By Christy | The Practicing Pro
I love this fun Easter Activity. A great way to get to know your child or your student better is by asking them fun questions. Better yet inside of easter eggs. Who doesn't like to choose an easter egg and open it up! There are two kinds of questions you can use for this activity. The first kind is open-ended “get to know you” questions that require a full answer. The second kind is “would you rather” question s that require them to chose one thing or another. They are fast ones!
To use the questions in your practicing first decide what you need the most motivation in your practicing with - is it scales, drill spots, or review songs?
Spread those out in your practice. For example, if you chose review songs your practice chart /time might look like this:
Review song - pick an egg
3 scales
Review song - pick an egg
Study
Review song - pick an egg
3 scales
Review song - pick an egg
Nugget practice (drill spots)
Review song - pick an egg
New songs
Review song - pick an egg
Sight-reading - pick an egg to read and answer the question for you and for your mom/teacher to answer.
If your player is older or chatty, I suggest the above model but each time they pick an egg they don't open it but save it in a pile. At the end of their practice, the big reward is to get to answer one or two or all of the questions. Maybe you take turns answering them with the practice parent too. If it's a lesson then the teacher can choose one for the child to answer to end the lesson and the player can choose one for the teacher to answer. That can work too!
If your child is younger or needs lots of mini-breaks throughout the practice, then each time they pick the egg they can immediately answer the questions. If they are young and very chatty then try the “would you rather questions”. They are faster and you can get right back to practicing. You can also have them answer the question with their violin in playing position ready for their next task if they are super wiggly!
For older ones or teens you can also fill plastic eggs with these get-to-know-you questions and also include a treat like a chocolate foil-wrapped egg. Your teens will be motivated to practice the things they are not excited to if you make them for "scales" or "review songs" whatever they identify as the things they are not looking forward to doing. Bonus, you will get to know each other better taking turns answering the questions while you eat chocolate.
To communicate with your child and get to know them the best questions to use are OPEN ENDED ones. They can't answer yes or no too open-ended questions but have to give at least a full sentence. Those are the best questions!
Asking great questions that your child will answer needs to be practiced just like anything else.
“Would you rather questions” are really great;
If they don't answer questions about themselves easily
In a group class setting
For a FAST answer
An idea for using this activity but not taking time from the lesson or practice is to have “would you rather” fast questions to answer during the lesson or practice with ONE color that has” opened-ended get to know you questions' longer answer ones and the LAST egg you pick you can pull out that special color. So during the practice the FAST ones and at the end the longer one.
The last idea is to earn the easter eggs and answer the questions then AFTER having a bag of candies or chocolates to fill them back up with. Have an Easter egg hunt around the room or yard later after earning ALL of the eggs after multiple days of practicing as a family. Make sure to keep emphasizing to your player their "hard work" when you notice their egg pile getting bigger and bigger!!!
Here are my questions for you to fill your plastic eggs with. Have many FUN easter practices with these, getting to know your child better.
Check out my Free PDF download Checklist for a Successful Music Practice for teachers and practicing parents.
Your easy checklist for successful home music practices from Christy, the practicing pro. Whether you are a new or seasoned practice parent or music teacher, this checklist will help you organize before, during, and after practices for effective and fun practices.
INVITATION from Christy Hodder:
Speaking of amazing practices, let me tell you all about the digital course, the Practicing Pro Academy. This is for the serious practicing parents and music teachers and is an at-your-own-pace, step-by-step, online course to bring you more effective, positive, and fun home music practices. Registrants receive a special package in the mail from me, and I am with you in person with Q&As to answer all your questions.
Learn more about PPA and join the waitlist HERE for the next Practicing Pro Academy course. It's only offered once a year so you don't want to miss it. The registration will only open for a few weeks and I'll let everyone on the waitlist know immediately so that you can grab one of the spots.
LIKE, FOLLOW, and SHARE on Instagram and/or Facebook to be inspired and join the positive practicing music community.
Facebook: Practicing Pro
Instagram: @practicingpro
Hi Christy
I don't use/understand Google Drive...how can I access your PDFs??
thanks
Karen