Practicing Game Board

Today is Sunday and our kids don't typically play with friends because it's a family day.  However, my 3-year-old's best friend lives next door and it's very easy for them to meet and play outside without us knowing.  Today was one of those days.  When I found her making a "nest" in my front yard out of all of my beautiful daffodils I knew she wouldn't want to come in to practice - but it was time.

Because of this, she wasn't too happy, but I had a fun game up my sleeve.  We are practicing twinkles after twinkles every day.  They are slowly getting better, but it's still not time to move on.  Because of this practicing is becoming hard for the little one so I'm having to find creative ways for her to want to practice.  I've had these music dice for a while.  Each side is half of a twinkle variation.  I made a game board with the corresponding rhythms.  She got to choose her favorite Japanese eraser as her game piece.  She then got to roll the rhythm die and move it to the matching rhythm.  We then played the twinkle that matched the rhythm.  Some rhythms (like 4 16th notes) can be used for more than one variation (var. A or var. E).  Overall it was a very successful practice and she was so happy when she "won" (got to the end of the chart.)

Well, the other girls saw these games and wanted to play as well.  For the older ones, I had a blank game board that was laminated.  I used a dry-erase marker to write various portions of the practice.  6 year old picked her Japanese Eraser (a panda body with a giraffe head.)  She also chose a big green die to roll.

My 10-year-old had a longer chart because she has much more to practice.  Because of this, she got to use a 10-sided die.  Since this game is a game of chance as to what they will practice some things got skipped and conversely some things were played multiple times.  Because of this, it wouldn't be an ideal way of practicing all the time, but it sure was fun for a sunny Sunday afternoon.  The great thing about these game boards is that you can make up your own rules!

You can find the music dice for sale here.  

There are lots of other fun dice for sale here.  
You can find tons of fun Mini Erasers for sale here.

You can download the game boards here.

Have fun!

More and more twinkles!!!

We're to the point where my 3-year-old knows all of her Twinkles, but it's definitely not time to move on.  There is still a lot of work with tone and bow control and posture and so practicing has become less desirable.  I will post our top 10 Twinkle games soon!  However, I just wanted to let you know that I have found a WONDERFUL tool that makes practice charts and games even more awesome!  My laminator!  I don't know why I never thought of this before.  Someone gave me a laminator years ago and I ran out of the plastic stuff and always thought it was too expensive to replace so I gave it away.  Recently I was looking around for the best store to get stuff laminated and someone mentioned just buying one.  So, I looked on Amazon and found one for only $25.  I got 100 of the plastic sheet things for $16.  That's only 41 cents per page for my first 100, then only 16 cents per page after that.  That's a great deal AND I don't have to load all my kids in the minivan to take them to the office supply store.

ANYWAY - I started laminating some of the charts and games I've been using.  This is totally awesome because stickers stick - but they can come off as well so the chart can be reused!  Also, whiteboard markers and wet-erase markers work great so you can customize some of the blank charts and games - then erase and start over.

Right now we're still working on our 100 var. A twinkles (only 10 left!) and 100 Twinkle Themes.  But, darling daughter loves to put stickers on charts so I am using the Pineapple/Ice Cream Cone race as well.

Also - I'm finding that I really have to break up the practice into little segments because it's just a killer for her to stand and concentrate while playing nothing but Twinkles.  So, we're practicing 1-2 twinkles 3-4 times a day.  It's not so bad as long as I make it fun.