SECE | Christine Goodner: The Suzuki Triangle Blog, Author, Speaker, Podcaster

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:

20 Skills Developed Through Suzuki ECE

The longer I teach Suzuki ECE classes the more amazed I am by all that children ages 0-3 (and their parents) are learning from week to week. There are so many amazing moments of seeing a children grasp a new concepts during each class! Below are some of the most striking examples of skills children are developing in SECE classes. You can read them below and also I've made a word art printable of them that you can get by…

The Impact of Music from Birth [A SECE Parent Interview]

Teaching Suzuki Early Childhood Education (or SECE) classes is truly one of the highlights of my week. The development in the children we work with happens literally before our eyes and there’s no doubt that music is having a wonderfully positive impact on both the students and families.

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be a parent in a SECE class? How young is too young to start attending? What might your child get out of Suzuki ECE that sets it apart from other programs?

I am excited today to share an interview with a parent in our SECE program who started attending classes with her daughter when she was just 7 weeks old.

At the time of this interview, Summer is just over two years old. I was excited to ask Heather, her mom, about their experience in the program, how it has impacted Summer over these past two years and why SECE is still an important part of their lives two years later.

Enjoy!

Christine: What interested you in signing Summer up for the Suzuki ECE class at such a young age?

Heather: At around a month old, Summer could be quite fussy and I noticed when we would go out around others it seemed to help comfort her. We went to a musical instrument themed play date at a friend’s house and after Summer cried for twenty minutes solid in the car, the door to the house opened and a clear triangle sounded out. Summer stopped crying and was interested and content as she listened to the other simple instruments.

On our first day of Suzuki ECE class, Summer was 7 weeks old. She heard the instruments and quietly listened and took it all in.

I could tell each week that she had a lot to think about from class. She was unable to stay awake the entire class time or needed feeding intermittently but we could step out or sit to the side of the room while she napped.

It’s truly amazing to me that it didn’t matter what her mood was like earlier in the day or in the car, when class started she listened and thought. As she got older, she became more aware of and interested in her classmates too.

Dispelling a Myth about Suzuki ECE

Suzuki Early Childhood Education (SECE) is a big passion of mine. I am always excited to talk to other teachers and new parents about why I love it so much. My background is in Early Childhood Education and I consider teaching young students my specialty. I have taught in other ECE music programs before and there are lots of great things about them. I don’t have anything negative to say about them and I think that having a young child…