One of the challenges of teaching young children music is that they typically don’t do well with delayed gratification. When they feel like they’ve played a song through “good enough” they get disappointed if you make them play it again. “You’ve almost got it, one more time” is often met with slumped shoulders and a passionless repetition.
So I set out to find a way to make “one more time” more fun. I bought craft sticks and wrote dynamics on them; how loud or soft to play, or how loud. I ask students to close their eyes and chose a tempo stick and a dynamic stick. Then they play “one more time” but they have had a hand in deciding how.
-RebekaLee
Seeking Life Squared 