Studio3Music Blog

Archive for the ‘Child Development’ Category

Nov
27

Do we have to do this again?

Posted in Child Development, Imagine That, Music and the brain, Our Time, Village, Young Child

Recently, I received a great question from one of our Studio3Music mommas. I’m sure she’s not the first person to wonder, so I thought I should share it with you all.

Question: Is it typical for each class to be very similar each week? We’ve noticed that we are singing the same songs each week and I’m hoping that the class changes a bit from week to week. Could you let me know?

Answer:
Your question was both astute and excellent. That tells me that you are paying attention in class! (Which is wonderful, since seriously, I’ve had a few mommas that text the entire class time!)

While we as adults may quickly tire of an activity, it is important that we recognize the importance of repetition to our children’s learning. Learning, or the growth of neural connections in the brain, is strengthened through repetition. A one-time experience is not enough for a neural connection to form and stabilize. It is through repetition that possibility becomes ability. That is why Kindermusik activities are repeated over and over.

We will, however, do “extensions” of activities. The brain loves to be a little surprised once in a while; a surprise causes the brain to pay extra attention. One week we might sing a song, the next we’ll sing the song and add a manipulative. We might do the same lap bounce for 5 weeks in a row, but change up the words in the 4th or 5th week. This allows children to have mastery of an idea before we add a new one.

Three interesting facts :

1. Learning requires electrical energy to create neural pathways. The less “automatic” something is, the more electrical energy is required. Think of something you do automatically – like count by 10′s. It takes very little electrical energy for your brain to travel that “counting 10′s” neural pathway, because you’ve done it a lot.

The more well-traveled a pathway, the less energy is required. That’s why you can do two things at once. Watch TV and knit, for example. When you are first learning to knit, it takes all of your effort. Looking, counting stitches, watching your needles. As it becomes automatic, you use less brain energy, so you can layer another activity on top of that without fear of accidentally turning those mittens into a hat instead.

Communicating Neurons

2. Did you ever wonder why children expect a favorite activity to be repeated again and again and again? Repetition is a necessary building block of development. Children’s brains KNOW that they need repetition. They are pretty smart little creatures! Do you remember the show Blue’s Clues? (Never the same for me after Steve left…). The creators did research while developing the show as to what preschoolers wanted to see in the show, and you can probably guess the answer by now – repetition!

3. So what about the fact that we always have a hello and goodbye ritual, a bounce, a steady beat, rocking time, and story time (in the older classes)? As my friend Heather Wiebe says (she a Kindermusik teacher in Alberta who is fascinated about the way the brain works, just like me) “Patterns make children happy. Knowing what to expect and having things happen in that way not only helps children know what to expect and feel at ease, it’s also how they mark time.” When the environment and routine is predictable, then a child feels safe and learning can naturally happen.

We know you’ll be ready to move on to another activity before your children will (believe me, I’ve been there three times with my own kids!) know that you’ll get new music and activities soon enough. And a Kindermusik Education is the most powerful tool you can give them now, for future success in school, work and life.

-posted by Miss Analiisa, who would love you to email her and let her know your questions. (She can’t read your minds, you know. She does have eyes in the back of her head, but not mind-reading powers. Though now that her children are getting older, wonders if she can trade those extra eyes in for psychic abilities. Or maybe she doesn’t want to know what is going on in there!)

Tags: brain, kindermusik, Miss Analiisa, music

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Nov
8

Brain Rules—Exploration is natural for babies (and grown-ups)!

Posted in Child Development

I keep trying to return John Medina’s book, Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving at Thriving at Work, Home, and School to the library. But I still have it—because it’s just too interesting. So, I’ve added a fourth blog to this series. And there may be more if this book continues to stubbornly stay on my bed stand. (And yes, I should and probably will buy my own copy.)

This final chapter in Medina’s book is on the innate exploratory nature of human beings. It starts at birth. Babies are little scientists, he explains. Their behavior from the womb is driven by their curiosity. He describes how he did an experiment with his newborn, discovering that this little baby would imitate his dad when he stuck out his tongue—at 30 minutes old. Mirror neurons residing in the brain are “cells whose activity reflects their surroundings.” In other words, our brains have cells that allow us to quickly imitate a behavior we have seen for the first time. That’s some fast track learning.

But according to Medina, our brains are meant to continue to explore for a lifetime. “Researchers have shown that some regions of the adult brain stay as malleable as a baby’s brain, so we can grow new connections, strengthen exiting connections and even create new neurons, allowing all of us to be lifelong learners.” Most of us know some of these amazing senior citizens whose brains can run circles around their juniors. My aunt was one of those. Curious until her body failed, she was a classic addicted-to-learning person. And she was so fun to be around because she was so alive. She asked questions and made interesting observations and had great sense of humor too. Her brain was making new neural connections until it quit. I’m convinced of it.

