Practicing with my 4-year-old has become increasingly difficult. She gets all grumpy and her bottom lip sticks out and she refuses to do anything. Today was actually a good day of practicing so I knew I needed to get stuff done while she was happy. She REALLY needed to practice the C section of Perpetual Motion because she kept slopping through it - never getting it right. I pulled out the trusty bead counter that we use so often and ...what!....rejection!!! She refused. Am I such a pushover that my child gets her own way? Well, I can't force her arms to move and I can always get mad, but what good will that do? So, I'm frantically looking around quickly for something that will motivate her to practice this section over and over. What do I find? A box of blocks!
"How about every time you play this section we add a block to the stack? Let's see how high we can make it before it tips over."
Her eyes got wide and she smiled. Aha! I got her. Sure enough, she did the section over and over successfully and really improved the song during that practice session. Sometimes we just need to add a little variation to the routine and it doesn't always have to be a big planned event. I have a feeling we'll be doing overs and overs with the blocks for the next few days.
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