Music makes kids jump higher too April 26, 2006
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“In a recent study, 4 to 6 year olds in a music and movement program showed more growth in motor skills than those in a standard physical education program. … [Researchers] placed 50 children in an experimental music and movement program, and 42 in a traditional physical education program. After 8 weeks, the experimental group had improved significantly in both jumping and dynamic balance skills when compared to their peers in the traditional program.”
Kindermusik… we’re so much MORE than just music!
Early Childhood Research Quarterly (Vol. 19, Issue #4, 2004).
Helping Toddlers Become Problem Solvers April 21, 2006
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This article is available in Adobe Portable Document Format for printing and sharing with colleagues and students. ·Download the .pdf
All parents and teachers have seen the unique ability of toddlers to use toys and materials in unexpected ways. One child may turn a cup into a hammer or a basket into a hat. Another toddler may stand on a riding truck to try to reach a toy or pull over a chair to climb onto a bookshelf. Observant adults recognize these innovations as signs that children are learning to use their thinking skills to solve problems.
Experiences in problem solving help children develop curiosity and patience, along with thinking skills such as flexibility, and understanding of cause and effect. They learn to work toward achieving a goal, and gain confidence in their ability to reach a solution.Even very young children make discoveries on their own. An infant who accidentally creates a noise with a rattle may then make the sound again and again on purpose. An older infant discovers that by looking under a blanket, he can find a hidden toy. A toddler who cannot pull a wagon up a hill by herself learns that she and a friend can push it up from behind.
By not rushing in and rescuing young children who are facing minor everyday problems, adults can help infants and toddlers develop confidence and increase their thinking abilities. It’s also helpful for parents and teachers to provide materials that encourage children to explore. Some toys, such as jack-in-the-boxes and busy boxes, provide opportunities to explore simple cause-and-effect relationships. Other common materials like empty cardboard boxes, plastic bowls, or scarves can provide open-ended experiences through which toddlers can make choices and decisions, and find different ways to manipulate the materials.
Other activities can involve materials such as clear plastic tubing (such as the tubing used for aquariums) which children can fill with bright materials, and watch the materials move as they shake the tubes. If you provide inclines or ramps of wooden blocks, a toddler can watch what happens as objects roll down inside the tubes. She may discover that some objects roll faster than others. He may learn about actions and reactions when he sets plastic bottles at the bottom of the ramp to create a unique bowling game. (Whatever materials you provide to help children experiment with problem solving, remember to be very careful about choking hazards.)
These everyday materials are fun, and can hold children’s interest for long periods. They also help children experiment with cause and effect and with gravity and physics. In addition to supporting cognitive development, problem-solving activities help in the social arena as well. Groups of children engaged in these activities negotiate with their friends and learn how to solve interpersonal problems.
By providing interesting materials and enthusiastically reinforcing children’s attempts to explore and solve problems, parents and teachers can stimulate children’s development, promote advanced critical thinking, and help children take pride in their own abilities to find out more about how their world works.
Excerpted from “Using Everyday Materials to Promote Problem Solving in Toddlers” by Laura Segatti, Judy Brown-DuPaul, and Tracy L. Keyes – an article in the NAEYC journal, Young Children. Many articles and resources from Young Children are available on the NAEYC “Beyond the Journal” Web site, at www.journal.naeyc.org/btj.Early Years Are Learning Years™ is a regular series from NAEYC providing tips to help parents and early childhood educators give young children a great start on learning.
For more on this topic check out: Young Children, September 2003. Organized around the topical cluster of ‘Thinking Skills’, this issue of Young Children contains five full length articles about nurturing the development of thinking skills in young children. Copies of this issue are available from the NAEYC online store. The September 2003 edition of “Beyond the Journal” contains several helpful articles and resources on the subject of developing and enhancing thinking skills. Read it online for free.
The Laugh Box April 20, 2006
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I love this idea I found in the May 2006 issue of Family Fun – it’s an easy system for preserving those delightful moments our children give us, you know the ones that we vow never to forget?! Here’s how it works: Keep pen and paper in a container labeled “The Laugh Box.” Store your box in a convenient, quickly accessible place. Then, whenever something funny happens, jot it down, and put the note in the box. Establish a regular family ritual of cuddling up together and reliving those comical moments. Afterwards, transfer your notes into a journal or scrapbook to create a treasured keepsake.
Empathy April 17, 2006
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Next time one crying baby sets off a chorus of cries, take pause. Empathy is developing in those little minds right before your very eyes.
How empathy develops.
The window for empathy begins to narrow at about eighteen months of age when the newest evolutionary addition to the neocortex (the brain’s massive frontal lobes, which occupy the area in back of the forehead), finish their basic hookup to the emotional limbic system.
