Piano Lessons, how long before you know if they are going to be any good at it?

[Marne]

Dd1 (8) has almost completed her first term of paiano lessons, she has one lesson a week and practices once a week at home. I'm not sure how well she is doing (i'm not a musical person), she can play one song without her book (the pancake) but seems to be really slow at the other songs, she's just started using her left hand and if finding it a bit tricky. Does this sound about right for how long she has been learning?

Practice every day, or almost every is essential, partly to get into the habit, so she can go through phases of being more or less interested but still get on with it and progress. Once a week isn't really practice at all, it's like doing all your revision the night before an exam so never really learning anything.

I'm not sure it matters how good she is or whether she has talent. Isn't the point to provide a skill that she can enjoy, at some level and can build upon later if she chooses? Who cares if she isn't a musical prodigy, if she practises, she will learn a skill that she'll have for life, that offers all sorts of social opportunities especially if she moves on to an orchestral instrument and that can't easily be learnt from scratch in adulthood.