Twinkle Games

We did it!  My darling daughter finally received her Twinkle Trophy!!  She played variation A and Twinkle Theme at least 100 times and all the others in the middle just as many (but we didn't count.)  She can stand and play all six twinkles in a row with the piano.  She has graduated from TWINKLES!!  Yea!!!

This is such an accomplishment for me as well as her.   I feel so blessed that this lovely girl loves the violin and I think a lot of it is because practicing has been (for the most part) fun from the beginning.  She loves to get the violin down and play every single day.  It has become a part of her.  I've taught her the beginning phrase of French Folk Song and she plays it non-stop.  This girl was made to play the violin.

With that said - it still hasn't been all cake and cookies along the way.  Here are some "games" we have played to keep practicing interesting and fun.  We don't play games every day, but when times get hard it's always nice to have one of these games ready so practicing can still get done.  I will also use these games in the future because there will be lots of review of these twinkles!

Twinkle Memory

I like to use Twinkle Flashcards for twinkle memory.  I just make two sets of the cards, shuffle them around, and set them upside down and play memory.  Whenever she gets a match, we play that twinkle!

Meredith Strings Review Cards

I just love these cards to use with all my kids and students.  For the twinkles, I just take out the 6 cards for twinkle and put them on one side of me, and when she plays them I put them on the other side of me.  When they are gone - she's done!  Sometimes I turn them over, sometimes I don't so she can pick.  You can also do these with the flashcards above, but these cards are so cute with the pictures - and they are great quality!

Sticker Charts

My daughter is a sticker person and she loves putting stickers on a chart.  I have several different charts to download and use as you're playing your twinkles.  For us, we had to have a folder to keep them all straight, but it was worth it because each time she'd finish a chart I'd let her get a prize out of my prize box (a box full of dollar store items.)  This was a great motivator - especially when she'd near the end of a chart.  She'd end up playing some of the pieces more than ten times a day because she knew she was close to accomplishing her goal.

Caterpillar and Twinkle game

There are two versions of this game.  Basically, it's just the twinkles listed twice and sometimes we'd start from one end and go to the other.  Sometimes I'd just have her put a sticker on the chart and when it was full we were done.  I laminated these ones so we could use them over and over.

Rhythm Game

This was our favorite game.  There was so much chance in this game.  Sometimes it would go on forever and sometimes we were done in a snap.  What I love about this game is that my daughter really recognizes the different rhythms.  This was another game I laminated so we could use it over and over.  Sometimes I wouldn't even use the game board and she'd roll the rhythm die to see what twinkle to play.

Twinkle Game Board

This is a fun game board that uses all sorts of bright colors and has lots of activities.  This one is a favorite to use with a fun die (really big - or really small - or just really pretty.)  I noticed with a 3-year-old attention span it was a bit long, but it could be divided into a couple of days of practicing or would probably be great for a student who is 5 years or older.

There are also lots of blank game boards available to download for free online.  I'd love to hear some of your ideas for practicing the twinkles!

Twinkle Practicing has to be Fun!

The resistance begins.  My 3-year-old has really loved practicing, but recently she gets grumpy when I say it's time to practice.  A part of me wants to get upset about it, and another just wants to quit and give up.  My SMART side tells me that I just need to change things up again and make them different and fun.  3-year-olds love to play games (as do most children of any age.)  I decided to pull out an old game that I've had online for a while and use that - and so far we've had a great practicing success!

The goal of the practicing is to get through the entire game which is just every twinkle variation twice.  Right now she's still just doing "Bread Song" on a couple variations, but she can play 4 variations all the way through.  However - Twinkle can be a very long song for a 3-year-old so if she decides to play a "Bread Song" of a Twinkle she can play all the way through she has to play it twice.  When she gets to the end of the game she wins and practicing is over!  I slip in a few bow exercises between pieces, and there is definitely a lot of rolling on the floor, looking out the window, and playing with anything she can get her hands on.

Yesterday we didn't need treats when we practiced, but today she wanted some.  She doesn't even like Smarties, but we used them anyway and she was happy.

