Listen like I do!

Guidelines For Modeling Good Listening Skills • Be interested and attentive. Children can tell whether they have a parent's interest and attention by the way the parent replies or does not reply. Forget about the telephone and other distractions. Maintain eye contact to show that you really are with the child. • Encourage talking. Some children need an invitation to start talking. Children are more likely to share their ideas and feelings when others think them important. • Listen patiently. People think faster than they speak. Children often take longer than adults to find the right word. Listen as though you have plenty of time. • Hear children out. Avoid cutting children off before they have finished speaking. It is easy to form an opinion or reject children's views before they finish what they have to say. It may be difficult to listen respectfully and not correct misconceptions, but respect their right to have and express their opinions. -Carl Smith

Listen and follow along

Photo "'Read' a song together. Buy a music tape and a corresponding book of lyrics, so you can follow the words along with the music. Even beginning readers can pretend to read a songbook." -Holly Hanke This can become addictive, so be prepared for your child to request the same song on a tape or CD over and over again!

Again, again!

Photo "Have you ever wondered why a child will ask you to read the same book over and over or perhaps never tires of rolling the ball back and forth? A newly published study may shed some light on this learning technique of young children. Nicknamed the “Goldilocks effect”, the study examines the attention span of infants in relation to the complexity of the world around them. The results showed that infants focus only on situations that are neither too difficult nor too easy. 'The study suggests that babies are not only attracted by what is happening, but they are able to predict what happens next based on what they have already observed,' says Kidd, lead author on the report. 'They are not passive sponges. They are active information seekers looking for the best information they can find.' Children who are engaged in a sensory rich learning experience are best equipped to receive and retain new information. The repetition of a fun activity likely yields new information each time for your child and provides an opportunity for them to test their predictions based on their latest observations. 'Parents don’t need to buy fancy toys to help their children learn. They make the best use of their environment. They are going to look around for what fits their attention level. Kids learn best from social interaction,' reminds Kidd. -Source and study link

Why Kindermusik?

Check out this video about "Why Kindermusik?" and remember this class is a great investment in your relationship with your child as well as his/her development and love of music.

Hearing Patterns

Photo "When children drum along to the rhythms in a song or to their own name, they practice careful listening and pattern recognition. This is one way children hear sounds in words – a skill necessary for word recognition, speaking, reading, and writing. Each time a child is exposed to a new object or experience, new neural connections are made in his brain. Turn a plastic bowl or empty oatmeal container into a simple homemade drum. Let babies learn the cause and effect by just banging on the drum. Allow your toddler to drum away – to a favorite recording or just to the song in his heart. You can also play an easy “Echo Me” game where you chant a short, simple rhythm and they tap it back to you on their drum. You can up the challenge for your preschooler or big kid by asking them to tap back the rhythms in a favorite song or the rhythms of some fun words. -Theresa Case

Toddler Toothpicks Fine Motor Activity

"Have a spice jar handy? How about toothpicks? That’s all this toddler fine motor activity requires. I set the empty spice jar on the ground and set out ten toothpicks (I counted before laying them out so I would know I got them all picked up at the end of play.) I picked up a toothpick and dropped it through a hole in the lid. You can bet my toddler wanted to try that too. She carefully poked all ten toothpicks through the holes with great concentration. She actually did this activity three times in a row before getting tired of it and deciding to use the jar with toothpicks it as a musical instrument." -ALISSA MARQUESS

Why Make Music Together?

When creating music together in an ensemble, or group setting, each participant has the opportunity to experience music with “greater harmonic color, musical depth, variety of sound, and rhythmic complexities” than when participating alone. Ensemble opportunities also “stimulate and challenge” self-confidence, imagination, and musical understanding (Leung 2006). Create a little “ensemble” of your own. You can use homemade or purchased instruments and play-along to a favorite song on the iPod or radio, or even a song you sing. You might also have fun making an instrument out of something that isn’t usually an instrument – a bowl and a spoon make a great drum, a slightly inflated paper bag makes a nice rhythm instrument, and even two spoons tapped together add a nice sound. -Theresa Case

Multisensory Equals More Memory and More Skills!

Photo "Children learn through their senses. Each sense activates specific neurons in the brain; therefore, multi-sensory activities generally provide more lasting learning opportunities than single-sensory activities. Each child is unique and brings to class his or her own learning style which determines how he or she understands and organizes information.... So joyfully accept your child as he is, and work with him to make the most of his abilities as they relate to his learning style. We think it is worth restating the following quote this week in the context of our multi-sensory focus. 'Short-term memory has the ability to hold about seven bits of information. But when patterns and related groupings of information are bound together as a unit (as in our multisensory play) the volume of material stored increases.' -Rhythms of Learning by Chris Brewer and Don G. Campbell. Source

Unusual recipe for learning success!!!

