DD's piano teacher is on the staff of the Special Music school. Part of their plan is that parents sit in on lessons for young students, I take notes, some videotape the lesson.
So when I do practice with her, 95% of the time, I work with her so that I am not wasting money going over the same stuff. And we work on technique and tempo, things that don't require me to be a musician.
On the sports side. Yes, an athlete does spend a lot of time with the coach -- at the point when they are really, really good. In the beginning, it is the parent who works with the child, whether the father playing catch in the backyard, or the mother doing sit ups with her future gymnast. I sit with a two mothers at gymnastics, who put a bar on their daughter's door so they could practice pullovers and work stomach muscles (started with their daughters at 4). And their daughters (5 & 6) go twice a week to gymnastics. DD6 was feeling badly about how she was not as good so I told her to practice her back bends (something she could hardly start, let alone do). So I helped her every morning to do 3. In 1.5 months she could stand and just bend backwards into a bridge. This was a challenge. The piano is less of a challenge.
Ren
