Day 1 of Two-a-days

Success!!! My 8 year old practiced her new pieces and scales before school. She was surprised that it didn't take her as long as she thought (she's so used to a long practice.) Since she had no violin lesson today and I didn't teach, her second practice session was before dinner. Again, she did everything on her list for afternoon - basically review and note reading - and this time I was surprised that it didn't last forever. It felt so good to know she did a full days practice today without it taking the whole evening.

I also tried this with my 4 year old. It's more common to have two-a-days with younger children because their attention span is shorter. But this time was more productive to me than it has in the past because the first practice session worked on her newest piece, scale, and the two pieces she's performing on a recital on Wednesday. We were finished before we knew it! The second practice was after dinner and it was a fun practice where she played every other piece in Book One.

Two great practices in one day! Hooray for me!

Two Practices per Day

My lovely 8 year old is waiting until the last minute of each day to practice.  It's getting on my nerves because the practices are anything but productive when she's rushing through each piece to get done before story time.  I've tried to instigate the after school practice, but she's so exhausted from the day at school and I believe she needs down time.  Unfortunately for us - after her down time is when I start to teach and I'm not there to monitor any sort of practicing.  I've been reading the Maurer's String Book and they mention practicing twice per day.  This is my project this week....to get her to practice twice: before school, and after dinner.

Morning:
Tonalization
Scales
Technique
New Piece
Previous Two Pieces

Evening:
Tonalization
Etudes/Note Reading
Review


I'll let you know how it turns out...

House Tour

Yesterday I waited until the 5:30 on Saturday evening to practice with my kids. What a terrible time to practice! They had just had a fun day, the weather was perfect and they wanted to play outside, it was the weekend so they wanted to watch a movie. Something they didn't want to do: PRACTICE! So, I had to shake it up a bit. I told my 4 year old that we would work on one song in every room in our house and when we had no more rooms we were done! In addition, I let her stand on the furniture to practice. We ended up having a great practice!