Young Child 1, What we learned!

We discovered that music has a steady beat and learned about quarter notes, eighth notes, and rests.  We discovered where the cat "C" and apple "A" lived on the treble staff.  We learned to play these notes on our glockenspiels.  We learned about Beethoven, and Mozart's Magic Flute.  We danced and sang songs from cultures around the world. We learned about the percussion section of the orchestra.  We learned tools that will allow us to discover and express our own uniqueness through music. We missed those of you who couldn't make it to the last day of class.

Village end of Semester Pics!

Rock a bye Abby!

Taste, Taste, Taste, my egg!

Learning to Share

A picture of Logan smiling!

Skip to My Lou!

While your child is developing an understanding of language, it is important that he be given many opportunities and experiences to hear and feel a wide range of speeds; from slow to moderately steady, to quick.

The best way to do this, of course, is through music. And it’s a lot of fun, too.

Do you know the song Skip to My Lou? If you don’t, it’s easy to learn. Just look it up online to learn the melody, and then try this game.

The words go:
Skip, skip, skip to my Lou.
Skip, skip, skip to my Lou.
Skip, skip, skip to my Lou.
Skip to my Lou, my darlin’.

Skipping usually comes naturally by about Kindergarten. If you don’t yet have a skipper, that’s okay. You skip while you sing, either with your baby in your arms or on the floor. Your toddler may just watch you at first, while your preschooler may give it a try.

Now, substitute movement words, and vary the tempo.

For example: really slowly…
Creep, creep, creep to my Lou.
Creep, creep, creep to my Lou.
Creep, creep, creep to my Lou.
Creep to my Lou, my darlin’.

Here’s a whole host of movement words to get you started:
march, twirl, sway, rock, run, walk, gallop, lunge, wiggle, prance, spin, waddle, slither, swoop, slide, hop, jump, leap, nod, crawl, kick, wave, shake, flop, stretch, swim and bounce

Alternate between the two extremes of fast and slow, and notice the joyful realization on your child’s face (even your baby!) when she anticipates what is next.

-post created by Miss Analiisa, at Studio3 music, located in Seattle Washington.

Musical Play

What’s so great about musical play?  A child’s work is play.  Through play a child safely learns about and explores the many dimensions of the world around him, it is also an important tool for self-discovery.  Musical play is especially important because only in making music does a child engage all the learning centers of the brain. 

Brain Development

In infancy and early childhood, children create the pathways they will use for future learning and problem solving.  The more pathways a child creates in the brain the easier it is for a child to learn.  Music helps a child create and connect a multitude of pathways in the brain.  For example, as children learn to move to a beat they are creating pathways that will help them in math and reading, as well as athletic coordination.  Musical play increases comprehension and listening.  Music also allows children a safe place to explore and experience both positive and negative emotions.  They can play the emotions of happiness and sadness; play being scared as they listen to music that imitates a storm and then be happy when they get to play outside after the storm.  This helps them deal with being scared during a real storm. 

Socialization

Important socialization skills are learned as children make music in groups.  They learn to share and take turns and learn that music sounds better when they are not all randomly banging on a musical object.  They also develop a balanced sense of self in relationship to a group as they learn to play their own musical part in an ensemble. 

Creativity

With the ever increasing busyness of the American life style creativity in children is declining.  Without creativity the modern advances in technology will halt.  There is nothing better than musical play to stimulate creativity.  All the centers of a child’s brain engage as they creatively personalize music.  The creative process is in action when music is adapted to a child’s name and when the child picks the motion to go with the song.  In early childhood music there are no rights or wrongs, there are a few safety boundaries, but are no absolutes.  For example, there are no right ways to play rhythm sticks, children are rewarded and praised for coming up with as many different ways to play the sticks as they can.  It is also a safe environment to just watch and learning from observing the different ways other children play the sticks.  

