Practice session goals

Often I will get to a lesson with a student and ask, so what did you focus on with your practicing this week? and often the answer will be, "well I played it through a few times..."
I get it, practice can seem like a chore to a child at times. Lately I have been saying less and less in lessons and when they get confused and say, "was that ok?" I will ask "I don't know, was it? what do you think?"
This (after confusing them even more for a while) forces them to listen more critically to what they are doing. I often will say, your answer doesn't have to be "right" but I want you to start having an opinion. If they don't learn to ask themselves these questions, It can become all to easy to lay back and expect me to do all the critical thinking for them. I think in practice sessions you can help your child by asking them to come up with one or two things to focus on in that session only. If they only ask themselves the question, "what could I have done that would have made it sound a bit better?" they usually know a lot of the answers already. The only way to gain confidence in their own opinions is to be able to have one. This is why as a parent, instead of making them "wrong" make sure the focus is to try a few different things instead. Allow them to experiment a little more, and increase their confidence!