Piano Practice--Our New Method

I've been teaching Connor and Mylie piano lessons for the past few years now. It's definitely been an up and down experience, I'd say. There has been progress, but it has been in spurts, and the motivation definitely comes and goes.   Last fall, I became very frustrated with what was going on with their practice sessions. They were just going through the motions at each practice session--just putting in their time. They weren't fixing any mistakes, and just continuing to play the same half-hearted way each day until they heard that blessed sound of the timer beeping, letting them know that they were off the hook for at least another day.  By Christmas break, I realized that we were really struggling and hadn't seen much progress in their ability level for quite a while.  I knew that in order for something to change, something had to change!  

I decided I needed to think about the science behind talent, which I have read about and studied in Daniel Coyle's fabulous book, The Talent Code.  I knew that my kids weren't getting into that mode of "deep practice," which is needed for talent to grow and for improvement to increase.  But I still wasn't sure how to get them there.  Thankfully, Coyle has also written a fabulous little book called The Little Book of Talent which is basically a collection of practical tips based on his study of talent.  I decided to read it and see if I could find anything that might be helpful with my piano dilemma.  I read the first several tips, and although they were good, I wasn't finding quite the right things for my situation.  The next time I sat down to read, I decided to pray first and ask that I might be able to receive some kind of inspiration along with the information I needed to help my kids progress at the piano.  This is really important to me, and our loving Heavenly Father understood that.  As I read that night, idea after idea came to me. I finally had to get out of bed and grab my notebook and pen so I could write them down.  Thanks to The Little Book of Talent and some inspiration, I was able to come up with a method that we have been using since January.  Everything has not been perfect since then, but it has been incredibly better, and the rate of improvement has increased dramatically!  So here's what we're doing.

I decided that having "practice time" was just asking for them to go through the motions. Instead, we now have "practice tasks."  Each day, they have a list of tasks that they must complete in order to be done with their practice session.  Rather than "play through this song 3 times," the task is something like, "play two sections of this song, each three times perfect."  That way, they have to be working toward mastery, stopping to fix mistakes rather than just repeating the same ones over and over.  At the beginning of each practice session, I play through each song for them so they know how it should sound when it is perfected (blueprint in the mind to compare themselves to...very important!)  It has been amazing to see them dig in and truly practice, being determined to get it perfect rather than just get through it.  Once each section of the song has been mastered, then they put the song together and work on perfecting the entire thing so they can "pass it off" and move onto a new song.  At this point, they just play the song straight out of the book. They work on three songs at a time, as well as sets of flashcards or scales that also can be "passed off."

Here is how I divided up the songs into sections so they can focus on one section at a time rather than being tempted to just rush through the entire song.  First, I cut the songs into sections that make sense based on the phrasing of the song. At the level we are at, songs are typically 2, 3, or 4 sections.

Then I put the sections into a little ziploc bag. When a section is mastered (played perfectly three times) they put a star on that section so they don't accidentally do the same section the next day.

This may seem a little tedious. I'm not gonna lie, it is. But it is important to me that we spend our practice time better, and it is proving to be a much better way.  I typically sit down in a session and print, cut, and bag about 10 songs from each book we are working in.  From January to now, I have only had to do this three times, so it's really not that bad.

Next, we organize all this in a folder. The bottom picture is an example of a typical day's practice plan. (Note: In this plan, she is working on four songs. This is because we are preparing two songs for a recital, and so we are taking a break from flashcards or scales.)

Finally, a little MOTIVATION was needed. We decided on some incentives, and then made sticker charts to see their progress.  Each sticker represents one song (or scale, or set of flashcards) "passed off."   After twenty stickers are earned, there is a reward.  We decided that four charts would get us somewhere into the summer (we hope), so we made the incentives get increasingly better with each chart. The first chart reward was going out for ice cream or milkshakes. (And it was AMAZING how happy they were with that reward after, honestly, a lot of work.) The second chart was for an outing of ice skating or roller-skating.  Chart number three is for dinner or a movie, and the final chart will be a trip to Lagoon.  After that, we will start small again, and work our way up toward a larger incentive.

