start 'em young . . . ?

"Show me your right hand.  No, your other right!"

I say variations of this line at least ten times in half of my lessons.  3/5 of my students right now are under six years old, which means I am discovering more unique challenges in teaching the Very Young Student.  I define Very Young Student as under the age of six, but of course children develop at different rates and blanket statements can't cover everything.  I mean, I started when I was five and I was a model student . . . right, Mom?  ;)

I once "taught" a three year old, but that lasted about four lessons before I gave up.  That's the ugly truth - I gave up.  It's my unseasoned opinion that young children will benefit more from group music classes than individual music lessons.  UNLESS the child has demonstrated, on his own, a strong desire to learn an instrument.  If that desire is there, I can work with short attention spans and developing muscles.  However, if the child is put in lessons by the parent, and child has no idea what's going on, I'm not ready to deal with him.  There's a reason why my pedagogy teacher said that only the BEST teachers should teach the youngest students.  

Part of being a good teacher is knowing when/if you are not qualified to teach a certain student.  This is me recognising that I'm not well-qualified to teach Very Young Students!  I am not a parent, have not had extensive interactions with <6 year olds, don't know child psychology, and most importantly, do not have a strong interest in teaching VYSs.  So I'll do it if I need to and I'm sure with time and experience I'll figure out hacks to make it funner and easier, but right now I'm just in a place to recognise my lack of qualifications in this area.  

Excuse me while I go figure out how to:

- keep a child's attention for more than five minutes

- work with fingers that are extremely tiny and squishy (but cute.  very cute.)

- manage manipulative kids who complain about being tired at every lesson (you are five and you consistently sleep 10-12 hours.  you do not work and you're not even in school.  I guess playing is very hard work.)

- find stickers that will not permanently stick to the keyboard

- develop a child's perception of "high" and "low" 

On the other hand, the main pro is that they are undeniably adorable . . . 

Thanks for reading!

cheers,

Serfy