I have been a piano teacher for over 12 years now, and I am often asked questions related to kids and music lessons. I thought I'd answer some of them here, and for clarity, I'll use a Q&A format. If there's something I didn't cover, feel free to ask more questions!
Q: What instrument do you recommend my child learns first?
A: I may be biased, but piano. :) Piano allows a child to learn both treble and bass clef, which means they can learn any additional instruments with ease. The left-right coordination, as well as working with the foot pedal actually helps with reading and other brain development. At least initially, there is minimal technique that goes into learning the piano - if you push the keys "wrong" there is no squeaking or other frustrating sounds as with some instruments.
Q: At what age should my child start music lessons?
A: This varies some based on personality type and intellectual maturity. I have seen some children ready to start at 4, others are still struggling at 7. You know your child best! If in doubt, try a lesson with a teacher that often teaches young children and see how he/she does. For younger children, I recommend a 15 or 20 minute lesson rather than the traditional 30 minutes. This sets the child up for more success with sitting still, right from the start.
Q: What do you think of Suzuki-style lessons, which start children at a very young age?
A: In my personal experience and opinion, these make it difficult for a child to later learn to read music. If your goal is for them to be able to play only by ear, Suzuki is probably fine. But, the students I have seen that started with Suzuki struggled greatly when it came time for them to play written music without hearing it first. I recommend Kindermusik instead, if you want to start them young. Plus, Kindermusik is a fun time for you and your child to be together! Or, just play recordings and enjoy singing together until it's time to start lessons - you're only a young kid once. There's still plenty of time for years of piano lessons. :)
Q: What curriculum do you use?
A: I like the Piano Adventures series. They progress at an even speed - not too slow or too fast, they don't have weird/scary artwork in them :), they focus on chord theory so it's easy to move into improvisation as the student gets more skilled, and they have a wide variety of supplemental material that is all excellent. You can search for a piano teacher that uses this curriculum on the PA website.
Q: What do you do for recitals?
A: I took 20+ years of piano lessons, went to college for piano, and loathed every recital I ever did. I have played and sung in front of literally thousands of people on several occasions and the pressure was less than one of those formal recitals! Thus, I don't do typical recitals. :) When I was taking lessons as a child, my teacher would take all her students to the local retirement home and we would play for the residents. The residents got such joy from those concerts, and we got valuable performance experience without the pressure. (I distinctly remember one resident repeatedly yelling, "It's for all of us!" at one of those performances. It's difficult to feel pressure with that atmosphere! :)) I enjoy this kind of outing with my students much more than the standard recital setting, and always get great feedback on them. If kids hate music because of the pressure, haven't we missed the point? Most children will never become concert pianists, but they will have a positive or negative impression based on their early experience with music. Can you tell this is a favorite soapbox? I'm done now.
Again, I'd love to hear other thoughts and answer any other questions you have!
You can purchase the piano adventures series at Amazon
The Piano Adventures series
The Piano Adventures series has been excellent. Keep in mind with Amazon if you are not buying directly from Amazon you need to do a little checking on the 3rd party vendor first to make sure you're dealing with a reputable company.