Of course, my hope is that somewhere along the way, the motivation will begin to be intrinsic, rather than extrinsic. For Mylie, I'm already starting to see some of that, as she'll go to the piano and play on her own at times aside from her practice. For Connor, I'm still waiting and hoping.

One final fun thing that we have done, is every once in awhile (maybe once a month or so), in place of their typical practice session, we have a "pop quiz day." I select a song that I feel is on their level, but that they have never seen before.  I set down a timer and a dollar on the piano.  They have fifteen minutes to try to play the entire song perfectly.  If they can do it, the dollar is theirs.  If not, they've had some good practice sight reading, and they get out of their "normal" practice, which is a good thing once in awhile.  They have liked that fun addition.

With this method, we don't have any official lessons. They just pass songs off as they perfect them, and the following day, they start a new song. This does mean that I have to be available during their practice time, since almost daily, they make an attempt to pass off a song.  But this is just one more small inconvenience that is worth it to me for the progress.

So, for any of you struggling to teach your own (or other) kids to play the piano, or another musical instrument, maybe there might be an idea in here that would be beneficial to you.  If not, maybe some of the concepts behind developing talent (deep practice, blueprint, chunking, motivation, etc.) may help you in your attempts to develop another talent.  If any of this is really interesting to you, check out Daniel Coyle's books. They are not only interesting, but will change the way you view talent and work to develop your own.

Experiences, Not Things: The WHY and HOW Behind my Vacation Hobby

So, it may seem like I like to vacation a little....or maybe a lot. Well, I do.  Not only do I enjoy it, I also feel like it is important for a lot of reasons. Here are a few:

I LOVE to see God's creations. Wyoming is an amazing place, and I am constantly in awe of the beauty that is here. But it is only one version of the beauty of this earth. I want to see it all!! I love seeing the different types of landscapes, bodies of water, plant life, and animals that exist in this world

I think it is fun and educational to get a taste of other cultures. You don't even have to leave the good ol' USA to do this. It seems that people live a little bit differently than I do anywhere I travel. I also like my kids to see these things, as I feel it gives them such a great variety of experiences to draw from.

I just love the experiences and the memories that result. I saw this little quote on FB the other day, and thought it summed up my feelings about vacationing so well.

And while I know that most of those experiences that give us great stories to tell can and will come in simple, day-to-day adventures, I also feel like vacationing is a great way to add rich experiences to life.

I like to do both family vacations and couple vacations. We have had some great vacations with kids in tow, but there is something special about a couple vacation.  I feel like every time we go on vacation together, we reconnect with each other and put a spark back in our relationship. We are able to just focus on each other and enjoying being together without any of the clutter or stresses of everyday life getting in the way. If you haven't been on a vacation with your spouse in the past few years, I would strongly encourage you to do it!

Finally, it is so nice to just relax, get away, and just have FUN once in awhile. And it's even better to share that care-free type of fun with your spouse or entire family. I always (well...maybe not during the first trimester of pregnancy) come home from vacation feeling like I've re-charged my batteries. I usually jump into a project I've been putting off, simply because I have renewed my energy and zest for life.

So, many of you may be nodding your heads, agreeing that a vacation really would be nice. But I know, because several of my friends and family members have expressed this to me, that the HOW behind vacationing often gets confusing and overwhelming to the point that they just try to forget about it all together. While I understand that there are some life circumstances that make vacationing very difficult, or completely impossibly, I do believe that most people can enjoy a vacation now and then if they want to. And you don't have to be RICH to do it!  Here are a few tips/strategies we have used to make vacations happen for us.

