Author Topic: Making practicing fun?  (Read 5181 times)

Offline ewigginton

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Making practicing fun?
« on: December 02, 2013, 09:46:36 AM »
I am pretty diligent about practicing at least an hour a day. Lately I've been dragging myself to the table because I keep doing the same things over and over. Individual letters, groups of letters, strokes, short phrases, etc. but I'm getting BORED! What do you all do to keep the practicing fun and productive?

Offline Linda Y.

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Re: Making practicing fun?
« Reply #1 on: December 02, 2013, 11:50:31 AM »
Hi Ellen!

I totally hear you about practice being monotonous sometimes. I really enjoy doing alphabet sentences like "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" because you get to do all 26 alphabets in one sentence and learn about how they connect! Here is a page from calligrapher DeAnn Singh with a bunch of alphabet sentences you can try.

There is also the A-Z lists that are always good to write. Find a theme you're interested in, like names of birds, plants, flowers, celestial words, names... I recently did one with names from Game of Thrones (one of my favorite shows recently) and that made practice super fun.

Hope this helps! :)

-Linda

Offline ewigginton

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Re: Making practicing fun?
« Reply #2 on: December 02, 2013, 12:01:17 PM »
Great suggestions, Linda! I forgot to add one more thing.....I practice with either the television or a movie on and write dialogue. That helps relieve the boredom some!

Offline Linda Y.

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Re: Making practicing fun?
« Reply #3 on: December 02, 2013, 01:37:55 PM »
Oh yes! I always have Pandora on in the background and often practice with lyrics from songs I like :D

Offline schin

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Re: Making practicing fun?
« Reply #4 on: December 02, 2013, 01:47:23 PM »
I know what you mean, all those ovals get a little tedious.
I like to put a documentary on that has lots of dialogue so I don't have to look at the screen too much.. or a stand up comedy show (though sometimes the laughter can be distracting!), or TED talks are good too.
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Offline Erica McPhee

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Re: Making practicing fun?
« Reply #5 on: December 02, 2013, 05:52:13 PM »
Here's another suggestion - start a letter exchange and write letters to each other. I know that is scary because then you are sharing your practice ... but ... it does help make the practice worthwhile and you will really slow down and do your best practice!  ;D
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Offline Emily

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Re: Making practicing fun?
« Reply #6 on: December 02, 2013, 07:28:12 PM »
I love Erica's suggestion about writing letters to each other - makes sense that you'd try to do your best practice in that situation.  ;)

Maybe like a daily word for Instagram? Writing the word and the definition, like a word-of-the-day calendar, then posting it on Instagram? Then you could definitely see your progress as you go. Hmmmmmm, maybe I'll do that . . . ;D
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Offline Erica McPhee

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Re: Making practicing fun?
« Reply #7 on: December 03, 2013, 12:34:23 AM »
Oooh! I love that idea Emily!  :)
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Offline FrenchBlue Joy

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Re: Making practicing fun?
« Reply #8 on: December 03, 2013, 05:38:23 AM »
Emily, that's a great idea! 

Offline ewigginton

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Re: Making practicing fun?
« Reply #9 on: December 03, 2013, 07:34:47 AM »
Ho boy, I LOVE this idea! Especially the Instagram part. Quick, easy, no commitment. If you want to play, play. If not, no pressure. Should we start a topic here in the forum and add a phrase daily then watch for it to show up on IG? We can take turns adding phrases or one person could be the phrase-master? Fun, fun, fun!

ETA....for some reason, I was thinking there would be one phrase and we could post our own interpretations but then went back and read Emily's post where she mentioned coming up with a word of the day and definition. So many possibilities!
« Last Edit: December 03, 2013, 07:38:22 AM by ewigginton »

Offline Erica McPhee

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Re: Making practicing fun?
« Reply #10 on: December 03, 2013, 11:25:06 AM »
I love this idea so much! I created a new board: http://theflourishforum.com/forum/index.php?board=24.0.

The first word of the day has been posted!  ;D
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Offline Erica McPhee

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Re: Making practicing fun?
« Reply #11 on: December 03, 2013, 11:25:59 AM »
And Ellen - I like the phrase idea too! So we should mix it up a bit!
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Offline Linda Y.

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Re: Making practicing fun?
« Reply #12 on: December 03, 2013, 11:45:43 AM »
ooh I love it! Can't wait to get home already!  ;D

Offline michelle

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Re: Making practicing fun?
« Reply #13 on: December 05, 2013, 10:47:22 AM »
What great ideas! I like to write favorite lyrics or quotes from movies. I'm determined one day to do a whole series solely on Friends quotes. "Could I BE wearing any more pants?"
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