Photo Carla Hannaford (award winning author and eductor) writes, “Movement is essential to learning. Movement integrates and anchors new information into our neural networks. Every time we move in an organized manner, full brain activation and integration occurs, and the door to learning opens.” "Combine movement, which fully activates the brain, and creates and strengthens neural networks, with music, which is the only activity that simultaneously stimulates every area of the brain, and you have a recipe for successful learning. As a home schooling mom, here’s some things that we’ve done that combine music (or the components of music like rhythm and meter) that assist in learning. (You don’t have to home school to do these things. You are your child’s first and most important teacher!) 1. While singing learning songs or poems and chants, we have a small indoor trampoline for jumping on... Jumping really seems to make the just inputted information stick in brains better. 2. My children all sit on exercise balls. I’ve noticed that when new or more difficult concepts are being learned, their ability to sit still decreases. All that electrical energy in their brain is going towards creating new or stronger neural pathways. An exercise ball allows them to have the movement they need, without being distracting, so that brain energy is spent focusing on learning, rather than using that brain power to sit quietly.... 3. When learning to spell difficult words or ... counting by 2’s, 5’s, etc., we get up and bounce a ball back and forth, taking turns counting or giving the next letter in a word. The kids love it, and they learn faster and better. 4. Playing background music is great, too. One suggestion – during homework or school time, the best music to listen to has no words. 5. Be sure to give your children plenty of get up and play breaks to rest and refocus eyes, and allow the brain to process everything they just learned. Otherwise, the information really will be in one ear and out the other." Source What a revolutionary learning technique for academic information!!!

Singing our way to speech!

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“Singing ability is related to the ability to control speech fluctuations, and speech activities appear to help develop tuneful singing skills. The ability to sing and the ability to converse with expressive speech are closely related. Playing with rhythm speech (chants, poems, rhymes, etc.) as well as simple tonal melodies helps the child develop both singing and speech skills.” (adapted from McDonald and Simons, 1988)

"Tips for parents: So what is the best resource for learning (or remembering!) those all-important songs and chants that help your child become a better speaker and a better singer? You’ll learn a ton of great music and activities in your Kindermusik classes, but you can also borrow from Mother Goose, pull from your childhood memories, or make up your own songs and chants. Piggyback songs, where you adapt a song by substituting your own words, are also lots of fun." -Theresa Case

Scrub a dub dub and teach in the tub!

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Baths or showers for adults are usually just practical and straight-to-the-point. But for a child, baths can be fascinating experiences to teach physics, biology, songs, stories, and other lessons through toys. Try adding new songs to your child's bathtime that relate to these areas. You can look up educational songs about the body and/or water online depending on your child's level or just add your own lyrics to their favorite tunes. Answer your child's questions about their bodies and how water behaves (waves, droplets, tornado effect in drain, etc.). Have fun with this!

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Words and more words...

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"Exposure to a variety of movement words helps children link movement and language at a time when word acquisition is occurring at a fast pace. Between the ages of 18 months and 4 years children are comprehending an average of one new word for every hour they’re awake. By age 4 most kids know around 10,000 words." -Cheow Yu Yuan

Nothing can replace your role as a parent in talking to your baby or child. TV does not even come close to teaching words and language the way your conversations do. Don't let life get too busy that you don't make some time regularly to sit eye-to-eye and talk with your little one - but mostly LISTEN (and help expose them to a few new words at a time)! Dancing together also accomplishes great strides in vocabulary acquisition if you describe the movements you are making together - it is priceless!

What just happened?

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When our children experience sudden undesirable events (minor accidents, seeing a scary image, breaking something, or stains), they can often overreact because they don't understand fully what just happened or how the damage can sometimes be undone. According to "What to Expect: The Toddler Years" by Heidi Murkoff, "Let your toddler know that everyone has fears... but try your best to control yours. If your toddler sees you take charge of your fears calmly, he or she may eventually learn to do likewise, based on your model. If, on the other hand, you jump three feet in the air every time you spy a spider, you'll be showing your toddler how to let fear take charge" (p. 211). You can even embrace a little craziness - for example, if your child spills a little water just on the table, you can trace letters/shapes in it together with your fingers, then clean it up together - no anger, reprimand, or shock needed! It takes practice to develop an attitude of curiosity, courage, and patience in these sudden moments.

STRONG!

