It was about 50/50 who just practiced their lesson and never just played for the fun of it and those who practiced their lesson and also spent time just playing.
I was even surprised that there were several students who enjoy spending time at the piano creating their own music.
This leads me to think that on their Practice Record Sheet I should have a place for them to log the titles of music that they just played each day as part of their time spent at the piano.
The students get credit points for the work they do each week and all of them thought that getting credit also for the time that they spend just having fun and playing the piano should count towards that credit.
As a professional I feel strongly that there should be equal weight given to the time the students just sit at the piano and have fun playing as is given to the time they spend practicing.
As the teacher I can also learn a lot about my students and from my students when I have these discussions with them about their music learning.