While I have done a fantastic job ensuring that my child listens to her Suzuki recording daily, I have failed miserably at making practice a daily habit. We did great for a while when she first got her violin, but after a while it became a fight and struggle each time I tried to get us to practice. She would come to the practice area, but spent most of her time wandering around the room or rolling around on the floor not listening. Sometimes she would be the teacher and pretend that I was a student, and that made her happy; however it made it impossible for me to teach her anything new. Since we're supposed to do this with joy, I decided to back off for a while and just continue playing the audio recording and let her come to group classes to see the other children having fun .
Last fall, a couple of her friends from school started taking lessons with me. This has been helpful in motivating her because the students are progressing quickly and already know how to play more than my child simply because they actually practice. My child is a bit proud as well as a little competitive.
After a frustrating (to me) group class where I saw the other children paying close attention to me while my own child made goofy faces and squirmed about as a distraction, I decided she needed to practice so she would feel prepared and confident at group class. I think much of her goofy behavior resulted from feeling ill prepared for a group class. I decided it was time we made practice a habit and that I try harder to make it more fun for her.
When I was going through my teacher training with Joanne Bath, she gave several of the students some practice charts from the Enchanted Workshop. ( I would be interested to know if this company is still in business.) I added my own touch by drawing silly faces on the sunflowers and coloring them in. It was meant for the students to color them, however I found that my own child doesn't really enjoy coloring as much as she enjoys other activities.
She has been really interested in earning money by doing chores lately. She keeps asking if she keeps her room clean can she have money. (I told her some things you have to do just because you live here.) Since the sunflower faces were the exact same size as a penny, I thought this was a great opportunity for her to earn a little money for something she really needs to do- practice!
After coloring and laminating the practice page, I put a penny on each face. I also made a practice bank for her with a pretty jar I got at the craft store. I decorated it with music notes, motivational phrases, her first initial, and a little picture frame with the phrase "Practice Pays" inside. I already had her violin unpacked and tuned and ready to go. This way we would be ready to practice as soon as I picked her up from school.
On the way home I played the Suzuki recording for Twinkle Variation A in the car. She complained about violin being boring and how she didn't want to listen to the recording because it's yucky. (She really goes all out!) I explained to her that I had a new game we were going to play and she can earn some money.
She was willing to try it when we got home. I showed her the chart and bank and told her that each time she played what I asked her to, she could put a coun in the bank. She also enjoyed revealing the silly faces under the pennies and tried copying them. (She's definitely the class clown and loves making goofy faces as I mentioned before.)
Next thing you know she had played the "cookie" part of the "Twinkle Cookie Sandwich" 10 times, happily smiling. She even said, "I changed my mind; Violin isn't boring. This is fun!"
Thank goodness for Joanne's suggestion of "shiny pennies" and the practice charts. I have finally something that will motivate my kid!
