my child imagining all the fun we’d have together. I was excited to see him learn new things and make progress towards a goal. I was also looking forward to spending meaningful one-on-one time with my son while we practiced. I knew it was going to […]
Making Practice More Peaceful…
Practicing with our children is sometimes difficult. With all the other tasks on my to-do list, it seems like I often have no energy left to deal with delay tactics, tantrums, and other problematic practicing behaviors. Do you ever have thoughts like these? “Why can’t he just come to practice when I ask?” “Why does […]
Three Daily Practices of Emotionally Healthy Suzuki Parents…
What led you to become a Suzuki parent? I bet if we sat down together, you could paint a picture for me of the beautiful dreams you had of sharing music with your child. Building your family culture around music. Helping your child prepare for adulthood by developing life skills. There are hundreds of fantastic […]
5 Practice Tips for Suzuki Parents
Practicing with your child can be rough. Tantrums, stall tactics, power struggles, Suzuki parents are on the front lines and we all need some extra inspiration occasionally. If you are looking to breathe some new life into your practice routine with your Suzuki student, don’t fret! I have gathered these practice tips for Suzuki parents from […]