Recital Prep: Things Parents Should Know

 

 Hey, everyone! 

           Last spring I gave you the condensed version of this post. This year, you get the long version again. Please read to the end! 
  •       I know you're probably going to think this is obvious... but please make sure your child is practicing. Especially if they're doing a duet. It's not going to help their confidence if they lollygag about practice until the week before the recital. It's one of those times when it's perfectly OK to be the mean mom (or dad). Trust me, it will be worth it. 
  •     Make sure you and your family arrive at the church on time (a few minutes before 2:30 P.M.). Check the address ahead of time, so you know where you're going! 
  •      Please be respectful of church property while we are there, and remind your children not to run in the sanctuary, play with things in the church, etc.
  •      If the church has hand sanitizer available, please sanitize your hands upon entering. 
  •      Help your child feel relaxed before the recital. Many children get very nervous before a recital, which doesn't help them play their best! All your children are prepared for this. And, much as we'd like it if everything went perfectly, mistakes do happen and they're not a big deal. Remind them of these things. They will be fine! 
  •      Please clap for each student when they finish playing. All of them have put their best effort into this!
  •      I'm encouraging your children to compliment each other after the recital, so if you could also encourage this mentality, that would be great.
  •      Feel free to invite grandparents and other family members! But if they can't come, I will be videoing the whole recital and sharing the video with you, my piano families, later. (Hopefully I actually remember to do this this year. If you are one of my families, and would like a video of a previous year's performance that your child participated in, please do send me an email. I do have videos of all but one of the recitals.) 
  •      This year, we will be having some snacks and a time to visit. Unlike previous recitals, we will be having an intermission to do this in, rather than saving it for the end. This is a great time for you to connect with other families like yours! Please bring a plate of snack finger food. If your snack food is cake or something else that requires forks, please bring forks. Last recital, we were unprepared for cake, and wound up using some of the church's disposable forks. They were very gracious about it, but I would prefer not to use what's theirs when it's not what we're paying for. 


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