One of the key factors in ensuring the success of your piano studio is in having invested piano students. And the best way to have invested piano students is to have involved piano parents. So when the warm months hit, and everyone gets distracted by picnics, cottages, tent trailers and mosquitos… it’s also time for piano teaches to ramp up their attempts at continuing family involvement in piano lessons. No one wants two months worth of lag time.
Parents + Kids = Piano Success
It’s not difficult to keep families involved in their children’s piano education… but it does take effort. However, YOU want a summer too! So, here are 16 Amazing Summer Piano Projects that will keep your families “thinking piano” but that takes less than 5 minutes of your time to implement!
All you need to do is print out this free sheet, send it home, and ask your piano kids to complete all 16 piano challenge tasks before the summer is over. If you are teaching during the summer, this is a project that can continue on in the background. If you take a break in the summer, this is something that can keep your students engaged in music during their time away from lessons. We all expect piano students to practice during the summer months… but these activities encourage more than just practice.
Involved Family Is Key
We spend so much time as piano teachers on keeping students interested… and it’s easy to forget that we should also be focusing on involving the family. When we create Teach Piano Today’s products we do so with an awareness of the importance of the role of parents in piano education. If you’re looking for simple ways to involve Mom and Dad, then we have 88 activities that will be a blast for all involved… AND teach important theory concepts. One mom recently wrote to me about the book and said “Tonight’s family dinner was absolutely hilarious… who knew music theory could be so much fun?!“
Rachel says
LOVE THIS! Implementing this week.
Dorla says
Yes! Yes! Yes! Sending this home!
Cheri says
These are great! I will definitely send home with students who are taking the summer off from piano lessons. Is there any way to get rid of the black border around the page to save on ink?
Andrea says
Hi Cheri – the link now has no border 🙂
Cheri says
Thank you! 🙂
Susan McGuire says
This goes right along with the library’s reading challenge! Thank you for thinking of this and especially for sharing it!!!
Nicola Brown says
Thank you for these fun suggestions! I’m sending these out this week!
Marian says
You make your handouts look nicer than I do! I think this may be my summer project, to make my handouts look more appealing! Thank you!
Sue Dugan says
I have done this in past years, but as a music bingo. Each letter represents a different emphasis, ie theory/composition, practice challeges, method book, ear training /concert attendance, etc. Each line has one challenge that is more demanding like doing six days of practice in a week (that’s a challenge during summer for many students). Each bingo gets a reward and a complete blackout has been money or a gift card. It keeps the students and parents involved and everyone wins by meeting even small goals!
Kathy G says
I’ve been looking for something exactly like this! Thanks so much. I am going to tweak this list a bit and send it right out. Wow.
Margie says
The kids love this. Thank you for sharing.
Andrea says
So glad to hear it Margie!
Karen Benson says
I gave this to my students for a Summer Challenge and said that if they bring it back to their first lesson in September with all 16 items completed, they would get a prize. Now I just have to figure out what would be a good prize! Any suggestions?
Melanie says
Thank you! I’m so excited to send this home with my students this week. I’m thinking ice cream party at the end of summer for all those who complete at least 12 items.
I wanted to add your names to this (give credit where credit is due!) but couldn’t figure out a way to edit it. Something you might consider on future hand-outs. You come up with some great stuff – your name should be on it! 🙂
Jenna says
This is EXACTLY what I was looking for. As I am having my fourth child at the end of July, summer break is going to be longer than usual. Do you have any other tips or resources for keeping them practicing? Thank you!