Reflections — Choosing a Lifestyle

Can we make our own lifestyle of our choice? How can we teach our children to make and choose a cheerful, friendly, and loving lifestyle?

This episode is part of the “Reflections” series of podcast episodes, which are short, minutes long reflections about a quote or other thought from Dr. Shinichi Suzuki’s philosophy or writing. The purpose of these reflections is to give parents and teachers a chance to spend a few minutes thinking about how great the impact might be on the world and our children with merely a slight moment of reflection about a behavior, thought, or attitude.

If you have a comment or suggestion, you can leave me a voice message on my voicemail line at 512-537-6356 or send me an email at paula@teachsuzuki.com.

For more information and articles, visit my blog at:

http://teachsuzuki.blogspot.com.

Until next time,

Happy Practicing!

—– Paula —–

© 2017 by Paula E. Bird

If you would like to make a donation to support the Teach Suzuki Podcast and the blog, click here to donate.

065 TSP Motivation | Let’s Build Momentum!

How do we stay motivated to practice and learn? What is motivation anyway? Is it something we can build within ourselves? How?

This episode looks closer at what it means to be “motivated” and explores some simple techniques to build or stay motivated. Perhaps the issue is as simple as techniques to build up momentum.

Here are links to the resources mentioned in the podcast:

Cold Shower Experiment in Self Reflection (podcast episode) (see below for the link to the cold shower video explanation)

How to Beat Burnout (podcast episode)

Because everyone should read Dr. Suzuki’s main books because of the valuable information, advice, and insight found in these tiny gems (takes about an hour to read each book), here are the affiliate links to these books:

Ability Development From Age Zero by Dr. Suzuki (Kindle version)

Nurtured by Love by Dr. Suzuki (Kindle version)

And, since many of you may be really eager to find out more about the cold shower experiment as a lesson in developing self discipline, check out this video. Very interesting experiment!

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If you are a parent of a beginning violin student and looking for help in between lessons, consider my book The Twinkle Project as a resource of teaching points, learning steps, and games and activities to assist the parent in practicing at home. I include a great deal of information, tools, worksheets, and checklists to assist parents. A parent who struggles to remember what to do in between weekly lessons will find all the answers in this book.

Many teachers will also find this book a helpful resource because it gathers in one place all the information to be used to teach a beginning violin student from the initial start up steps to the point of performing all the Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star variations. I have included all the tiny steps that I use when I begin a young violin student.

wonderful resource and guide that has all the nuts and bolts organized so nicely for the twinkle stages of study … looking forward to sharing with parents as a useful tool towards goal setting, pacing and achievement! — MD Suzuki teacher

For more information about The Twinkle Project, including the two short movies that explain why I wrote the book and give a good overview of what the book is about and what it contains, visit here. You can purchase the book here.

If you have questions or answers or you would like to comment or leave me a voice mail, you can do so at (512) 537-6356. If you would like to send me an email, you may do so at paula@teachsuzuki.com. I welcome comments and questions about this episode and am interested in hearing about the perspective of other parents and teachers.

You may find more information and useful articles on my blog at: Teach Suzuki Blog.

Until next time,

Happy Practicing!

—– Paula —–

© 2017 by Paula E. Bird

Join the Teach Suzuki Community!

If you would like to make a donation to support the Teach Suzuki Podcast and the blog, click here to donate.

Reflections — Love Pays Dividends

How does love pay dividends and interest? How can we develop and expand our ability to express love? How can we teach our children to improve this ability?

This episode is part of the “Reflections” series of podcast episodes, which are short, minutes long reflections about a quote or other thought from Dr. Shinichi Suzuki’s philosophy or writing. The purpose of these reflections is to give parents and teachers a chance to spend a few minutes thinking about how great the impact might be on the world and our children with merely a slight moment of reflection about a behavior, thought, or attitude.

If you have a comment or suggestion, you can leave me a voice message on my voicemail line at 512-537-6356 or send me an email at paula@teachsuzuki.com.

For more information and articles, visit my blog at:

http://teachsuzuki.blogspot.com.

Until next time,

Happy Practicing!

—– Paula —–

© 2017 by Paula E. Bird

If you would like to make a donation to support the Teach Suzuki Podcast and the blog, click here to donate.

064 TSP Self Reflection | The Cold Shower Experiment

Dr. Suzuki advised self reflection for parents and teachers as a way to become better parents, teachers, students, and people in general. But how do we do “Self Reflection”? What does self reflection look like? What tools should we use?

This episode examines the possible answers to this question and suggests some interesting experiments that might spark our interest in doing more self reflection.

Here are links to the resources mentioned in the podcast (affiliate links):

Ability Development From Age Zero by Dr. Suzuki (Kindle version)

Nurtured by Love by Dr. Suzuki (Kindle version)

To Learn With Love: A Companion for Suzuki Parents by William and Constance Starr (Kindle version)

Juggling for the Complete Klutz

The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron (this is the book that explains the use of the morning pages tool).