Since we have been married, we have been to Texas, Nauvoo (twice), Des Moines (twice), Alaska (twice), three cruises (Baja Mexico twice, Bahamas, and Mexican Riviera--just me with my mom's family), a resort in Cancun, Washington, D.C., Northern Arizona, Southern Utah, Las Vegas (twice), Disneyland/Sea World, NYC (me anyway), and several other short trips within WY/UT/CO.  I'm sure there are people out there that figure a teacher and a stay-at-home mom with a bunch of kids must be in debt up to our eyeballs vacationing like we do!  But that's my first tip: STAY OUT OF DEBT! I don't think I could possibly feel as wonderful about all our vacations if we were in debt. If you want to go on vacation and truly enjoy it, get out of debt first and have some money put away. Without giving all the details of our financial situation, let me just say this. We are not rich, but our only debt is our mortgage, we have enough money saved to pay cash for our next vehicle, and we also have a rainy-day fund that would last us for 6 months or more if we were to be out of a job. With that security, I feel okay putting a little money aside for vacations here and there.

That leads me to my next tip: Plan and budget for vacations. What can you do? Could you put away $25 dollars a month? $50? Maybe pick up a little side job, just to earn money for a vacation. When Connor was a baby, I started selling Discovery Toys. My first year, this helped pay the bills since we were in college and certainly in no place to go on a great vacation. But once Tony got his teaching job, I kept selling toys and saved all the money I earned for a vacation. This is how we paid for our first cruise.

Sometimes it's difficult to find that money to set aside and save. Tip #3: Don't spend money on things that aren't important to you.  Maybe vacationing just isn't important to you. That's fine. You could probably save yourself some time and quit reading about now. But if you think you really would like to vacation, think about things that would be less important to you than vacationing, and ask yourself if you could reduce the amount of money you spend on those things.  Probably the biggest place where Tony and I have decided that we don't care to spend money is on media. We don't have TV anymore, which was costing us over $70/month. We don't do video games (other than the old hand-me-down PS3 somebody gave to Connor). We've never rented a redbox movie, and we go to the theater maybe once a year to watch a flick. When we really feel the itch to watch a movie, we borrow one from the library...for FREE! We don't spend money on itunes. We listen to the radio a lot. We don't have smartphones--Tony can talk and text just fine on the old flip phone.  Imagine the money we save by cutting these expenses. It can add up to a vacation in a hurry! But maybe you can't give up media. It means more to you than a vacation once in awhile. Think of something else. Could you do without a pair of shoes every month? Could you maybe quit getting your nails done?  Eat out less?  The idea is, look at where your money is going and decide if some of it could be re-directed into a vacation fund. I think you'd be surprised at how fast you could save for a vacation this way.

Once you've started to build your savings, start planning that vacation! For many people, this is the scary part.  For me, this is the fun part! In fact, I sometimes spend (or waste?) time planning vacations or looking at deals for places that I am likely never going to go, and for sure not in the immediate future.  But there's just so much info and help out there for planning a vacation. So, here's Tip #4: Use the Internet to plan your trip.  There are hundreds, if not thousands, of websites out there to help you find a great deal. Here are a few of my faves. For cruises, I like vacationstogo.com. You can look at last-minute deals or look way ahead to compare prices, view itineraries, and learn more about the different cruise lines and ships. I also like cruises.com and cruiseonly.com.  For hotels, I like to use priceline. If I don't care what the amenities are, or exactly which hotel I need to stay in, I like to use the Name Your Own Price feature. I have gotten rooms for $30/night doing this.  But if I do care about the amenities (like we're taking our kids for an overnighter, and the pool is pretty darn important), then you can just do a deal search on their site and click "pool" under amenities to only view hotels that you would want to stay in.  For flights, I have used expedia.com and orbitz.com.  Now these are just a few of my favorites, but I'm telling you--there are so many sites out there. You can do it!!

Tip #5: Don't pay full price for ANYTHING. Call me a cheapskate, but I kinda like to get stuff for free, or at least cheap. One way to do this is don't pay for your flights. We have never paid for a flight for any of our cruises, or our Cancun trip. We let our credit card points do this. Because we don't do debt, we are safe to use a credit card for as many purchases as possible each month. We pay the bill in full and smile at the points we rack up just for spending the money we would spend anyway. There are lots of different options out there for rewards cards, but we use the Capital One Venture card. The reason we've stuck with them for so long is that we also have our accessible savings in a Capital One Money Market Rewards account, where it doesn't earn much interest (well, the same no interest it would be earning just about anywhere), but we do get a point for every $20 in the account each month. These add up pretty quickly, and we can combine them with the points from our credit card.  When planning when to take a vacation that will have flights involved, I figure out about how long it will take us to have enough points to fly free, then shoot for that time frame.  As far as finding other deals, I like to sign up for emails from vacation deal sites. When I'm not looking for a vacation (like now), I just delete them as they come in, but when I am looking, it's just a click in my email inbox, and I'm instantly viewing deals.

