How Music Classes Prepare Your Child For School

Early childhood education is important, and Kindermusik International believes that you – the parent – are your child’s first and best teacher.  But what to do with your child until he is 7 years old?  We’d like to recommend Kindermusik classes!

9 ways Music Classes prepare your child for school

Music classes in the early years that include parental involvement and focus on learning in a fun, developmentally appropriate way inspire a lifelong love for learning.

Practice with steady beat, enjoying movement activities, and playing instruments help developcoordination and motor skills necessary for cutting with scissors, holding a pencil, or kicking a ball, for example.

Music classes that are teaching children rhymes and then later, the basics of beginning to read music pave the way to literacy.

Music classes give your child a place to practice those all-important social skills, like cooperatively play, sharing, and following directions.

The best music classes will encourage your child to think creatively, developing critical thinking skills and the ability to problem-solve.

In an environment where process, not performance, is stressed, music classes build self-confidence and a willingness to try new things.

Music classes that gradually increase a child’s independence at the class help the child more successfully transition to the school classroom.

In these classes, children have the opportunity to bond and interact with their teacher, learning to listen and respond to someone other than the special adults who surround them at home.

Science and research have proven time and time again that music positively impacts a child in all areas of development – social/emotional, language, cognitive, physical, and language/literacy.

from here

Complexities and Predictability

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.

from Minds on Music

Shhhh

Just as your child needs stimulation and engagement in age-appropriate activities, she also needs periods of relaxation. This is one of the reasons why Kindermusik Village and Our Time classes include Quiet Time in every class. But a “quiet time” isn’t only for young children; it’s also beneficial for older children as well. And times set aside for relaxation are just as important at home as they are in the Kindermusik classroom.

Creating regular quiet times at home gives your child practice in learning to calm herself, slow her pace, and relax. Plus it helps her develop a valuable lifelong skill – the skill of learned relaxation. Slow, gentle music can best provide an environment most conducive to relaxation.

So take a few moments to relax and listen to some beautiful music. You’ll love how good it makes you – and your child – feel!

Here are a few ideas for quiet time music to get you started:
You Are My Sunshine Music Collection

National Geographic: Lullabies

Lullabies from Potterfield Pond

Flying Dreams

taken from minds on music

Brother/sister music fun!

Photo This year research was conducted about interactions between siblings with respect to music study. Data were collected from 5 2-child families, each with a younger sister and older brother between 7 and 15 years old, both of whom were taking private piano lessons. Siblings were considered as companions, friends, helpers, and communicators in music study. The older sibling provided most of the music teaching and modeling for the younger sibling, and the younger sibling requested information often from the older sibling. All siblings maintained a positive attitude towards one another with regards to rivalry in music study, and the findings provided insights into rivalry as a stimulus and source of encouragement in siblings’ musical growth. -Source Allow your children to help each other learn about and enjoy music together!

Music in your routine

Photo It can be very simple to surround your child with music – the greater the variety, the better! Singing simple songs together can get the morning off to a great start. Child-safe instruments and some recorded music can provide happy times of self-entertainment or together time. Quiet, soothing music before naps and bedtime establishes a wonderfully reassuring sleep time routine. A dance around the kitchen can soothe the supper-time “fussies.” A cuddle and a lullaby at the end of the day adds the sweetest and happiest of memorable moments. -Theresa Case

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

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

Circle dance with me!

Photo "Circle dances come from the wonderful tradition of communities dancing together, a tradition which is timeless in origin and yet relevant today in its capacity to foster togetherness. Dancing in a circle actually benefits the mind, body, and spirit. 'It is a very accessible form of dance for people of all ages and abilities, with the emphasis on participation, not performance' (Michaelsen). Remember the fun of making a circle and singing “Ring Around the Rosie” when you were a child? That fun lives on nearly every week in a Kindermusik class where we do all kinds of circle and group dances together. But you don’t have to be in class to enjoy a circle dance – even just two people can make their own circle and dance to their own song or a favorite recording. You’ll still experience [nearly] the same wonderful benefits whether it’s two or a whole class dancing in a circle together. -Theresa Case

Organize and conquer

"The brain’s job from birth to 7 is to organize itself. And that music is the only activity that simultaneously stimulates every area of the brain, thus helping the brain to organize all the sensory information it’s taking in.... Music is full of structure and patterns and logic, which is exactly what your brain needs to help organize all that information.... [Albert Einstein's] mother was told by his school that he was stupid, and that she should withdraw him. Instead, his mother bought him a violin, and we know him as one of the smartest men in history. To what does Einstein credit that? Yup. The violin. (His momma should get some of that credit, too.) He said that he worked out problems that he was stuck on by playing his violin. He loved the music of Mozart and Bach the most.... "Classical and Baroque music in its composition is very structured and organized. One of the rules is that you don’t repeat a theme over and over again. Instead, you have a theme, and then variations on that theme. Dr. Michael Ballam of Utah State University says, “The human mind shuts down after three or four repetitions of a rhythm, or a melody, or a harmonic progression."... Now, no promises that your house will magically declutter itself if you put some Bach or Haydn on. But if you [and your child] need to start thinking clearly, give it a try." -Miss Analiisa

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!!!

Mozart is amazing!

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A study from 1998 at the Univ. of Wisconsin in Oshkosh shows that, "Music exposure initiated at an early age enhances spatial performance in rats similar to results found in humans." This study compared the effects of minimalist music, noise, and a Mozart Sonata to test rats' performance in a maze. Of course, the rats who consistently listened to Mozart performed faster and completed the maze more easily. Our children need exposure to high-quality music starting at an early age with order and predictable rhythm. Crazy noise and irregular beats, too much monotony, and, of course, the often questionable lyrics of many popular rock songs are not conducive to intelligent thinking and learning. You are making a great choice by involving your child in great musical experiences that will create a much better environment for their long-term development!

Source

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!

Source

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