My Happy Heart Practice Chart

It’s Valentine’s Day is this week so here is a practice chart with hearts, My Happy Heart Practice Chart! As I was working on my group lesson plan I decided to incorporate a little holiday spirit into our class. I’ve had some parents mention that they are starting to struggle with practicing. And let’s be honest, I don’t always have a happy heart when practicing. Sometimes it’s really hard to practice with a happy heart. Our face looks like all those heart faces in the picture above. This is especially true when there is something else that seems a lot more fun. Maybe it’s sunny outside and all your friends decide to play outside right before violin practice time. Or, may just one more episode of Dora will not take that long, or if I can just make it to the NEXT level of Minecraft. Practicing is hard work and it’s not always easy. As a parent you probably experienced all the delay tactics and then comes the whining, and then the “suddenly starving,” or “my legs hurt”, “my arms hurt,” … You know the list. You hear it in your house or studio.

Helpful Practice Tips

Set a specific time.

Choose a time when you will practice every day. Build it into your family routine. Whether it’s exercise, learning a new language, reading, learning a new skill… Set aside a time everyday. It’s easier to get started if you aren’t making the choice of when and where. Don’t make it a decision as to whether practice time will happen that day. Involve your child in this as well. Once it’s decided then stick to it.

Create a practice plan.

Have a list of what your going to do in practice. As adults we like to see the meeting agenda, or the conference schedule, why not set that out for kids. Otherwise it can seem like it’s endless. Here are a couple different ways you could do this.

If you have the assignments from the teacher, check them off as you do them each day.
Write them on a white board and erase them as you accomplish them.
Put each practice task on a card. Mix them up to and choose a card until you have done them all. Or if neatness is more your thing, keep the cards in a stack and move them to a different stack as you accomplish them.

Understand that attitude is our choice.

Sometimes we just have to choose to have a happy heart even when we want to be doing something else. Here is a book that encourages kids to not be grumpy or pouty, but to “choose a different pair of glasses” to see their day. Our attitude is our choice, and learning to choose a happy heart at a young age is always a plus. Talk about your child’s attitude with them, outside of practicing, not in the heat of a melt down over practicing.

Keep track of practice attitude.

Help your student see the bigger picture of doing something with a good attitude rather than just what we feel like in the moment. Use a practice page to keep track of the days you practice with a cheerful attitude. We learn better when we are happy. And most of the time we learn quicker. You might even want to record how many minutes as well. If the child didn’t have a good attitude, then talk with them about it, and have them draw a face that reflected what their face looked like while practicing.

A happy heart does good like medicine.
Proverbs 17:22

How My Happy Heart Practice Chart Works.

For each day that the child practices their instrument with a happy heart, they draw in a smiley face inside the heart. Then teacher, parent and student can discuss and decide how many smiley faces the student needs to get in order to receive an reward.

That reward might be candy, or extra minecraft time, or one-on-one time with mom or dad, could be a toy, or a visit to a museum. You know your child best, and can choose something that they will enjoy working toward.