Plucky Violin Teacher’s Best Blog Posts from 2018

This blog post was originally published on the Plucky Violin Teacher blog on December 28, 2018 so links and resources may not be current.

One of my favorite ways to ring in the new year is to reflect on everything I’ve accomplished in the previous. Like most, there’s so much I didn’t do that I wanted to. Disappointments, failures, mistakes. It’s easy for me to get bogged down by thinking of the goals I didn’t reach, or commitments I didn’t follow through on.

That’s not how I want to start the new year!

I want to start the year feeling energized and excited about what I accomplished in 2018, not disappointed and discouraged. So I make a list of absolutely everything I can think of that I accomplished (big and little) in 2018.

Here are some of the things on my list, so you get an idea of how obvious and small the accomplishments I’m celebrating are.

I got through months of morning sickness. Good job me.

I brought a beautiful baby girl into the world, with the help of some amazing doctors, nurses, and my husband. Yay, us!

I practiced with my son 250+ days this year. (I didn’t keep track early on in the year so I’m not sure…)

I read at least 1000 books with my kids. Maybe more. Right on, me!

I made a whole bunch of dinners for my family.

I washed thousands of dishes.

I washed and dried at least 400 loads of laundry.

I changed hundreds of diapers.

I almost potty trained a three year old.

I supported my husband while he finished a doctorate degree.

I supported my husband while he renovated our house.

I moved. Twice.

You get the idea. Listing out the seemingly small accomplishments makes me feel good about myself and the effort I’ve put forth over the past year. I encourage you to do the same!

One of my big accomplishments from 2018 is returning to blogging. I took a break for a while when I was doing some freelance writing and administrative help for an incredible life coach, Brooke Castillo.

Once my work with her came to end, I decided to pick things back up again and I’m proud of myself for jumping back in the saddle. Without further ado…

The Best Blog Posts on Plucky Violin Teacher in 2018…

2018-2019 Plucky Violin Teacher Book Club Schedule: One of my favorite things about the Plucky Violin Teacher community is the book club. It helps me stay accountable to my reading goals, and I love improving myself as a teacher and parent through reading amazing books!

Making Practice More Peaceful: I really enjoyed writing this post, it’s something I’ve been thinking about and working on constantly as I practice with my son. “This is the key to creating the learning environment Dr. Suzuki imagined for every child. An environment of love and support. Parents don’t just create that environment, we ARE the environment. Our own emotional regulation can be a soft landing for all of our children’s feelings and resulting behavior.”

The Ideal Suzuki Student: Changing our mindset about the students we teach, or the children we parent can change our experience of them. “We have the power to change our studio culture, and we don’t have to wait around for “ideal” students or parents to find us. We already have our ideal students! The children we teach offer us many opportunities to grow and learn–not only to develop better teaching techniques, but our interpersonal skills and more.”

Why I’m a Suzuki Parent: “I’m not doing this so my child can be a musical prodigy. I am doing this because I want her to have a beautiful heart and a strong mind. I am doing this for us, for our relationship, not so someone can praise me for having a talented child. It’s all about her.”

​What are your big and small accomplishments from 2018? Please share in the comments so I can celebrate with you!