Music is our Front Porch theme this week! With four children taking piano lessons and playing recorder, one playing harp, and another learning hammer dulcimer, music has to be organized or we couldn't fit it all in!
Organizing Time: staggering practice sessions is imperative for us. My youngest children learn best with me beside them, helping them develop good practice habits and keeping practice time interactive. (It becomes drudgery for them quickly if they are sent off for a 30 minutes in solitary confinement with an instrument, but practicing with a parent is fun.) For the first three of four years of instrument study I sit beside them for almost every practice session.
My oldest girls (who have developed good practice habits from years of sharing the piano bench with me) do most their practice independently now. Ideally I'd have liked to work with them for another year or three, but sometimes we need to compromise a bit to fit it all in, and this worked. Occasionally my oldest even works with the youngest music student as a "guest music coach" when I'm otherwise occupied or I feel the little guy just needs a change of pace.
If you are particularly curious about seeing how we schedule practice times, you can see our present schedule here on my blog.
Organizing Space: I'd written about our sheet music organization system previously here on the porch, so for long-time readers this will seem redundant.
A musician friend recently shared some of her tips with me, including her system for organizing sheet music. It delighted me because it is so simple, inexpensive, and tidy, utilizing hanging file containers which can be purchased inexpensively at Target, Wal-Mart, or any office supply store!
Sheet music can be such varied sizes, from books of 100 pages to single sheets, and this accommodates all of them inexpensively, accessibly, and without fuss.
Domestic Chaos Tamer and Homeschool Mom of Five, Dell writes about home, heart and hearth.
