3-4 year olds for piano

Eek! I have had four parents of 4 and 4 1/2 year old girls contact me for lessons. They seem to want to do only group lessons which I think may be a good idea. Any help for lesson plans, games, etc. I’m a newbee at this.

Get a little paper back booklet from Linda Nakagawa in Sacramento, CA entitled How To Teach Suzuki Piano Books 1 and 2 by Haruko Kataoka. Read it and follow it and you will do just fine with even the youngest of students. Remember the Suzuki Talent Education Principal, The younger the child….Of course the parents have to have established a musical environment.

Hi. These little ones are such fun. As this is such an important time in their journey, it’s important to have fun!
While working slowly and carefully at the piano, establishing good posture and a good hand position, I find it useful to leave the piano a couple of times to begin pre-reading exercises. By this I mean alphabet games, rhythm cards, and stepping the beat. Also games at the piano e.g. finding notes by putting little toys on the piano, copycat, ‘going up’ and ‘going down’, loud and soft, high and low.
And above all, lots of singing, establishing pitch-matching.
Enjoy!

Monica’s suggestions are great. Definitely, move between a short piano time for each child w/ parent taking notes for the assignment, and activity time (more of that at the beginning). At first, the children will only work on learning to bow to you and sitting at the piano/Ready position both at lesson and at home. The first step is body control and concentration work. Good luck!