Teaching Sean Piano

I've always thought I would start teaching Sean piano around the time he was 4 or 5 years old (because this is the age I started) but he has never really shown an interest in really learning, so I thought he might be older when I actually attempted.  However, the past week or so his interest seems to be the highest it's ever been.   Today--as I was picking him up from preschool he was talking excitedly about the song they were going to sing for the Christmas program.  He said they practiced in the big sanctuary (he goes to First Baptist Matthews Weekday Preschool) and "did I know he was going to sing for ALL the parents at the Christmas program?"

He then asked, "Mommy, is the piano on at home?"  I told him it was off at the moment, but that I could turn it on for him to play some (he and Lilly love to just sit and "pretend" to play by hitting random keys, which results in only mere cacophony!)  and he was very eager to do so!  He tore off his coat and shoes and soon as we got in the door and ran over to the piano and started his usual random keyed playing while singing, "We wish you a Merry Christmas, We wish you a Merry Christmas, etc.,"

Then he said, "I don't know the right keys, can you show me?"  So I opened my Christmas book and could see right away it wasn't a good key to show him in since it had 5 flats in the signature, so I told him I would dig out my old piano books from when I first started playing and show him how.  He was BEYOND thrilled to hear this!  and said, "Ok, mommy!  I'll take a good nap, then you can show me your books!"

Wow, this feels like a lot of pressure!  I knew right where all the books were on our bookshelf in the office in a huge manilla envelope (because the books are all so thin and I didn't want them separated through all of our moves).  They are old, and written in (thankfully mostly in pencil, however) and though I had piano lessons for 14 years, I was never taught how to TEACH piano, so this will be quite new to me.

I took a quick shot of all the books--I was surprised to remember that I had 4 levels of books, so these should last hopefully 3-4 years before he's ready to move on to something else!  Looking through these books really took me down memory lane!

Primer Level

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

Level 4

Going to start this slowly.  I'm going to make copies of the theory book so I can re-use it with the girls and start showing him how the keyboard is laid out with the sets of keys.  There's some great exercises that just involve circling the notes, so it doesn't matter he can't read yet!  We'll see how this goes!