Thanks for all your suggestions! I think I will still stick with Faber, but use the Performance and Technique and Artistry books as she needs them. Her first lesson is this Friday (they have already rented a piano, a Kawai), I'll try to keep you all updated on her progress as we go along.

Meri

I used to use the Bastien Young Beginner books, but found and have used since spring MFLM. I think it's much better if the student is closer to 5 than 6 and is just perfect for 4 year olds. I may still use Bastien early beginner with age 6. It seems MFLM may be too slow?? The parent attends a 30 min lesson a week, does the movement activities in the lesson and at home and of course sits with the child during practice of 20 min 5 or more days a week. It comes with lesson plans in the teachers manual and a section on suggestions for teaching this level. I find it is so varied I can just use MFLM all during the lesson and the kids are engaged, smiling and learning!! Incidentally, I find students have a great sense of the beat using the series!! I wish I could get everyone to start at age 4!!

I interviewed a kindergartener yesterday and ended up telling the parents I didn't think he was quite ready for lessons, but after reading all these posts, I'm wondering if I jumped the gun. We did some rhythm clapbacks, identifying higher/lower and happy/sad (major/minor), but what REALLY convinced me that he was not ready was the fact that his hands were so small he could not even span the three black keys with individual fingers (he couldn't--or wouldn't--play the three black keys with fingers 2-3-4),and I was concerned that he would be totally frustrated in a very short time. I explained to the parents that I thought he just needed to grow a little more and at this point, I would suggest group "music readiness" lessons (singing, rhythm instruments, marching to a beat, etc.). How do you compensate for such small hands at 4 and 5?

I started a 4 year old girl once with very small hands. We started playing all her songs with one finger, doing a lot of games with rhythm and sounds, playing and improvising with hand and arms (clusters). Now and then I tried to do some finger gymnastics with fingers walking on the white keys. One day she showed me a five note piece I'd given her before, and suddenly played it with five fingers. I did the same thing with other four year olds after that, and they all tried to use the five fingers by themselves at a certain day. A lot of rhythm, note reading, high and low sounds were already explored by then, and we went on using all five fingers from there without problems.

I have gone back to using F/F Primer Level with my young students. I use all four books and improvise a lot. We have fun. It seems to be the best over all for me. Once in a while I will move back to Bastien for some backup. I used Hal Leonard for a while, but went back to the old purple books again. I will be thankful when the Fabers come out with some good preschool materials. I understand that they are working on a pre primer curriculum. I hope so. These young mothers are 'go getters' and bring in their 'whittle bitty babies' to learn. I hate passing up the opportunity to teach them with all their enthusiasm!

Does anyone know of a good curriculum for preschool groups? I think that I am ready to take a stab at this new angle of learning. I am going to advertise and try to form a group of 4/5 students. I would like to teach them twice a week for 30 minutes WITHOUT the parents present. I know that that is NOT a popular theory. . . but I do better WITHOUT the parents present. Am I wrong? Or do I need to change? Suggestions please.

If you can hang on for a few months, rumor was the PA Preschool method was going to come out in March. I don't know if that's still the case, but it's worth the wait regardless.

From personal experience with my own "niche" market for this age group, I would say that the two times a week schedule will probably lead to resistance by parents or an inability for some of these already overscheduled children to attend or enroll for lessons with you. Also, 30 minutes is really, really short for a group lesson length for this age group. I would encourage you to consider a once-a-week 45-60 minute length lesson instead.

Are you talking about a general preschool music course or a dedicated piano course? That makes a difference as to the success or lack of success involving parent observation of the lesson. Which leads to another point: There is a difference between parental participation and parental observation. Often it is a very fine line that means you really need to develop a philosophy of boundaries for how you handle it. And the curriculum you choose should really have a bearing on what you utimately decide to do. Good luck