The holidays are ending, the relatives are leaving, but your house has new toys everywhere. In a world oversaturated with material goods and grandparents excited to spoil their grandchildren, you wonder how you can make birthdays and holidays special next year without adding to all the clutter. However, this doesn't have to be difficult. There are tons of annual memberships, classes, or music lessons that would be a great gift without taking up space in your home. Private piano lessons are a particularly good option to consider. Piano lessons will benefit your child not only intellectually, but emotionally, socially, and even physically as well. Here's how:

Intellectual Benefits

One of the most obvious benefits of taking piano lessons is simply learning to play the piano. Your child will gain a new skill. However, learning to read music can help them learn a different instrument more easily as well, expanding that skill even further. Taking piano lessons can even help improve math skills since playing the piano involves spatial-temporal reasoning. 

Emotional Benefits

Taking piano lessons also has powerful emotional benefits. When your child sees their progress at the piano, their self-esteem will grow. They will learn that if they work at something, they can improve and succeed. They will also learn to deal with the difficult emotions that come with practicing an instrument, such as frustration and sadness when progress doesn't come as quickly as they hoped. Learning to work through emotions like that will help your child in the future, no matter what they decide to do.

Social Benefits

Even though private piano lessons don't seem like they would improve social skills, there are definitely social benefits. Chances are your child has been in a classroom or team setting up until this point. They likely haven't had very much individual instruction in anything, at least not longer than a few minutes at a time. Piano lessons will give your child one-on-one interaction with an adult, so they will learn to converse with adults and build relationships, as well as take constructive criticism. And if the teacher you choose does recitals with their students, that can teach your child to be more confident when they perform in front of others.

Physical Benefits

Taking piano lessons involves a lot of sitting for long periods of time, but there are physical benefits involved. Your child's teacher will teach them good posture at the bench and to be aware of how they are holding their hands and wrists. Playing the piano also involves a lot of hand-eye coordination (and once the pedals are introduced, hand-eye-foot coordination too), which can cross over to other activities, such as sports or typing. 

So, if you're looking for a gift that won't end up forgotten at the bottom of the toy bin next year, give your child the gift of piano lessons and the many different benefits that come with them. Contact some piano teachers in your area for more information.