Tip #6: Prioritize and budget accordingly.  What I mean by this, is that every vacation has different priorities. For example, on my recent trip to NYC, we knew that we wanted to see a LOT of the sights, but weren't as concerned about the quality of our hotel, since we wouldn't be spending much time there. So we still looked at hotels in the basic area we wanted to stay (to save time so we could see lots of stuff), but then took the cheapest thing available. It did have electricity and running water, so that's good, right? Basically, we decided to spend less on the hotel so we felt like we could spend the money necessary to see what we wanted to see. (And we got a deal on the sight-seeing too. Score!)   However, other vacations may be more about relaxing, and you are going to spend more time in the hotel. In that case, budget more money for the nice hotel, but decide what you can skimp a little on to make up for it.

Tip #7: Take advantage of opportunities when they come.  Do you or your husband have a business trip coming up? I see this as a trip already half paid for! What a great chance to get away for half the cost. Actually, if the hotel is paid for, you're really paying less than half of what you would pay normally.

Finally, if you're wanting to do a couple vacation, what about the kids?  This is often one of the biggest dilemmas. Maybe you don't have parents that live close or that are willing or able to take the kiddos for a few days. What now?  Tip #8: Kid Swap.  Find a sibling/cousin/close friend that you trust and that also has kids. Chances are, they might want to go on a vacation too. Although it would be fun to go together, maybe you could help each other out instead. We have done this a few times with one of Tony's sisters. It's really not too bad taking care of a few extra kids for a few days and nights. ESPECIALLY when you know your turn to get away is coming!

These are just a few of the WHYs and HOWs behind my vacationing hobby. If you have more questions, you can always ask! Just call, text, send me a FB message--however you want to get a hold of me. I really enjoy talking about vacationing. In fact, in another life, I would be a travel agent. Anyway, I hope some of you will start planning your next vacation--and when you do, let me know all about it. I need ideas for our next trip! :)

I LOVE NYC!

The week after our family vacation, I was lucky enough to go on one more vacation--this time to NYC with my two young, hip, college-aged sisters, Olivia, and Tessa.  I kinda invited myself along after becoming quite jealous while booking all their travel plans for them. They were kind and let me tag along. In the end, they (and especially Tessa) were really glad I decided to come because they (and especially TESSA) were a little nervous about going to NYC alone. I was happy to be their "body guard."

While the trip didn't start out ideally (a cancelled flight, followed by a missed flight due to confusion at the check-in desk, resulting in over 10 hours, including a sleepless night, in the SLC airport) we did eventually make it to the Big Apple, and boy was it ever worth it!! This was definitely one of my most favorite vacations I have ever been on.  If you'd like the play-by-play of the trip, my sister, Olivia, did a fabulous job of documenting it and you can click here to read it.  But since she did such a great job, I'm just going to post some of my favorite pics of the trip and do a little commentary on each.

DAY 1

(well, actually, it was our first day, and the first day using our awesome New York Passes!)

 Bike rental in Central Park was SOOO much fun and a great way to start our day!

 Atop the Empire State Building. Audio Tour was SO worth it. New York Skyride, not so much. 

Just don't do it!

 Twilight Cruise was awesome, but cold. Actually, we were cold most of the time. Oh well. Still a great time. They girls were also glad they had their "bodyguard" on this adventure since a certain Pakistani guy was hitting on them big time!

DAY 2

Started the day just perfectly with a beautiful run in Central Park. We pretty much felt like we were in the movies. 

LOTS of museums, which of course, you can't take a lot of pics in. We went to the MET, the Museum of Natural History, the Bodies Exhibit at Discovery Times Square, and the wax museum, where we made up for the lack of pics at the other museums.

