Q: What’s your musical background?
Neither of us are formally trained in music. Mike taught himself guitar in college using just a book from Barnes & Noble and has both an acoustic and electric that he plays.
Q: Anything fun or unique you’d like to share about your family?
Whether it’s the massive cardboard and duct tape creations of our son, the poetry and music of our daughter, acting, drawing, painting, or even theme songs we’ve composed for puppets (that are almost part of the family now), we try to cultivate our children’s creativity and have a genuine love for the arts. We are also a serious “gaming” family and have a large library of board and card games we play quite regularly.
Q: How do you structure piano lessons/practice for your family? Any tips to share?
We try to structure the program in a way that lets our daughter take ownership of her learning. After viewing and completing a lesson, we have her identify three days that week that she wants to practice and she draws checkboxes with those dates on top of the worksheet. We’ll sometimes have to remind her but she has done a good job staying on top of her schedule and the Busy Kids practice checklist provides a very easy to follow structure. After she’s completed the three practice sessions she committed to, we do a final review of that lesson using the questions on the worksheet before moving on to the next.
Q: How did you learn about Busy Moms/Kids Do Piano?
Simply by searching the internet. When our daughter expressed an interest in piano, we wanted to finda cost-effective way to introduce her to the instrument before committing to a much larger investment. There were a number of different programs out there but we thought Busy Kids Do Piano had an impressive system that was not only affordable and offered flexibility with our schedules but had excellent content that we could be confident using beyond introduction and into more advanced stages of her development.
Q: Do you have any stories you’d like to share about your musical journey with piano lessons?
(Eliana’s answer)
At first, I had no idea there was such a thing as a piano. I mean, I heard the sound it made, but I didn’t know where the sound came from. Until I went to my aunt’s house. When I got there,
my aunt was playing piano. I was interested in it, so my aunt taught me my first song on the piano. Thenwe found Busy Kids do Piano, and I was taught all about notes and everything else. So that’s how I got here today, thanks to Busy Kids do piano!
Q: What is your goal with having your child learn to play the piano?
Our primary goal is just to nurture her joy in the instrument. Long-term, she might one day become a renowned pianist or it may just be a hobby that she’s able to pass down to her children. Regardless, music and the arts are a gift in themselves and at this moment in her life we not only want to cultivate the talent she has but allow her the opportunity to appreciate and enjoy the gift.