What tips do you have for someone trying to learn snare drum?

Question:

What tips do you have for someone trying to learn snare drum?

Books, repertoire, drills, etc. good for an elementary school aged boy.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: all of the percussion books in the "essential elements" series are pretty good at teaching snare drum. another exercise you can have the boy try to tighten up his chops is to set a metronome to a certain beat, and have the kid tap his foot to the beat, and at the same time have him alternate his stickings to the beat like this (R = right hand, L = left hand):
RLRL RLRL - he should hit with his right hand on every downbeat (he should be hitting the snare drum twice in every beat)
RLLR LRRL - he should hit with his right hand on the first downbeat, then his left hand on the second downbeat, etc. (he should be hitting the snare drum twice in every beat).

once he gets better at that, he can try hitting the snare drum four times in every beat - (RLRL all in one beat, or RLLR all in one beat).

sorry if this is confusing, but it's hard to explain over the internet. also, if he wants to start learning drumset, that helps you learn snare drum in the process (and is a lot more fun in my opinion!). that's how i learned snare drum - i learned drumset, and my snare drum abilities just sort of came on the way!

this is a good website for learning drumset, and it's how i got started: http://www.studydrums.com/