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This publication has been changing the pace of my lessons and has been blowing me out of the water! I have been searching all year for a method book that began for pre-readers and kindergarten aged students. When I was first introduced to this series I thought it was brutal, it required too much of the teacher and my students at the time weren't able to sit still through the excercises. My student had come to me mid way through the book, not having utilized curriculum but skipping through some fundamental pieces. It just wasn't working.... When I took a second look at the series a few years later, it struck me to be one of the only method books comprehensive enough to last a year or two for students who haven't started reading, or are working on sight-words.
Now I can understand the skill building steps this book takes; introducing sounds, introducing notes, introducing reading. The focus is on stories, on learning the spacial properies of the piano and of hearing, which gives my student and I options to consider depending on their mood and energy level. I find the stories about Mozart Mouse and Beethovan Bear engaging and a fun through-line in the book. My five year old student is engaged in so many ways! Colour-coding is a big big deal in this book, so it is not ideal if you have limited space or tools. You will absolutely need crayons! I introduced the lesson book for about a month and then we began the theory book in conjunction. There is so much material between the two books that I can confidently spend a whole lesson on one or two pages in each book becuase there is so much to pull from the presented curriculum. What I really love about this book is that there are many ways for students to be successful and for students to try again. There's colour-coding, there's listening, there's reading, there's matching excercises. It really isn't the same thing lesson to lesson; write out letters, play them, good job. We can clap, we can move, we can sing, we can write and draw and colour. All of these are so important in creating music literacy and when a method book guides that effort lessons feel much more fluid and playful. Today, my student and I followed a page in the book that had the student listen to what I was playing on the piano and then identify (circle) it between two options. It was either three consecutive notes : A A A or a small ascending or descending pattern : A B C. I would first play and sing the two options to my student, then ask if her ears were open and play my part. She would listen, she'd look at my fingers and she got each question right. This is ear training in the most supportive and engaging way! Praise the Lord, it can be done. I'm so happy with this book series, I'm about to introduce it to a few more young ones that are coming my way in September. My thoughts and prayers are with all children tomorrow on their first day back to school and my heart is with their teachers who I hope are well rested and ready to begin a new year. My next few posts will be about what I'm practicing now and what to do when your student roster is full!!!!!