However, practicing on the piano or an instrument may not be as easy as it seems. It requires a lot of energy and coordination. If a child is tired and hungry, the motivation to practice is low. Playing a wrong rhythm, a wrong note or wrong finger is frustrating enough. On top of that, if parents get mad at the children, the negative reinforcement will impact on the self-esteem and motivation of the child.
Therefore from the experience I have over the years, I believe in order to give happy practice time we need to understand the psychology of the children children. Even adults want to have fun and play games! If practices are presented as games instead of repetitive playing of the songs (if possible even replace the word "practice" with "let's play games or some fun on the piano"), then children will be more receptive to the idea. During the fun time, there can be creative elements added to that, for example rolling a spinner to find out which song to play first, rolling a dice to find out how many times to play a song etc., usually works better than just asking children to keep practicing.
Also, parents and children need to know that it takes longer to perfect a higher level song. Parents can help children to set smaller goals per day so that they feel the task easier to accomplish. The successful experience will then feedback as positive reinforcement for further practices.
Ms. Helen Chu