What are some of your ideas for practicing with a young twinkler?

You can download this chart here.

A Slightly Longer Practice

I'm amazed at how my 3-year-old's attention span is increasing.  It can sometimes be hard for a new parent practicing with their young child to imagine the future with their child practicing for 15, 20, or even a half hour.  At first, practicing is really just about 5 minutes.

I mentioned a while ago that my darling daughter was practicing 10 things a day. That's it!  We would flip a bead on our 10-bead counter for every little song she played.  She only had about 5 little pre-twinkle pieces in her repertoire so we'd play them an average of two times per day, but some days some would be played more and some less.  At the time I remember thinking, "I'm only having her play everything twice?  That doesn't seem like enough, but she won't stand still any longer."

Now that we're working on Twinkle we've upgraded to the DOUBLE bead counter - 20 beads.  She now plays 20 things during her practice and the goal is to get AT LEAST 3 full Twinkles in, but I hope to get as many as 5.  She is still so little (3 years and 8 months) and doesn't like to play the whole Twinkle song too many times because it's so long.  She does great at breaking it apart into sections.  She also reviews all of her pretwinkle songs, is starting the "bread song" on all the other rhythms, and is now learning the notes with flashcards - we're working on open strings right now.

She's basically in charge of her own practicing and she always gets it done because she gets a piece of gum after she practices every day if she finishes the entire bead counter.

We are working on a 100 chart for Twinkle Variation A.  I will also start a 100 chart for Twinkle Theme when she learns it.  After she completes those charts and can play through all the twinkles with the piano she'll earn her Twinkle Trophy!  I'll be sure to post about that when it happens!








The double-bead counters are made to order.  If you would like to order one you can e-mail me at leslie@thepracticeshoppe.com.  You can look at the website: www.thepracticeshoppe.com and look at all the choices of bead counters.  

Twinkle Flashcards

For a twinkler, flashcards are very versatile.

I start teaching the young twinklers to recognize a twinkle rhythm. As soon as they master this we do it to break up practice sessions. There's something fun about flashcards for a 4-year-old.

The twinkle flashcards are also a good way to decide what to play next during practicing. My 4-year-old has learned all variations of twinkle and we have to play them all every day. However, she HATES when I tell her what to do, so she chooses a flashcard and plays that particular twinkle.


Other flashcards that I use to break up practicing or lessons are note value cards (quarter note, half note, eight note, quarter rest, etc.)

I'm also starting note flashcards with my early twinklers and they are really picking it up. I start with the open strings, then the A string notes, E string notes, etc.

I don't do flashcards every day, but it is a great excuse for a child to put her violin down and have a little break - but still be learning.

You can download these twinkle rhythm flashcards here at The Practice Shoppe.

How to Practice with a Twinkler

It's been three weeks of practicing with my 4-year-old daughter and I'm reminded of some essential steps to practicing with a small twinkler. 

1. Make it short - most 3, 4, and 5 year olds are not used to standing still for very long. The time will gradually lengthen during practicing, but at the beginning make it short and consistent so they have a good experience with practicing. If it's drudgery from the beginning you will not succeed.

 

2. Make it fun - There is no problem with using fun practice charts, toys, and treats with practicing. My daughter gets so excited for her 1 candy corn after practice. So far her teacher has given her some simple chart to X off each day. This week we have a 25 chart to complete for her new song, Pop Goes the Weasil. Wands, toys, animals, etc. all make practicing fun for a little child. Think of their preschool class...they aren't sitting in desks all day learning their colors and shapes - they're learning in a fun environment. Make that fun environment at home.

 

3. Do it over and over and over and over and over again - If your practicing is short you can do it a lot of times throughout the day. The first week my daughter just had to bow, clap the rhythms, make a simple fox with her bow hand, and hold her violin up with her chin. All together that took about 5 minutes. We'd do it all over after she did everything once. If she was still focused we'd do it all over a third time. Then later that day we'd show dad what she was practicing and do it again once or twice. That's practicing everything FIVE times each day. What a great way to start getting geared up for repetitions - which any person learning an instrument will have to do A LOT of!