The fuel for all learning is curiosity. Medina points us back to children. They are inherently curious. They are constant learners. During most of their early years, they are “little scientists,” Medina explains. They are asking questions, forming hypothesis, conducting experiments, noting the results and repeating them. For example: What will happen if I push my bowl of spaghetti off the edge of the tray? There it goes! That was fun. I got a lot of attention and I liked how the sound and the way the stuff flew. I wonder what will happen if I do that again?

A sense of wonder or curiosity is the final subject of Medina’s book. He believes it is the most important brain rule of all! As a research scientist and educator, his passion is learning. He was encouraged by his mother to stoke the fuel of his curiosity, and he has. And he wants us to as well, in how we raise our children, run our businesses and develop our education system. If we follow the science of brain rules, we’ll find joy, he concludes.

“For little ones, discovery brings joy. Like an addictive drug, exploration increases the need for more discovery so that more joy can be experienced. It’s a straight up reward system that, if allowed to flourish, will continue into the school years. As children get older, they find that learning not only brings them joy, but it also brings them mastery. Expertise in specific subjects breeds the confidence to take intellectual risks. If these kids don’t end up in the emergency room, they may end up with a Nobel Prize.”

Thanks for a great book, John. I learned a lot!

-posted by Donna Detweiler, who finds homeschooling is a sneaky way to keep on learning as an adult.

Tags: babies, brain, Donna Detweiler, learning

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Nov
6

synCOpaTION – Tickling the Brain

Posted in Child Development, Music and the brain, Village

Syncopation means an unexpected change in an established rhythm or beat. In simple terms – syncopation means that the weak beat gets the accent or emphasis. You’ll often hear syncopation in African or Latin music, or jazz.

Take a standard American march like Stars and Stripes. A march has a steady, predictable beat. If you were to clap along, you would automatically clap on beats 1 and 3(unless you were the tuba player – who has the syncopation on beats 2 and 4).

Our brains love steady beats, because the brain loves to find patterns and sequences. In fact, if you listen to music that has a steady, predictable beat (like that march I mentioned), after a while, your neurons actually begin firing at the same rate as the beat of the march.

But as humans, we like patterns only up to a point. After that comes boredom, and we stop paying attention. But when the pattern changes, we begin paying attention again. Syncopation tickles our brains, so to speak. Our brains search for the new pattern, and the sense of unpredictability that comes with change is fun and interesting to both your brain and your soul.

Think about it – when you hear syncopated African or Latin music or Jazz – it makes you want to smile and move, right? The beat is unexpected and interesting. Take a listen to Leroy Anderson’s “The Syncopated Clock”. In Village class, we’ve been listening to the jazzy Hop to It. That’s syncopated, too.

But what does this have to do with your little one? Let me explain. You want your child to eat a wide variety of foods, to like an assortment of flavors, textures, colors and shapes. Even if they ask for the steady, predictable mac-n-cheese and chicken nuggets every night, you still want them to have a balanced diet.

The same is true for music. Our children need a variety of musical experiences. Life is richer and more interesting with a varied diet of music. And some brain tickling.

-posted by Miss Analiisa, who has been feeling rather bored the last couple of days, and feels in need of a brain tickle in the form a new project of some sort.

Tags: brain, kindermusik, listening, Miss Analiisa, music

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Nov
4

Sharks Love Music, Too

Posted in Bits and Pieces, Child Development

My son Jude should have been a shark for Halloween. He, like a shark, cannot stay in one place for longer than 5 seconds at a time. He is constantly moving. As a mother of two, Giana (5) and Jude (2) I have to say, my boy has taken me to a whole new level of parenting… and fitness.

When I started teaching for Studio3 I was pregnant with my son. I have always had sharks in my class, both boys and girls (there is no gender bias for being a shark). I saw caregivers running after them, fretting that they were not participating in class. I always told them the same thing, “Let them move. They are learning what they need to learn, how they need to learn.”

I also pontificated about Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences. I had devoted a good portion of my thesis in graduate school to his theory that human beings have nine different kinds of intelligence reflecting different ways of interacting with the world. This results in the need for different modalities of learning. I assured them that their children are kinesthetic learners who need to move to absorb information. It was easy for me to say. I had seen it in my classroom for years while teaching other people’s children. It wasn’t my child. I couldn’t empathize. Then, Jude came along…

At first, he was his sweet little baby self in Village with Miss Allison. Cooing, drooling, clapping on command, essentially the most darling baby on the planet, right? As a shark, Jude never walked. He crawled and then started running. I couldn’t believe how quickly those little legs could go. I would be sweating bullets just making sure he didn’t launch himself off of our front porch.

