Oh Happy Day!

Ladies and gentlemen, WE HAVE THE BOW!

Today was another excellent lesson, aided by his teacher's ingenious trick of 'extrinsic rewards.' I am learning a lot from her! Just like last Thursday's makeup lesson, she put out about 10 pieces of trail mix (a nut, a raisin, a M&M, then repeat!) Each time she had to tell him to do something MORE THAN ONCE, she ate one (this only happened one time today; it happened about 5 times on Thursday...he's getting it!) That was for the bow holds...and yes! He got the bow...finally. We are all elated. Then, moving on to rhythms. He's moved from using his hands on his thighs to the violin hand on his left cheek and the bow hand at his wrist, moving up and down in rhythm. Apparently, this is as close to bowing and you can get pre-bow. He needed a lot of rep on that so she brought out a fairly simple Tigger puzzle with about 10 pieces. Each time he did the rhythm correctly he got to put a new piece on. He enjoyed it and was very proud of himself for getting his bow. I'm going to try some of those tricks this week and see how it goes. He usually does well for me, once I GET him on his mat, ready to focus. It's the 'tearing him away' from another activity that is tough..and yes, I do let him finish what he's doing. He'd just rather play than practice. I don't blame him-so would I! Hooray hooray! Oh happy day!