October Violin Practice Challenge

It's October! The glow of the new semester has dulled somewhat, the crunch for holiday recitals has not yet begun, and everyone would rather think about cider and Halloween. The violins are still coming out, but they're coming out with a tiny bit less joy than they came out in September, and a tiny bit less urgency than they will come out in November, I predict. Still, Dr. Suzuki says we should only practice on the days that we eat!

Time for the first and only, spookeriffic, autumnimous Little Blue School Violin Practice Challenge!

First, print out the practice chart:

PDF Version Large JPG Version
Remember to choose "Landscape"
Choose "Shrink to Fit" when printing the JPG

Color in a pumpkin for every time you practice your instrument. If you've already played it fifteen times in October, then you're already ahead! Color fifteen pumpkins immediately and go to the front of the line!

At the end of the month, you can print out this certificate, get the appropriate name, number of practices, and signatures in place, and award it to the stellar violinist(s) in your family.

PDF Version Large JPG Version
Remember to choose "Landscape"
Choose "Shrink to Fit" when printing the JPG

Now for the exciting part (for me). If you're doing the challenge, please comment or email me to let me know that you will be completing it. I'll choose one name out of a hat, and send that child this special October edition of my violin practice award medallions:

I have several other medallions available in my Etsy Shop, but this is one is different! It's orange and black, thus making it Octobermatic and extra-desirable. Plus, to the winner, it is free and I will ship it anywhere in the entire world.

Here's a side note: I am working on putting together a page linking to as many YouTube videos of Suzuki violin students as I can find. Sort of a virtual concert. Do you have one? Let me know! My email address is jackets at rpsd.com. Spread the word!

Math Card Game for Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division

This morning Benny and I invented a new way to use our giant deck of cards to study math. Here's what we did:

We shuffled the deck and put the pile next to his paper. He would flip over two cards, write those values in the spaces, then choose whether to use multiplication, division, addition, or subtraction to find an answer. Then he wrote the answer.

This was a great exercise for three reasons:

1. It was fun for him to write his own questions and he loves using the cards.

2. It made him consider the answer to all four of the problems, before he chose one to write down. He most wanted to use division, since that to him is the coolest, so he would be happy if he pulled, for example, a king and a 4, so he could divide twelve by four.

3. He got to test me a little -- on the last few he did, he left the operation circle blank, and asked me which operation he had used. Rather than hesitating to give him the answer, I cheerfully participated in my part of the quiz, because he already had to have figured it out, to be asking me.

I want to do this exercise again, and I made a printable math game page for future use, which I will share with you.

This could be used in different ways -- the kid could fill in the numbers and quiz you on which operation was used, you could use it blank with a deck of cards like we did, or you could use it to solve for X if you leave just one of the spaces blank and give the answers. Hope it's useful!

Here's an image preview of the page, click on it or the link above for the print-friendly web page:

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More Homeschool for Girls: A Useful Flower Printable

I was doing letter practice with Sadie the other day, and as we were playing around with our crayons and paper, I made this:



Here's how it worked. I put a letter in a box, then she copied it into the neighboring box. When she accomplished this, she got to draw a petal onto the flower. When there were ten petals on the flower, she was done. She loved it.



I liked it too and thought I might like to use it again, so I made a digital version of it for reprinting.



If you click here you can go to a bigger version of the image, that you can print. Make sure you go to Page Layout or Print Options or whatever and choose "Landscape" before you print it out. If you use it, and like it, send me a picture of it! :D

Possible uses:

Letter practice. Copy what Mommy writes, or write the letters yourself in upper and lower case in the two boxes.
Number practice. Copy what Mommy writes, or write the numbers in yourself, twice to 10 or once to 20.
Violin/piano practice. Put the song names in the boxes and color the petals for every song you do. Choose ten boxes to practice.
Task list. Put 20 possible jobs in the boxes and let the child choose 10 to accomplish for the week, for each job accomplished fill in a petal.
Schedule for the day. Make a list of everything, everything, everything you're going to do today in the left boxes. Have child fill in the right boxes with everything she wants to do. Each put five top priorities in the petals.

Happy Labor Day