 Just me and Honest Abe

 Walking the Brooklyn Bridge in the rain

 Stopping in Central Park to enjoy a yummy (but overpriced!) kebab.

 Stardust Diner--most fun place to eat!

 By the end of this day, we were pros on the subway!

DAY 3

This day was full of all the emotional stuff, and I think I did as much crying this day as I did laughing the other two days.

 Statue of Liberty--Once again, DO THE AUDIO TOUR!!

On Liberty Island, with Ellis Island (awesome stop--great AUDIO TOUR) and Manhatten in the background.

 9/11 Memorial. So beautiful and touching. My favorite, however, was the Tribute Center, which was a museum that told the story of the World Trade Center, its fall, and the amazing efforts of volunteers afterward. We also learned some about the building of the new World Trade center, which will include 7 buildings. Building number one is complete, and is BEAUTIFUL! Here it is below.

 Manhatteen Temple

A little urban gardening. This is at the base of a high-rise apartment building. Apparently you can rent a space?

The Art Students League of New York, where my great-grandma, Minerva Teichert, studied art. So awesome to stand on those steps!

Although I was only able to stay for three full days, we made the most of those three days! I was a little sad to leave and miss out on the fun things Livi and Tess had planned, but I really missed my husband and kids and was excited to go home too. Awesome vacation! So many memories! Definitely somewhere I'd like to visit again, this time with Tony.

Bryce Canyon Family Vacation

After going on the cruise, Tony and I were super excited to do a short vacation with our kids this time! Two years ago, we went to Northern Arizona/Grand Canyon for spring break and had a blast! We wanted to do something similar but not drive quite as far. After doing a little research online, we (I) decided that Bryce Canyon, Utah, and surrounding areas would be the perfect place!

Just an hour into the drive, the madness began. Brady puked. All over himself. And his carseat. Ugh. We pulled over at the next rest area and I took him into the bathroom and got him cleaned and changed while Tony found a hose and rag and hosed down the car seat. We then put a blanket under Brady to try to keep him somewhat dry and resumed. About thirty minutes late, he did it again. Once again we stopped, took his clothes off of him, removed the now puked on blanket, and buckled him back up. He puked about four more times that day, but not nearly as bad, since there was nothing left in him. I felt horrible for him, having to drive so far when he didn't feel well. And it sure wasn't a pleasant drive for the rest of us with that SMELL!

We still managed to do a few fun things that first day, including stopping for lunch at a park, going to the Anasazi Indian State Park, driving the scenic highway 12 (I highly recommend this drive--gorgeous!!), and cooking out for dinner and playing at a park a block from our hotel in tiny Cannonville, UT. Brady seemed a lot better during late afternoon/evening, but then puked again all over Connor ,Tony, and the comforter in our hotel that night (of course!)

 The entrance to one of the dwellings. Brady thought it was super fun going inside.

 This particular tribe also lived in underground huts, these were really interesting to learn about.

 Mylie was an awesome journal keeper during the trip. She wrote down all kinds of details because she didn't want to forget anything!

 Gotta love the big smile in this pic! This was a fun stop.

That night at the hotel, Mariah helped me do all our nasty laundry in the bathtub, since there's no laundry service in Cannonville. We pretended we were pioneers, and it wasn't so bad. We hung everything up around the bathroom and it was dry in the morning.

Day 2 of our trip was FABULOUS!! Everybody felt good that day, and we did lots of hiking. We started our morning by visiting Kodachrome State Park. We did a fun loop hike there and saw some great scenery.

 Brady had the best ride!

Mariah is a great hiker for just 5 years old! She hiked every step of the way all day long. 

 "The Saddle"--actually we don't know what this formation is called, but that's what our kids named it.

 On the trail...

Shakespeare's Arch 

On top of the world!!

After that hike, we headed to Bryce Canyon National Park. We drove in to the trail head of the hike we decided to do, labeled "Best 3 Mile Hike in the World" in the brochure. There were picnic tables, and we pulled out the cooler there for some lunch. Then we hiked a beautiful loop that took us down into Bryce Canyon. It didn't disappoint! I think it is definitely in the hunt for best 3-mile hike in the world. It was fabulous and we all loved it!!

