20 Important Concepts Parents Learn in Suzuki ECE

Last week’s article was all about skills that young children learn in Suzuki ECE classes (Read it here). It created lots of discussion about what parents also learn over the course of attending classes with their children. So, today we’re talking all about the benefit of SECE classes for parents!

When parents ask what the best thing for them to do to get their young child ready for lessons is, I always recommend these classes to them – they really are the best way to prepare for the instrumental studio.

And that’s not only true for the students.

SECE is also the best way to prepare as a parent for your child to begin music lessons.

It can’t go without being said that SECE classes develop so much more than music readiness skills, as you’ll see from the points below.

As Suzuki taught us “Charactor first, ability second” and that is reflected in all we do in classes each week.

We are developing musical skills, language skills, and small motor skills (to name a few) but even more so, we are developing wonderful people with empathy, sensitivity, and the ability to treat people and instruments in class with care.

That parents in class develop the concepts below, is both a natural consequence of the class, and also something we quite deliberately work to help develop as teachers. Parents start to discover these concepts through the things we say as teachers, careful observation of their child through our example, and through the journaling process at the end of each class.

SECE really is an amazing source of development for children and for us, as their parents.

Here are 20 important concepts that parents learn in SECE Classes:

1.An understanding of how our individual child learns.

2. How to recognize what progress looks like at a very young age.

3. That while repetition may not appeal to us as adults, it is what young children crave and what helps them learn.

4. How to encourage empathy between our child and others.

5. To be patient – we don’t need to push hard as parents, evidence of what they are learning WILL come.

6. How observe our child and notice tiny positive changes.

7. The power of listening and practicing at home (and how skipping this really impacts the student in class).

8. How to take notes in a parent journal.

9. How essential encouragement is for children – especially encouragement from a parent.

10. How to help children learn to wait their turn (accept an item that’s not their first choice etc)

11. How to help create a calm environment for their child to learn in.

12. How much our involvement in the class as parents, impacts how involved our children are.

13. That ability really does develop remarkably early.

14. That music can help get children out of a bad mood and brighten a bad day.

15. The joy of bonding with our children and celebrating their growth.

16. That often it seems like nothing is happening, but development is happening beneath the surface.

17. To trust the process and let our children develop at their own speed.

18. That the final product is not the goal, the development of our children as people is.

19. How to create an environment that helps our children learn music well and nurtures growth.

20. That children are ready to participate in class at all different speeds, even when they are doing it at home already. We don’t need to push them to perform, they are in fact learning more than we could imagine by observing until they are ready. .

I could go on and on with this list . . . but now it’s your turn to add to it!

What have you learned as a SECE parent? What do you see the parents in your program learning?

I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

You can sign up below to download and print your own copy of a pdf of these 20 concepts.