7 Ways to Support Your Child’s Musical Interests

When your child shows an interest in something, it’s your duty as a parent to show your support. So if your child leans toward music and playing instruments, here’s how you can show your support even if you’re not musically-inclined yourself:

1. Enroll them in lessons

For non-playing parents, the best way to teach our child how to play an instrument is to enroll them in lessons. With a professional teaching them piano lessons or guitar lessons, your child can learn how to play faster and easier.

Pick a good teacher that will be able to hold your child’s attention during lessons while providing a suitable learning environment at the same time. Ask for recommendations from friends and family, as well as your child’s music teacher at school. It can also be a good idea to enroll your child in a group class where they can socialize with other kids while learning.

2. Help your child practice

Practicing at home is crucial when your child is learning an instrument. Even if their pick-up is fast, they might quickly forget what they learned if you don’t help them practice at home.

Even if you are not a player yourself, you can still help your kids practice their chosen instrument at home. Here are a few tactics that you can try:

  • Set up a regular practice schedule that will comfortably fit in their routine
  • Encourage them to practice at least thirty minutes a day or more, even when you’re not around to watch them.
  • Get practice pieces from their teacher or download sources from the Internet.
  • Work on difficult tasks or pieces together. Take note of what they’re having trouble with so you can tell the teacher next time.
  • Download kid-friendly practice videos that your child can follow.
  • Don’t force your child to practice when they don’t want to. Otherwise, it will make practice sessions seem like a chore.
  • Don’t make negative comments about their playing. It will take some time before they can get to a point where the music sounds good.
  • Provide lots of praise and encouragement.

Ensure you have the right musical equipment for them at home. This could be a guitar, a drummer pedal, or even spare strings for a violin. The key is to have any items and spares they might need.

3. Learn with them

You are your child’s first role model, and if they see you playing music, it will help encourage them to continue learning. While your child is taking lessons from a private tutor, consider learning the instrument yourself at home. As an adult, you might be able to pick up lessons faster or play instruments easier since you have better finger dexterity. So while both of you are learning, you can help overcome difficult tasks by demonstrating it yourself.

Moreover, some children learn better when they are teaching someone else how to play. You can ask them to teach you something while practicing to help develop their skills and build confidence. At the same time, this will allow you to bond with your child through learning.

4. Hold performances at home

It doesn’t matter if your child is a prodigy or a complete beginner. If your child wants to play for you and the family, it shows that they are proud of what they have learned, much like when they show you a picture they drew at school. Show them support by watching their performance with full attention and encouraging them to play for other friends and family.

5. Listen to songs together

Make music appreciation a bonding moment between you and your child. At the same time, you can also get to know the type of music they are interested in, as well as the pieces that they like to play. Help your young musician expand their range by introducing music as well. They might fall in love with the songs that you grew up, too.

6. Attend performances

Attend local music festivals or concerts by your child’s favorite artists. It’s a great way to introduce new role models to them at an early age, whom they can look up to when it comes to music. Use services like TicketSmarter to get access to some of the most popular shows in the country that you and your child will enjoy. Showing musicians your support will help your child know that they have your support in their passions as well.

7. Don’t push

Don’t force your child to take up music. Don’t push them to practice when they don’t want to. Don’t make them feel guilty by saying you paid for their lessons or instruments. Your child will gravitate towards their interests on their own, and you have to let them do so.

Seeing your child develop a skill or talent is one of the most rewarding moments as a parent. So if your child shows a deep interest in music, help them cultivate their passion by showing your unconditional support.

How to Deal with a Divorce While Putting the Family First

No one ever envisages themselves getting divorced, but these things do happen. If you find yourself in a situation where you’re about to go through divorce proceedings, it’s a good idea to consider how you want to approach this. There are certainly good and bad ways to go through a divorce.

That’s something that’s particularly true when you have kids to think about. Your family unit might be changing, but you will still always be a family when you have kids with your ex. That’s why you should try to go through the divorce in a way that allows you to put the family first. Here’s how to do that.

Accept That Sometimes Divorce is Best for the Kids

The first thing you need to do is accept that sometimes there are very good reasons for getting a divorce, and it’s not just about you and your ex. You can read more about divorce at Peters May’s blog, which is one of the best law firms dealing with divorce. Their blog offers many tips and steps on how to manage your family during these difficult times. For many families, divorce is a positive step for the kids as well. When your kids are caught in the middle of constant marital strife and conflict, it’s not good for their development. It’s often much better for them if you separate and develop a more positive parental relationship.

Keep Conflict Away from the Children

When you’re going through the process of divorce, there are probably going to be points of conflict, disagreement and contention. Those moments need to be dealt with carefully because you don’t want to run the risk of letting your children see this. It should all happen away from the children and it should be handled in a positive way where possible. But the last thing your kids need to see is the ugly side of the divorce unfolding.