Blueline Notebook: This is the morning pages journal that I use. It is an add-on item in Amazon, and I have used it for years! It has an index page in the beginning and a page of stickers to use as tabs and labels for the journal. I really like this book because it lays flat and has a place for page numbering. This is my morning journal (diary) of choice!

For an older post about useful tools for teachers and parents, including the morning pages tool described in the podcast episode, here is a brief blog post that explores this topic: useful tools.

I have learned a lot of useful lessons about teaching and raising children with my own backyard flock of chickens. Here is the blog post about the chickens: Lessons From the Chicken Coop.

And, since many of you may be really eager to find out more about the cold shower experiment as a lesson in developing self discipline, check out this video. Very interesting experiment!

**********************************

If you are a parent of a beginning violin student and looking for help in between lessons, consider my book The Twinkle Project as a resource of teaching points, learning steps, and games and activities to assist the parent in practicing at home. I include a great deal of information, tools, worksheets, and checklists to assist parents. A parent who struggles to remember what to do in between weekly lessons will find all the answers in this book.

Many teachers will also find this book a helpful resource because it gathers in one place all the information to be used to teach a beginning violin student from the initial start up steps to the point of performing all the Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star variations. I have included all the tiny steps that I use when I begin a young violin student.

wonderful resource and guide that has all the nuts and bolts organized so nicely for the twinkle stages of study … looking forward to sharing with parents as a useful tool towards goal setting, pacing and achievement! — MD Suzuki teacher

For more information about The Twinkle Project, including the two short movies that explain why I wrote the book and give a good overview of what the book is about and what it contains, visit here. You can purchase the book here.

If you have questions or answers or you would like to comment or leave me a voice mail, you can do so at (512) 537-6356. If you would like to send me an email, you may do so at paula@teachsuzuki.com. I welcome comments and questions about this episode and am interested in hearing about the perspective of other parents and teachers.

You may find more information and useful articles on my blog at: Teach Suzuki Blog.

Until next time,

Happy Practicing!

—– Paula —–

© 2017 by Paula E. Bird

Join the Teach Suzuki Community!

If you would like to make a donation to support the Teach Suzuki Podcast and the blog, click here to donate.

Reflections — Searching for truth, goodness, and beauty

Dr. Suzuki wrote about the importance of searching for life’s truth, goodness, and beauty. How can we help our children search for and find these things?

This episode is part of the “Reflections” series of podcast episodes, which are short, minutes long reflections about a quote or other thought from Dr. Shinichi Suzuki’s philosophy or writing. The purpose of these reflections is to give parents and teachers a chance to spend a few minutes thinking about how great the impact might be on the world and our children with merely a slight moment of reflection about a behavior, thought, or attitude.

If you have a comment or suggestion, you can leave me a voice message on my voicemail line at 512-537-6356 or send me an email at paula@teachsuzuki.com.

For more information and articles, visit my blog at:

http://teachsuzuki.blogspot.com.

Until next time,

Happy Practicing!

—– Paula —–

© 2017 by Paula E. Bird

If you would like to make a donation to support the Teach Suzuki Podcast and the blog, click here to donate.

063 TSP Let’s Get an Early Start in Music Education | The Brain Tank is Full!

A listener writes to ask how to answer the question of why we advocate an early start to music education. The episode discusses Dr. Suzuki’s philosophy and observations about the importance of starting early in education and relates research regarding the brain development of babies in the first three years.

Here are links to the resources mentioned in the podcast (affiliate links):

The Suzuki Concept: An Introduction to a Successful Method for Early Music Education edited by Elizabeth Mills

Ability Development From Age Zero by Shinichi Suzuki (Kindle version)

Reflections Podcast Episode about how to avoid the withered sprout

If you are a parent of a beginning violin student and looking for help in between lessons, consider my book The Twinkle Project as a resource of teaching points, learning steps, and games and activities to assist the parent in practicing at home. I include a great deal of information, tools, worksheets, and checklists to assist parents. A parent who struggles to remember what to do in between weekly lessons will find all the answers in this book.

Many teachers will also find this book a helpful resource because it gathers in one place all the information to be used to teach a beginning violin student from the initial start up steps to the point of performing all the Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star variations. I have included all the tiny steps that I use when I begin a young violin student.

wonderful resource and guide that has all the nuts and bolts organized so nicely for the twinkle stages of study … looking forward to sharing with parents as a useful tool towards goal setting, pacing and achievement! — MD Suzuki teacher

For more information about The Twinkle Project, including the two short movies that explain why I wrote the book and give a good overview of what the book is about and what it contains, visit here. You can purchase the book here.

If you have questions or answers or you would like to comment or leave me a voice mail, you can do so at (512) 537-6356. If you would like to send me an email, you may do so at paula@teachsuzuki.com. I welcome comments and questions about this episode and am interested in hearing about the perspective of other parents and teachers.

You may find more information and useful articles on my blog at: Teach Suzuki Blog.

Until next time,

Happy Practicing!

—– Paula —–

© 2017 by Paula E. Bird

Join the Teach Suzuki Community!

If you would like to make a donation to support the Teach Suzuki Podcast and the blog, click here to donate.

Reflections — Parents Must Reflect!