Learning Through Musical Play

You've probably heard the old saying: “Variety is the spice of life.” When it comes to music, musical variety is definitely the spice of life! When you expose your children to music from around the world, you expose them to different cultures, countries, ideas, and experiences.  This is why Kindermusik uses such a wide genre of music.  Musical play also enhance child development in the following ways:

Language proficiency
Just as you read a variety of books to expand your child’s vocabulary, exposure to a wide variety of music and sounds expands your child’s “ear vocabulary.” High quality musical recordings and real instruments help your child “fine tune” her ear to recognize and imitate the sounds that make up words and language.

Spatial awareness
When a child listens to music, her mind perceives the sound in multi-dimensional ways. The sound is loud or soft, fast or slow, it moves up and down, or left to right. Eventually, she’ll use that “awareness of space” to work with her body when she walks through the living room and tries not to hit the coffee table. Much later, this same awareness is necessary skill for learning how to get around things, jump, run, and move in turning, twisting ways.

Temporal reasoning
You see this skill in action when a preschooler tells a story. He starts with his own experience and then moves to some imagined place with a princess or a superhero then goes back to something real again. Music does the same thing. It goes back and forth between established places (the chorus) and to new places that take you somewhere else (the verse). The ability to go back and forth from something established to something imagined comes from temporal reasoning, a skill used in music writing, storytelling, and problem solving.

Emotional intelligence
With exposure to a greater variety of musical styles-like jazz, folk, or classical, this increased exposure to music increases a child’s awareness, and understanding of different moods and emotions.

Cognitive skills
Research shows that music contributes to the development of a child’s ability to reason, his sense of patterning, and his memory skills.

Musical appetite
In the early years between newborn and age 7, your child is developing his musicaltaste buds as he learns to appreciate the finer things and to enjoy new musical tastes and textures. The wider the array of musical styles, the richer his “appetite” will be.

Try this at home… Your child is naturally musical. Hearing you sing and listening to recordings are like food for her musical appetite. Sing with child at least three times a day. Consider these song sessions musical breakfast, lunch, and dinner. (By the way, “lunch” can be interpreted loosely. Just plan the routine of singing together at a time that works for your schedule – when your child wakes up, in the car, doing dishes, at naptime, fixing supper, etc.!) Once you start, you will find that there is a song for everything. If you can’t remember what that song is, make one up!

The information in the post comes from Theresa Case whose Kindermusik program is located in Greenville, South Carolina.  

Young Child, Week 13

This week we reviewed all that we’ve learned through the semester focusing on remember the position of “C” on the staff, (third space up).  Please have your children use their manipulatives to make a staff and place the “C” in the right place.  Help them understand that the staff has a top and a bottom. This is a tricky idea because the five lines look the same right side up and upside down. 

We also worked on the proper technique for playing the glockenspiel. In order to ensure success playing the glockenspiel, it is very important that each child first thoroughly understand the way to hold the mallets and the way to use them to tap the glockenspiel keys. Use Music at Home 13 to review the procedures with your child.

If you can, create an opportunity for your child to play “Jingle Bells,” as part of your holiday celebration.  If they are scared to perform then give them a non-threatening opportunity, like playing the song for grandma while you’re fixing food. You don’t want to crush their musical interest by forcing them to perform.  

Dream Pillow, Week Five

Music is rich with patterns of rhythm and melody, from simple to complex. Baby’s brain is designed to seek patterns, right from birth, as she makes sense of the world. Thus, the simple, engaging song provides experience Baby’s brain is hungry for. 

This week when we sang Sarasponda, sometimes I left out the “oh”.  This was to help our babies develop a patterning skill of noticing when something is left out.  The musical term is audiation, “to think”. This is the ability to hear music when no musical sound is present.  It requires listening and memory skills.  This skill carries over into other areas of brain development and learning. 

From time-to-time this week include audiation into playtime.  Sing your baby’s favorite song and leave out the last word. Wait and give your little singer time to fill in the missing word or see if he notices that the word was left out. After a while, leave out the word at the end of sentences. (Example:  Old MacDonald had a ______, Ee-I-Ee-I _____.)