I just wanted to pop in and wish everyone a fun summer!  It’s been a busy one for our family – full of camping adventures and lots of driving!  We visited New Brunswick, PEI, Cape Breton and the South Shore of Nova Scotia in July and now we’re checking out local Ontario Provincial Parks – camping our way around the area.  It’s been a lot of fun and I’ve even learned how to load up all the bikes on the roof rack of the trailer by myself (and get them to point B without them flying away!!!)

When we’re away I haven’t been able to stay on top of all the emails coming in, but I’m trying to make sure I get to them when I get back each time.  Thank you everyone for your patience in this.

I hope that you all are having a great summer and enjoying your family time.  And – I know the piano probably isn’t being played as much as it was back in April, but you will soon start hearing those sounds again.  If you are back from holidays I would encourage you to start encouraging your child to take out their last year’s book and play through their songs and see how much they can remember.  This will make the first classes a bit easier for them, although we will be doing some reviewing in those first few weeks.  Instead of just asking them to go to the piano and practice you can always approach it in a performance or incentive way.  They can learn a new song or review an old one and play for their friends or for an ice cream incentive, or whatever your child would like.

As a piano teacher you’d think that my children are practicing every day during the summer – but, well – um – they’re not . . . we’ve had a bit of a break as well (especially because we haven’t been home a lot).  But now I’m hearing the piano as I’m getting dinner ready and even working outside in the yard – rainy days are always easier.  And I’ve been using Piano Maestro with all 3 of my kids (MB3, Grade 6 RCM, Grade 8 RCM) to learn some fun new songs and they’ve been loving it.  If you haven’t tried it with your child yet I’d highly recommend it.  I know that some of you have been playing with it and congrats on doing so well!  For my new students, I’m sorry but this is a program for the iPad that I will get you involved in as we move along our musical journey together.

Fall will be on us soon enough so enjoy the time that you have with your kids out of school and have fun making new memories with them.

I’ll see you all in the Fall!!!

Carrie