Dr. Suzuki frequently stated that parents must reflect about everything that the parents do in order to see if the parents are modeling the desired character traits that the parents wish their children to develop.

This episode is part of the “Reflections” series of podcast episodes, which are short, minutes long reflections about a quote or other thought from Dr. Shinichi Suzuki’s philosophy or writing. The purpose of these reflections is to give parents and teachers a chance to spend a few minutes thinking about how great the impact might be on the world and our children with merely a slight moment of reflection about a behavior, thought, or attitude.

If you have a comment or suggestion, you can leave me a voice message on my voicemail line at 512-537-6356 or send me an email at paula@teachsuzuki.com.

For more information and articles, visit my blog at:

http://teachsuzuki.blogspot.com.

Until next time,

Happy Practicing!

—– Paula —–

© 2017 by Paula E. Bird

If you would like to make a donation to support the Teach Suzuki Podcast and the blog, click here to donate.

062 TSP The Summer Daze Challenge

Summer Daze is a challenge for teachers, parents, and students. We lose momentum, focus, and interest. We get out of our regular routine and fall into a rut of drifting aimlessness. Is this a good thing? What things can we do to change this? Today’s podcast episode offers some ideas to help solve this summer daze problem.

Here are some of the resources I mentioned in the podcast episode:

Kaleidoscopes for Violin by Elise Winters

Barbara Barber Solos for Young Violinists, book 1 (affiliate link)

Mel Bay Easiest Fiddling Book (my young students love this book!) (affiliate link)

For more information about The Twinkle Project, including the two short movies that explain why I wrote the book and gives a good overview of what the book is about and what it contains, visit here. You can purchase the book here.

I devote a lot of material in the book to help parents understand the value and importance of the Suzuki journey. For teachers, this book sets out all the steps that I use to take a young beginner violin student from the start to reach the ultimate goal of playing the Twinkle Variations. The book sets out the steps that I follow and provides checklists and planning forms for parents and teachers to help them set up practice habits and routines.

If you have questions or answers or you would like to comment or leave me a voice mail, you can do so at (512) 537-6356. If you would like to send me an email, you may do so at paula@teachsuzuki.com. I welcome comments and questions about this episode and am interested in hearing about the perspective of other parents and teachers.

You may find more information and useful articles on my blog at: Teach Suzuki Blog.

Until next time,

Happy Practicing!

—– Paula —–

© 2017 by Paula E. Bird

Join the Teach Suzuki Community! When you join the mailing list, you will receive a list of 100 Ideas of Things to do in Summer. You will receive occasional newsletter emails that let you know about podcasts or blog posts or other important information.

If you would like to make a donation to support the Teach Suzuki Podcast and the blog, click here to donate.

Reflections — Parental Responsibility

What is a parent’s responsibility? Dr. Suzuki thought that the child’s fate was in the hands of the parents. What does this mean? It means that parents need to examine the excuses that parents make.

This episode is part of the “Reflections” series of podcast episodes, which are short, minutes long reflections about a quote or other thought from Dr. Shinichi Suzuki’s philosophy or writing. The purpose of these reflections is to give parents and teachers a chance to spend a few minutes thinking about how great the impact might be on the world and our children with merely a slight moment of reflection about a behavior, thought, or attitude.

If you have a comment or suggestion, you can leave me a voice message on my voicemail line at 512-537-6356 or send me an email at paula@teachsuzuki.com.

For more information and articles, visit my blog at:

http://teachsuzuki.blogspot.com.

Until next time,

Happy Practicing!

—– Paula —–

© 2017 by Paula E. Bird

If you would like to make a donation to support the Teach Suzuki Podcast and the blog, click here to donate.

061 TSP Give it Back! | A Parent’s Most Important Lesson

A parent’s most important lesson can take place when a student wants to quit. How can a parent (and teacher) guide a student in this area to build character?

Here are some of the resources I mentioned in the podcast episode:

http://teachsuzuki.com/052-tsp-why-study-music/

Smiling Your Way Through Violin Practice (or How Not to Quit)

If you found this episode (or any episode) of the podcast helpful, and you would like to make a donation to support the Teach Suzuki Podcast and the blog, click here. My efforts to write and produce the Teach Suzuki blog and podcast do not generate income except through the generosity of those readers and listeners. I really appreciate your support. Just click here for a direct link to PayPal to support the blog and podcast.

And if you would like more information about The Twinkle Project, including the two short movies that explain why I wrote the book and gives a good overview of what the book is about and what it contains, visit here. You can purchase the book here. I devoted a lot of material to help parents understand the value and importance of the Suzuki journey.

If you have questions or answers or you would like to comment or leave me a voice mail, you can do so at (512) 537-6356. If you would like to send me an email, you may do so at paula@teachsuzuki.com. I welcome comments and questions about this episode and am interested in hearing about the perspective of other parents and teachers.

You may find more information and useful articles on my blog at: Teach Suzuki Blog.

Until next time,

Happy Practicing!

—– Paula —–

© 2017 by Paula E. Bird

Join the Teach Suzuki Community!

If you would like to make a donation to support the Teach Suzuki Podcast and the blog, click here to donate.