piano

[crazytownmama]

I just ordered a piano is easy package...mostly for my kids to explore/have fun with...  piano lessons are in their future, but we just can't do it right now and they want to play "real" songs...  I don't know how to play, and the program uses numbers stuck to the keyboard and numbers instead of notes to teach them songs...  it totally avoids anything about fingering positions, etc.  Anyone who plays...  is this a mistake?  should i be introducing it with fingering?  or can i just let them play with it, like i had planned?  (i dont forsee having concert pianists or anything, but they DO want to learn, and i dont want a future piano teacher cursing me for letting them pick up bad habits...they're 5 and 7)

[littlest birds]

My daughters both did this.  The E-Z play Today is the same and all the songs are on the white keys, too.  After playing like this for a couple of years for fun, our youngest started lessons.  I had the very same fear and she has done great.  It did give her a little head start--Just don't expect it to be something it isn't it. 

Her piano teacher did not mind or suggest it had caused problems--maybe a fussier teacher might but she is actually very particular and precise in her methods and happily worked with her from where she was. 

It did give dd some familiarity with the placement of notes on the keyboard, plus she just really learned to like playing and feel good about it.  I would not do it differently looking back.

Oh ETA:  Ours had letters not numbers.  It probably doesn't matter much though.