Praise

I've spent quite a bit of time thinking about the article I posted last and analyzing the praise that the kids get. Fortunately for us, we're believers in the Suzuki method of learning, and the idea of praise is very similar. We find one specific thing to comment on, and one specific thing to improve. This has become a habit with piano practice, but not so much with daily life. So today I really concentrated on applying this idea while we did our school lessons. I was amazed at how quickly it became apparent that this is an extremely successful approach to learning. The kids were both eager to work just a little harder to earn that very specific praise. It certainly takes a lot of energy on my part to do this, but it will be so worth it in the end. Eventually, it might even come as naturally as piano lessons do on some days.