Setting up a Practice Pad & learning to play the Rebound stroke

Before you jump in and decide to buy a full drum set for your child, it is better to buy a SD1 Junior drum stick & Practice pad to start basic training on. There are a wide variety of practice pads available, generally start of with a 6" or 12" pad. 

You can lay it down on a flat surface, just below the belly button level with the kid playing in a standing position. Alternatively you could buy a Snare drum kit that comes with its own snare drum & stand for practice

Once you have set these up and have a Metronome (or Smartphone w/ this App) at hand you are now ready to try out your first beat - the Rebound stroke

To accurately describe a Rebound stroke, imagine throwing a tennis ball on a drum head. After hitting the target, it would bounce back up, or "rebound." To sustain a constant bounce of the ball, all you have to do is push it back down (or "dribble" it) - the drum head does the work of bouncing it back to you

If you have a stick in your hand & you "throw" it on the drum head, it will rebound - assuming that you don't use any tension or pressure to stop it. The harder that you throw it down, the higher it will rebound

The trick to playing a relaxed rebound stroke with the stick is to not squeeze the back fingers! The more that you squeeze, the more tension that's produced in the forearm. More tension = slower strokes so STAY RELAXED

Now using the rebound technique play the following pattern with your Right (R) & Left (L) hands, 

1.	R R R R   R R R R   L L L L   L L L L
2.	R R R R   L L L L   R R R R   L L L L
3.	R R L L   R R L L   R R L L   R R L L
4.	R L R L   R L R L   R L R L   R L R L
5.	R L R R   L R L L   R L R R   L R L L
6.	R R L R   L L R L   R R L R   L L R L
7.	R L L R   L R R L   R L L R   L R R L
8.	R R R L   R R R L   R R R L   R R R L
9.	L L L R   L L L R   L L L R   L L L R
10.	R L R L   R R L L   R L R L   R R L L

Practice a perfect rebound stroke as follows:

• Day 1: at 60 beats per minute (using a metronome) for 5 minutes per hand    
• Day 2: at 80 bpm for 5 min per hand    
• Day 3: at 100 bpm for 5 min per hand   
• Day 4: at 120 bpm for 5 min per hand

In Summary, here is what you are trying to accomplish:

• Use a full wrist bend on each stroke - the arm only moves in reaction to the wrist.
• The hand should stay FLAT (horizontal to the floor) while you play.
• The elbow and shoulder should be RELAXED & close to the body.
• The tip of the stick should hit in the center of the drum.
• Watch yourself in a mirror to see if the stick is traveling straight up and down.
• Finally, work to keep a STEADY TEMPO (the tempo describes the speed of the music).

See accomplished drummer Mark Wessels demonstrate this technique here from his book "A Fresh Approach to the Snare Drum"