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 SMART way to practice

My ambitious, excited 4-year-old wasn't so excited to practice this week. The first day after her lesson we started practicing and we only got three things done and my daughter sighed, "Mom, I'm running out of gas! I'll finish later." Well, after this was said there was no use. I tried to be upbeat, but I started to get irritated so I just quit practicing. And, because of my busy life - it didn't get done later either.

So, the next day I pulled out some treats from my studio. Smarties to be specific. There are 15 little Smartie treats inside a Smartie package and I told my sweet daughter that she could have one little treat every time we did something for practice. So, we bowed and said "Good Afternoon" and she got a treat. We did a bow exercise and she got a treat. It turns out that A LOT of practicing can get done with 15 little Smartie treats. Aside from the first day - this has been the best week of practicing.

{other things we practiced: Up Like a Rocket, Stirring the Witches Brew, chin holds, Tuca on E string, Tuca on A string, elbow stick, Pop Goes the Weasel, clapping rhythms, and everything all over again.}

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!