Seek to Cooperate

It should be your aim to cooperate even though you’re going through your divorce. It’s worth doing this for the sake of your family, even if you don’t always feel like being cooperative. In order to achieve a smooth divorce that’s going to achieve the best outcomes for your family as a whole, you sometimes need to hold back your impulses and try to bite your tongue even if you don’t really want to. Cooperating is a big part of that.

Make the Most of Mediation Services if You Think They’ll Help

There are all kinds of services out there that can be of assistance to you if you want to ensure you achieve a smooth and positive divorce from your ex. Mediation services are particularly useful for couples that are deadlocked and can’t reach a compromise. A good mediator will be able to deescalate the situation and help you to reach a more positive outcome. It’s important to know help is out there if you think you’ll benefit from it.

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Communicate with the Kids in a Way That’s Appropriate for Their Age

It’s a good idea to ensure your kids are kept in the loop to some extent when you’re going through all this. You don’t want them to feel kept in the dark regarding what’s happening. Of course, what you tell them and how much you tell them will depend on their age and how much they’re able to handle. It’s up to you to make that call and ensure you treat them in an age appropriate way. If you treat them as a child when they’re really a teenager, they’ll only resent the situation more.

Let the Attorneys Work on the Details

Letting the attorneys involved in your divorce do most of the heavy lifting for you is a good idea. With the proper Father’s Right Attorney in place, you can fight your case and allow them to do their work while you stay away from conflict. The same applies to both parents and the attorneys they choose to hire as part of their divorce proceedings.

Don’t Forget to Take Care of Yourself Too

Don’t forget that you need to look after yourself at this stressful time too. You don’t want to put yourself in a situation where the stress is impacting your mental and physical health. That’s not good for you or anyone in your family, so take the time to step back, take it easy and look after yourself when necessary.

Dealing with a divorce always puts a strain on the family. It’s not going to be easy, but that doesn’t need to mean it’s going to be a complete nightmare. You can find the right middle ground and ensure the divorce progresses in the most amicable and agreeable way possible with the help fo the tips above.

4 Tips to Improve Your Child’s Organization

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Kids are not necessarily known for their organizational skills, but its something they will need to learn if they want to stay on top of their school work and personal life when they get older. As a parent, there are few things more infuriating than seeing a child with terrible time management; it can affect you, their friends, and your child themselves, so here are four tips to improve your child’s organization. 

Don’t Hoard 

Encouraging your child not to hoard is perhaps one of the most important ways to improve their organizational skills. However, it can be a challenge. Kids don’t really like getting rid of anything, especially when they get to an age where they are convinced they will use something again.  

But, it’s unlikely they will, so if you want to make sure they don’t fill their closet with clutter, encourage them to sell game consoles, clothes, shoes, instruments, and anything they will never use again. They might protest, but you know better. 

Break Down Tasks

Many tasks can be daunting, especially if they feel like mammoth chores that will take hours. This can make your kids procrastinate, which means the duties will never get completed, anyway. 

To overcome this, you can get them to break down the tasks into smaller and more manageable chunks. Rather than asking them to vacuum the house, get them to do it room-by-room. This doesn’t sound so bad, and if they do one room, they might feel they have the time to do another. By the time they’ve finished, they will feel they’re on a roll and be happy to do all the vacuuming in one go. 

Help Them Create a To-Do List

To-do lists are useful for a variety of reasons. They stop your children forgetting their chores and responsibilities, and the satisfaction that comes from crossing something off will motivate them to keep going. 

These to-do lists can also be daunting, though, so you can advise them to separate the list into easy things, such as doing the dishes or taking the dog for a walk, and difficult things, like their essay. This will help them decide which tasks to prioritize. 

Establish a Routine

Routines are something that you kids will need to get into as they grow older, so they may as well establish a routine as early as possible. Otherwise, they risk sleeping in too late every day, which can waste their days off, and this means they don’t have time to do anything. 

By helping them establish a routine, they can organize their day more efficiently, giving them the time to do all the serious hard stuff like homework or chores, and still have time to relax and enjoy their evening once they are finished. 

Neat and Tidy

A tidy room creates an orderly life and mind. Not many people realize it, but clutter and organization can have a severe impact on stress levels and focus. As your kids have enough to worry about when growing up, such as school, crushes, and their future, getting them to stay organized can give them one less thing to worry about. 

Al’s TV Show

Not to be out done by his sister, Alex has started his own YouTube Channel and has been eager to get started on adding videos.

We got the lemon challenge video posted yesterday. So be sure to check it out! We also got a classic video posted showing off some smooth slow-motion jumping.

Al wasn’t into the lemon as much as his sister was. This gave us some hilarious content for his YouTube channel.

Always brave and ready to splash into some water, here is a classic throwback to one of Al’s first of many big jumps into the water!

Wanna see more? Be sure to subscribe to Al’s TV Show!