Ten Tips for Positive Parenting Your Strong-Willed, Spirited Child


1. Avoid power struggles by using routines and rules.

2. Your strong-willed child wants mastery more than anything.

3. Give your strong-willed child choices.

4. Give her authority over her own body.

5. Don't push him into opposing you.

6. Side step power struggles by letting your child save face.

7. Listen to her.

8. See it from his point of view.

9. Discipline through the relationship, never through punishment.

10. Offer him respect and empathy.

-Dr. Laura Markham

Bilateral integration

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There is a reason we provide and encourage two instruments, one for each hand. It relates to your child’s fine motor development. We are encouraging bilateral integraton which allows your child’s eyes to track a ball or the words on a page. Bilateral functioning helps keep balance while sitting, standing, and moving. It allows eyes and hands to work together to complete a variety of tasks.

To achieve bilateral integration, a child must first engage in bilateral play which requires holding two similar items, one in each hand. Holding one item would alter his interaction with the instrument and not encourage bilateral exploration, but rather focus on unilateral play.

As fine motor development progresses, a child will move his or her arms simultaneously (like patting knees or drumming hands together). Then he will move both hands symmetrically (think of clapping hands or tapping bells together.) After that is well established, he will begin to alternate like movements (one and then the other in a repeating pattern). The ultimate goal of this integration is to be able to use both sides of the body in non-symmetrical movement cooperatively. Examples of this are holding paper and cutting with scissors or holding strings down with one hand and strumming the strings of an instrument with another.

Good job!!

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"We say that a lot to our children but what does it really mean? What does our child take from that. Giving specific, sincere compliments and comments will mean a lot more to your child than a repetitive general statement.... Your sincere words reward even small improvements and encourages them to continue to work at it. Help them know exactly what they are doing well so they can continue to improve. It also helps them to know what we expect of them.

"Here are 10 compliments kids need to hear:
1. Compliment their character.
2. Compliment obedience and respect.
3. Compliment them for simply being part of the family.

4. Compliment contributions to the family.
5. Compliment the quality of their work.

6. Compliment the effort, even when the result is not the best.

7. Compliment when they achieve something new.
8. Compliment their sense of style even if we don’t exactly share their taste.

9. Compliment steps toward a long-term goal.

10. Compliment their friends.

Source

Routines

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Transitions are often hard for toddlers and young preschoolers. Routines help them predict and prepare for what’s coming next. Whether it's bedtime or coming to Kindermusik, children need to know what's coming. Knowing what to expect gives children the confidence and security they need to understand the world. Our Hello and Goodbye songs help the children transition.

Try singing a special song when it's time for a diaper change, another when the child wakes up, and another very relaxing one at bedtime. Keeping the bedtime routine the same as much as possible every night can help immensely in ensuring cooperation!

Tempo is truly terrific!

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"Because our little ones are instinctively interested in fast and slow (mostly fast!), Kindermusik capitalizes on that interest.... Your child will do many activities in the years to come that involve tempo. Did you know there is a tempo to running, swinging a golf club, a tennis racket, a baseball bat? There is a tempo in moving up and down the basketball court, the soccer field, the football field.... Experiences with tempo translate later into valuable skills that cross into every area of your child’s life – music, sports, dance, gymnastics, art, drama, and more!" -Theresa Case

Try walking fast, then slow with your baby or child through your house or a store and ask them to try talking slowly or really fast. See how engaged they become in this game!

You're safe

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Learning occurs only when children feel safe. "From the birth canal babies are looking for attachments, their brains acutely attentive to the care being received. If essential needs are being met and healthy bonding (lots of touch and “face” time!) is occurring there is a positive outcome.... A stressful environment (angry or emotionally violent, exhibiting relational/marital conflict) signals to baby a lack of safety....
In our Kindermusik classes our first and primary goal is to signal “this is a safe environment” to all children. From the welcome song where one discovers he or she not only “belongs” to this community, but is recognized as a valued individual, to the snuggle time where we turn back to receive the gentle care of a loved one, we sing and dance and snuggle our way to a place where learning can thrive and happy neurons connect at an alarming rate! - Miss Colleen, Kindermusik educator in Seattle

Happiness is HUGGING!

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According to "What to Expect: The Toddler Years" (Murkoff p. 290), "The single most important ingredient [for happiness], child development experts agree, is loving, physical contact. One long-term study, in fact, which followed its subjects from early childhood into their thirties, showed that being raised with an abundance of hugs, kisses, and cuddling went further toward producing happy adults than being raised with any other advantage, and even seemed to help negate such potential risk factors as poverty, broken homes, and stress. The study also suggests that kids who are hugged a lot are not only more likely to turn out to be happy adults, but to find more satisfaction in all areas of life, including marriage and family, friendships, and career.... Have I hugged my child today?" A fun game to help you hug and touch and teach at the same time is tapping a rhythm on your child's back as you hug them, and ask them to tap it on your back. You can let them lead and invent new rhythms as they are able. And you can do this in a group or as a family to see if everyone taps the same rhythm. You can also vocalize as you tap to make it easier to remember. Have fun and stay CLOSE!