Tips for Teaching Children

One of the biggest perks to being a self-employed teacher is that you get to set out the guidelines for every aspect of your business from the days and hours you choose to work right up to the content that you are willing to teach. One question that might come up on a regular basis is "What is the youngest student you will take on?". If you are an established teacher already then you probably already have your own thoughts on this. but for anyone just getting into the world of teaching, this is an area you have complete control over.

In my own teaching business, I take on students from age 8 and above. I have tried teaching younger students in the past but from my experience, 8 is the right age. I do know many other teachers who work with younger students and some who will only take on older than my lowest intake age. Children can be challenging to teach at time, but also it can be a lot of fun and extremelly rewarding. Especially if you teach a younger student who has big plans and you get to be part of their development and see them start to hit their goals.

Let's look at a few tips that can make teaching children a far less daunting idea for new teachers:

1. Keep it Fun and to the Point

Youngsters want everything to be fun. Let's aim to keep it that way. Don't drag things out and don't get too deep with the information that they don't need at this stage. The most important thing with younger students is to get them playing something and enjoying that process. Once they can start to hear something they like, they will grab it with both hands.

2. Shorter Lessons Are Sometimes Better

In my own business I offer both 30 and 60 minute sessions. I do find that students closer to the bottom end of my age acceptance are better suited to the 30 minute sessions. I think sometimes an informative and engaging short session is better than a longer session which could detract from the students concentration.

3. Encourage the Parents to Sit In

Some younger children often still lean on their parents as a safety net. I always encourage the students parents to sit in on the sessions so that they can also understand what we've covered and what the student should be doing outside of lessons to further their development. I often find that having the parent in the room makes the student feel more comfortable because they have a familiar figure in the room with them that they can feel releaxed around. It's also fun for the parent because they get to be part of their childs activity.

4. Focus the Lessons on What They Like

Children often don't want to be taught classical music or jazz or any other content they could consider boring. It's important to engage younger learners early on and hook them in. This can be done quite simply by working with songs and melodies they enjoy. This could be a popular song in the charts right now or a melody from their favourite tv show. If  you give  them something they recognise right away, you will find the lessons run much easier and it gives the student a reason to tackle that content outside of lessons. This is especially useful for guitar and piano teachers as a lot of this music can be easily translated to these instruments.