My daughter has been doing the Homeschool Piano lessons for the past several months. Or so I thought.
You see, while we were completing our Homeschool Piano review, she was on there making all sorts of progress by working several times a week and completing all of the lessons.
Unfortunately, I slacked off on watching her and making sure she was completing the tasks. I didn’t check the log to see what percentage she had completed or what book she was on or anything. Cut me a little slack here, I was in my third trimester and then delivered an 11 pound baby in November. I was checking her 3 Rs regularly to make sure she was completing these and progressing nicely, but I honestly didn’t even worry about the other stuff as much.
Anyway, I decided to check in today and was mortified at what I found. Although she had happily skipped off to my bedroom to the keyboard several times a week since September, apparently she was actually just messing around. Our keyboard has a teaching function that plays a song for you and assists you on learning to play it on the keys yourself. I think you get something like 3 tries to get it right.
She was had recently become so excited because she’d managed to learn how to play “Greensleeves” and even wore a pretty dress and performed it for me on my birthday. I was a little suspicious, though, when I saw her moving her right hand to play the black keys above her left hand (which was playing the white keys) and couldn’t understand her poor posture and finger placement. She had totally already covered this in her piano lessons, right?
Looking through the activity log, it looks like she threw in the towel the first week of September. While she may have been watching the videos, she wasn’t doing ANY of the exercises and was still working through the first book (CorePiano). How disappointing!
Since this all happened right under my nose, I’m less likely to give her this kind of freedom again. I’m thankful she hasn’t been doing this in her other subjects (oh yes, I thoroughly checked!), but so sad that months of time have been wasted here.
Thanks to our little experience, I’ve since made a printable for checking off completed lesson on each level. Sure, the online system has tracking, but having a tangible piece of paper that she has to physically mark off should help keep her accountable to herself and to me. Not only that, but it gives me something to look at and verify against the online records as well.
Here is a free printable for you if you use this program in case you need a print copy to keep your kiddos accountable, too! Click below to download your free HomeSchoolPiano lesson tracker.
Gena says
Congrats on the new baby! Thanks for making this lesson tracker. We need to get back to using Homeschool Piano, so I’m sure it will be helpful!
–Gena
Gena recently posted…Coupon Code for Graham Blanchard Toddler and Preschooler Books
inchirieri microbuze says
I just love to play at the piano! And congrats on the new baby!