This was the view from our starting point up top. We loved all the interesting rock formations and agreed that, although not as LARGE, this canyon was probably cooler than the Grand Canyon.

 The kids found GREAT places to pose along the trail!

 After awhile, Brady wanted out of the pack. He wanted to hike, too! And of course, he needed a walking stick. He was adorable walking along the trail like this and sure got a lot of attention from others on the trail.

There were a couple of really narrow places on the hike as well.These were fun and got a lot of OOHs and AAHs from Brady, which was super cute.

After this hike, which took us a couple hours, we were ready for something cold, so we stopped and got popsicles for everybody--even Brady. He loved it!

After the popsicles, Brady fell asleep, so Tony stayed in the van with him while the three other kids and I did one more hike.  We hiked up to a waterfall, which I thought I took a picture of but then didn't have. Also on the hike was a fun little window formation as well as Mossy Cave.

After that, the kids were pretty tired of hiking and just wanted to go play at a park. It was getting close to dinner time anyway, so we headed to a park in the small town of Tropic. It was a super nice park, and we spent a couple hours there playing and eating our cookout, which included hot dogs and s'mores. 

That night, we were all exhausted, and I crashed hard--only to be awoken around midnight by the sounds of...puking! It was Connor this time, and he puked several times throughout the night. Tony joined him. Brady's sickness started coming out the other end, and by morning, we decided to cancel our plans for the day and just get home!  Of course, that was a bummer, since we were going to see a couple more fun things before heading home that day. But even with all the sickness, we were somehow able to still have that one perfect day, and definitely made lots of memories on this trip.

Last-Minute Weekend Cruise

As spontaneous as I'm not, Tony and I actually booked one of those last-minute cruise deals back in April! Tony was stressed, tired, and overwhelmed from his basketball season, and then losing the coaching job, and he really just wanted to get away from it all. He was thinking maybe a weekend to SLC, but I suggested a cruise.  At first, he was hesitant, but then, after I reminded him of the great food and total relaxation we could enjoy, he gave me the go-ahead to book it.  Although the cruise prices for the Bahamas were fantastic, and that has been our favorite cruise destination, the flights were outrageous, and we knew we couldn't spend that kind of money on a whim. So we booked a 3-day cruise out of Long Beach and drove the 11 and a half hours to the port.

Without kids along, the drive really wasn't bad. On the way down, we split it up, driving to Primm, NV, the first day and staying in a cheap hotel there, then on to Long Beach the next day. We got there before noon and were able to board immediately.  We couldn't go to our room for a few hours yet, but the buffet was up and there were lots of places available to relax.

This cruise only had one port, Ensenada, Mexico. There really isn't much special about Ensenada, and we had been there before. We knew that we really wouldn't be experiencing anything new on this cruise, but we still had a great time enjoying the relaxation, the nightly entertainment (one band in particular that was fabulous!), and of course, the food.

We did get off the boat for the day at Ensenada. We didn't want to spend any money, so we just walked around for a bit, checked out the local fish market, went to an old mission that has been converted into a museum and convention center, walked around some more, hiked a huge hill where we could see out over the harbor and all of Ensenada, and finally enjoyed some tacos and horchata from a street vendor. YUM!!

If I were to rank this cruise with our others (we've been on 2 others, and I've been on one more with my mom and her family) it would be last. But it was still good. Just a little too short, not enough ports, and I didn't like Carnival as well as Royal Caribbean or Holland America. However, we are thinking we would do this ship again sometime if we took our kids. It had lots of fun things for kids, including water slides, miniature golf, and even nightly shows geared toward the kids.

The drive home seemed a lot longer, partly because we did it all in one day, partly because we lost a couple hours in construction between Las Vegas, and Mesquite, and partly because when we got to Evanston (just 30 mins from home) the interstate was closed!?! Luckily, Tony knew how to get home on the back dirt roads and we made it home a little after 1am. A long day in the car, but at least we could spend it with each other.