I came upon this site by accident http://www.dsokids.com
It is a lot of fun and educational at the same time. Upon opening, click on “students”, category for kids which takes you to a music room full of furniture. Once you there – start exploring! Click on piano – learn about different instruments, click on a green chair – gives you ideas on practicing, click on the computer – play different games. The site is part of Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and I think they came up with a great idea on how to introduce kids to music!
It is very easy to use even for kids as young as five or six. It offers a lot of tools to drill notes, key signatures, scales, chords and more… I use it a lot with my students who are computer savvy and enjoy it. They can test themselves on a given skill and are given a score at the end; it seems like having a goal of getting a high score gives them an incentive to learn that skill and beat the previous score, so it becomes a game. Check it out!
This has been my biggest observation as a teacher:
..One of the hardest things about teaching is to teach one HOW to practice.. “Go home and practice!”. You hear that a lot, but HOW to practice is not something that is taught to a child.