Practice Ideas

Repetitions

• Shake die 

• Pick a card and do the number of reps on the card.

• Move a soft toy to it’s house each time a certain amount of repetitions has been completed.

• Use an abacus

• Move from one side of the room to the other and take one step for each repetition, stop when you reach a set point in the room.

• Use a board game and be inventive. They compete against you or a toy. They move up if they do a good repetition and the other character moves up if they don't. You could make cards that have penalties on, or extra tasks if they land on a certain space on the board.

• Play it on a different string.

• Play it in a different way... stand on one leg, on knees, stick tongue out, walk around, eyes shut, one eye shut, eyes open (if its something short). You could put these ideas on a card and have them pick a card.

• Do a set amount of good repetitions and then take your turn at a game i.e. noughts and crosses, the box game, pairs, any game where your turn only takes a few seconds... the parent has a turn between the child's turn.

• Make a human board game, they are the human counter and move up when they do well etc... The child competes against a soft toy. Same rules as board game above.

Review

• Play it while doing something else at the same time (only if the piece is being played well i.e. with good technique and in tune…

  • Count something – books on a book shelf / animals in a picture …

  • Memory game -  remember what items are on a board while playing. At the end of the piece see if you can remember what was on the board.

  • Dynamics game – child puts cards with a different dynamic on them in an order hidden from the parent. The parent has to guess the order by how the child played.

  • Dynamics game – think of things around us every day that make different volumes of noises, such as sirens for crescendo and diminuendo and a baby crying for forte. Write 3 different ideas on separate pieces of card and have your child pick one but not show you. They have to show by their playing which card they have picked. Tell them, if you guess it correctly they have done very well.

  • Answer questions (with easy answers) while playing. Write the questions down on pieces of card.

• Play pieces in different ways:

  • A different mood per piece

  • In the style of a specific animal, use pictures

  • In the style of a character, children's film/Tv show character/ people you know

  • Textures – how a texture would sound. carpet, wood, foam…

  • Colours - use whatever you have in the house for inspiration

  • Rooms – interpret the mood of each room in your house /

  • imaginary house / school / dolls house

• Add in a technique you might be learning.

  • 3rd position 

  • A different string

  • Low 2s

  • Long bows

  • Up bow staccato

  • Relaxed position

  • Whatever technique they are meant to be practicing... water fall hand, good bow hold etc.

• Envelope game – put a picture of something your child likes, or an animal, in an envelope, and the name of a dfferent review piece in lots of other envelopes. They pick envelopes and play whatever it says in the envelope until they find the one with the picture in it.

• Hide a sweet / sticker underneath a soft toy, and underneath every other soft toy write the name of a review piece. They play the pieces until they find the sweet/sticker.

• Lucky dip with review piece names.

• Shake a die and the number represents the number in the book of the piece they are going to play.

Other Games

• Make a treasure hunt with clues. When they find the next clue they have to play whatever it says on the card before going on. Have a prize at the end.

Useful Links

100, 50 and 30 days practice sheets: http://meredithstrings.com/charts.html

Many practice charts of all types: http://downloads.thepracticeshoppe.com/downloadable-practice-charts/other