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!

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!