What to do if your student isn't practicing?

“We were really busy this week. I had to go soccer practice. We went to grandma’s this week. I forgot.”

Piano teachers - how many have you heard one of these excuses during a lesson? Or maybe after stumbling through their assignment, you ask them point blank “did you practice?” and they stare at you blankly, struggling with telling the truth or lying?

This checklist will help! Your student no longer needs to lie about their practice time or offer a ton of excuses. Neither of those options helps you in the moment of moving forward in their current piano lesson. Plus excuse giving and lying breeds mistrust between student and teacher. This checklist will help build trust with your student. They can be honest about their practicing throughout the week while still moving forward in their lessons. I have this checklist displayed next to my piano and students can pick one of the skills to do during a lesson when they didn't practice. It gives them responsibility to own their lesson and saves me from scrambling to come up with a new lesson on the spot when my preplanned lesson goes out the window.

Check on the picture below to purchase your own checklist from TPT!