Strategies

Kyndra and Landon are in their second year of taking violin/fiddle lessons from Peg. Although I have had the best intentions of this being a positive experience for us it has been quite a struggle for me to keep things fun. In addition to the fact that I am an impatient person, my beautiful daughter has inherited a stubborn streak from probably both of her parents. So, over the course of the last year and a half Kyndra and I have tried many different methods of making practice interesting and fun.

First there were the song cards. I made both Kyndra and Avery a set of these and they were excited to color them all. Sometimes Kyndra picks a card and then plays the song, sometimes Avery gets the privilege of picking the card. Sometimes she wants to play all of them, sometimes just a few. Sometimes she spreads the cards out and jumps to the one she wants to play. After a song card is played she usually thinks of a way to display that card so one knows it has been played. I like the cards, they work.

Next came Exercise Violin. We take turns exercising and playing songs on the violin (I'm not kidding). First Kyndra will pick an exercise, we all do the exercise, and then Kyndra picks a song and plays it. Then Avery picks an exercise, we all do the exercise, Avery picks a song and Kyndra plays it. Then I pick an exercise, we all do the exercise, I pick a song and Kyndra plays it. I don't like Exercise Violin so much, it takes up aLOT of time and aLOT of patience.

We had a spell where she didn't want to play for Peg at lessons. She would just stand there and stare. My stragegy (or bribe) for dealing with that one was to let her pick out a special stuffed animal after playing for Peg. This animal would be allowed to come to lessons with her and she could practice to it during the week. Enter Violin Kitty to the Buglione family. She loves this kitty that even came with it's own purse and leash. Bless you Peg for being so understanding about this and for playing along.

Sometimes Kyndra wants to play a different song in each room of the house. Sometimes she wants to stand on a stage. Some days she wants me to play my violin with her but not so much anymore because I "mess her up." Some days she wants Joe to play on the piano with her, some days not. You get the idea.....one never knows what is going to work for our nightly violin adventure.

At Christmas time I was having a heck of a time getting her to practice. My Mom came up with the great idea of having a daily "reward" of something simple, then having a bigger reward after she had 5 good practices. Mom gave me a sheet of a gazillion tiny heart stickers and we put one sticker on each day that she has a good practice. On days that she refuses to practice we put a (daa dahhh dooohhhh) X on the day. Who would have thought that an X would be so dreaded. We have yet to put an X on the calendar and we only allow one "skipped" day without a sticker in a row. Every 5th day she gets a big sticker and 1 piece of candy. So far this is my favorite violin strategy.

I am thankful that I come from a long line of educators and am surrounded by excellent teachers on a daily basis. Think of all the resources I am fortunate enough to have for dealing with my strong-willed, talented, and imaginative daughters. Kyndra has literally been on the couch with a horrible virus for the last week. I miss her spunk and I am looking so forward to her next invention for practice. Get well soon!