We moved him up to Our Time around 17 months. He knew Miss Allison, he LOVED Miss Allison and yet his shark-like qualities could not be reined in by Miss Allison. The other children would be circle dancing their tushies off and Jude would be climbing the cubbies. The other children would dance beautifully with the scarves, while Jude would be opening and closing file cabinets. I felt like he was being disruptive. Why was I bringing him to a class where he wasn’t participating? Was this for him or me?

About the second or third week into Our Time, something very strange happened. We were in the kitchen and Jude started singing. He’s always been super musical, so this wasn’t surprising, but then he started to do something with his hands. He was singing and dancing “Liza Jane”!

As the weeks continued Jude kept showing us what he learned when we got home. He would take sticks and sing the hello song. He would drum and sing “Aiken Drum” with the freeze on the word moon. I wanted to cry with joy (in fact I think I did a couple of times). It was working! My advice worked for my kid too! I felt validated. Dang, I’m smart!

Now my little shark is two. He’s a mover, a shaker and an Our Timer. He still moves around while Miss Allison is teaching, but I know he is learning what he needs to learn, how he needs to learn. Parents of sharks, unite and surrender! Let them move and they will show you what they learn.

-posted by Miss Steph, momma to one shark with ants in his pants who likes to dance.

Tags: kindermusik, Miss Steph, music, parenting

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Oct
16

Worked out your intercostal muscles today?

Posted in Child Development, Education, Imagine That, Things to do

Every time you breathe, you are engaging 11 muscles – the big abdominal muscle sheath, your diaphragm, as well as the ones between your ribs. (Those are the intercostal ones.) You don’t even have to think about breathing.

What happens if you don’t work out your grownup body? You know the answer to that. But do you know what could happen if your child doesn’t work out those 11 muscles and their lungs? Their breath control will be affected. Why is that a big deal?

Breath control is directly related to the ability to speak, sing, or read a complete sentence. Poor breathing (mouth breathing or shallow breathing) can cause high blood pressure. Optimal breathing helps promote weight loss, as oxygen burns fat and calories. (Maybe that one is more for the grownups!)

Breathing well is the key to sleeping well and waking rested. Breathing provides 99% of your energy. When playing a wind instrument, a good tone is almost entirely dependent of good breath control, although a good instrument helps!

Only one third of lung capacity is used in normal breathing. Think about the Swiss freediver who held his breath underwater for 19 minutes and 21 seconds! I’ll bet he was using his full lung capacity.

Now that you understand that you need good breath control, here are a couple of ways to promote it with your preschooler this week.

Straw Painting

I was going to do a whole picture/explanation thing here, but I found a craft blog that did it beautifully, and who doesn’t like a linkback? So, here you go. Tons of fun. And I think that you grownups should try it, too. I’m going to.

Slide Whistle Play

If you have a Kindermusik Imagine That student at home (and you have a preschooler, you really should have them in Imagine That – shameless plug, here), then pull out your slide whistle. (Or, get thee a slide whistle if you don’t! Either plastic or metal works great.)
Learn the song Windy Weather. It’s #14 on your See What I Saw Home CD 2. Or, download it here. (But you really should be enrolled in class…)
Now, sing the song, rather than playing the music. That will allow you to control the tempo and change the words.
Start with the slide all of the way pulled out. Sing “Windy weather, windy weather, when the wind blows…” Then blow into the slide whistle, as you push the slide up.
Now change the last words to “We all fall down together.” Then blow into the slide whistle as you pull the slide down.
Now sing it slowly, sing it fast, sing it quietly, sing it loud. The loud and slow versions are where breath control really comes into play. You have to control your breathing by letting out a little air at a time, in order to make it through the louder blow, or the slower pull on the slide.

Now for a little bit of inspiration. Think that slide whistle is not a “real instrument”? Just watch Tom Goslin (a professional guitar player who is well known in the pit orchestra world) perform the Allegro from Sonata in C major for viola da gamba and Continuo by Carl Frederic Abel. (He played cello and viola in Bach’s court orchestra. Abel, I mean. Not Goslin.) You guessed it – on slide whistle.

-posted by Miss Analiisa, whose hero (because she’s a low brass player), is Arnold Jacobs, the one-lunged tuba player, who was the principle tubist for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for 44 years, and not surprisingly, was an expert on breath control.

Image: Worakit Sirijinda / FreeDigitalPhotos.net