How you reinforce empathy. (attunement)
Attunement is the natural instinct on the part of the caretaker to respond to and imitate the baby through mirroring the emotion, or playing back of the child’s inner feelings. If these feelings are reinforced, the nerve tracts carrying them will sprout new connections and myelinate. If not, they will weaken.
How you know empathy is developing.
An infant who has been mirrored and comforted develops the ability to empathize even before she is aware of her own independent existence. Newborn babies show a limited type of empathy by crying when they hear another infant in distress, a reflex called motor mimicry, which soon gives way to more attempts to console others.
What to do:
If a child falls down and cries she will develop empathy when a parent mimmicks her hurt, then picks her up and soothes her. Mimic or mirror the behaviors, expressions, and vocalizations of a child, even happy ones. Doing so strengthens the tracts the child’s frontal lobes and limbic system.
Other odd empathy facts:
Newborn babies are born pre-wired to respond to human touch, speech, and facial patterning. Only hours after birth the infant moves her body in a precise synchrony with the speech patterns of her caretaker.
Three to four months: A baby prefers human voices and faces.
Six or seven months: Can mimic other emotions, and hopefully is mimicked in return.
Paraphrased from “A Woman’s Book of Life, The Biology, Psychology, and Spirituality of the Feminine Life Cycle,” Joan Borysenko, Ph.D.
Telling Good Stories April 12, 2006
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Stories told around the kitchen table or in the family room pull families together in many of the same ways that Kindermusik brings families together — through sharing laughter and making memories. Author Phil Catalfo adds that “[r]elating your family history is a clever way to pass along life lessons to your child.” (Wondertime, Spring 2006)
Storyteller Jennifer Jacobsen has helped countless parents become better story tellers with this advice:
* Know your audience.
Tailor your story according to your child’s interests, needs, and mood.
* Reflect on your own life.
Sharing experiences from your own childhood is not only interesting to your child, but creates a feeling of empathy between the two of you.
* Tell them about themselves.
Children love to hear about the day they were born, why you chose their name, funny things they did, etc.
* Use objects in your home.
Heirlooms can inspire stories about past generations.
* Ritualize.
Story time becomes a much-anticipated family event when you make a ritual out of it. Cuddle together under a favorite blanket, light a candle, rock in a rocking chair, etc.
Dandelion Fun April 6, 2006
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Some people think they’re pesky, but to me, dandelions are the embodiment of the simple joys of childhood. And believe it or not, playing with dandelions can also positively impact your child’s development. Here are some ideas for dandelion play:
Babies. Let them watch you blow the dandelions. Like watching soap bubbles, watching the scattering seeds can be relaxing, and a good visual tracking exercise. As you blow the seeds, talk to your baby about where they go. Use descriptive, rhythmic language about even the most ordinary things and it helps your child develop storytelling skills.
Toddlers. In the process of developing lung and breath control, let your toddler blow the dandelion seeds. If that isn’t working, blow dandelions seeds so your toddler can chase the little puffy parachutes.
Preschoolers. Use dandelion flowers for paintbrushes. Or, a dandelion can help your preschooler wind down. In the fight to stay awake and learn, preschoolers can have a hard time slowing down. Try this: Ask your preschooler to pretend that he’s a dandelion whirligig. Blow on his cheek, and let him take off fast in a burst, then slowly, drift to the ground. This music clip will add a little more imagination to the mix.
Young Child. Make a spring scavenger hunt of things you can only find in the spring: 3 puffy dandelions, 3 dandelions that have bloomed, 4 rocks, 3 blades of grass, etc. Or, sit together and look up dandelion facts on Wikipedia.
Straight off the ‘net: Games to play down by the river
Get a seeded dandelion (one that’s gone all white and fluffy) and blow on it. The number of blows it takes to blow all the seeds off is the time (so four blows means it’s 4 o’clock) which, while patently untrue, is a cute concept.A popular children’s variation is to attempt to catch the seeds as they float through the air. If successful they can make a wish as the little white bit at the bottom is a tiny fairy which is hitching a lift!
Special thanks to Molly McGinn, Senior Writer at Kindermusik International, for inspiring this post.
Summer has arrived! April 5, 2006
Posted by musiclasts in Kindermusik, PCMS News & Events.1 comment so far
At least, our summer Kindermusik schedule has arrived!! New scheduling options and lower pricing give you more choices than ever before for how you will spend time with your child this summer.
And there are even two new curricula – Busy Days! for babies and Tell Me a Tale for 4 to 7 year olds – in addition to camps that were introduced just two summers ago: Zoo Train! for toddlers and On the Road for preschoolers.
So have your summer and your Kindermusik too! You’re going to LOVE it!!
Click on these links for more information:
Summer Preview
Summer Schedule
Registration Information
Registration Form
