We all know that opposites attract!

Did you know that children learn concepts best in opposites? It’s why in your Kindermusik class, you’ll learn fast/slow, smooth/bumpy, high/low, among many other pairs. It’s why in school, addition and subtraction are taught back to back. It’s why when you begin to drive, your teacher makes sure you know where both the brake and the gas pedals are!

Learning opposites enhances vocabulary and word association, encourages sensory and motor development, develops discrimination and classification skills, and provides plenty of opportunity for fun games. The farther apart the opposite (black and white, hard and soft), the easier it is for children to master the concept. When you add an interactive approach, this learning becomes highly enjoyable.

Here’s a few “opposite” activities:

When doing these, be sure to label the opposite words. (It’s pretty easy to forget to do that, as we adults already know the vocabulary!)

• Try tasting some opposite things like sweet sugar and sour lemon.
• Sort round cans and square boxes when putting away the groceries.
• Music is full of opposites. Put on your favorite piece of Kindermusik (or music with pitch or tempo variation), and move high and low, or fast and slow.
• Sing a song silly! (High and then low, or fast and then slow.)
• Move. Go and stop. Take big steps, and little steps. Go under, go over.
• Open and shut the doors. Or cupboards. Cause seriously, if they don’t learn both opening and shutting in a pair now, your fridge is going to constantly be left open when they are a bit older!
• Identify back or front. Left or right. Short and tall. Boy or girl. Young or old. Dirty or clean. Empty or full.
• Feel the objects around you. Hard or soft? Rough or smooth? Hot or cold?
• Read some opposite books, and talk about what you see. Here’s some favorites: Dinosaur Roar, by Paul and Henrietta Stickland. Big Dog, Little Dog, by P.D. Eastman. The Foot Book, by Dr. Seuss.

Even babies learn opposites. Talk to your baby as you go throughout the day, and emphasize the opposite words with your vocal inflection. “I’m going to pick you up.” “We are going down the stairs.”

Really, the possibilities are endless. Just have fun with it!

-posted by Miss Analiisa, whose two oldest children are oil and water.

During the preschool years, physical growth occurs at an amazing rate. Equally impressive is the growth of an invisible aspect of the child; his or her self-concept.

Self-Concept is defined by Laura Beck, author of Development through the Lifespan, as the attributes, abilities, attitudes and values that an individual believes define who he or she is.  At age 3-5, a preschooler’s budding self-concept is very concrete, which is consistent with most aspects of their thinking.  In other words, because the part of the brain responsible for abstract thinking is not yet fully developed, a child only has capacity to deal with what can be experienced with their senses.

Try this experiment:  Ask a 3-5 year old to tell you about himself or herself. According to researchers, the child will tell you about “observable characteristics” such as:

Name:  “I’m Sarah.”
Appearance:  “I have a pink dress with a flower on it.  See?”
Possessions:  “I got Pretty Pony for Christmas!”
Everyday Behaviors:  “I can help wash the car with Daddy.”

As a matter of fact, the preschooler’s self-concept is so intertwined with concrete possessions that defending territory is paramount to defending life. The familiar cry, “Mine!” flows from this developmental stage in which the child feels I-am-my-stuff.

It is interesting to note that that the stronger the child’s self-definition, the more possessive he or she appears to be.  It can be postulated that a child that appears less selfish has not yet developed as strong a sense of self as the “grabber.”

It is a healthy and normal state of affairs when a preschool child begins to clarify the boundary between self and others. Think about this: only when there is a sense of self can children begin to cooperate in playing games.  “I’ll be the mommy.  You be the brother.”  “I’ll drive the truck. You drive the train.” They begin to solve problems together and figure out rules for enjoyable play that requires sharing and compromise. When the inevitable war of the wills arises, the wise parent will affirm the developing self-concept while resolving conflict:

“Yes, that’s your toy, but in a little while, you can give someone else a turn.”

Next time you watch preschoolers at play, have fun looking for these markers of a developing self-concept:

• Concrete descriptions related to self
• Asserting rights to objects
• The beginning of social organization in make-believe play

-posted by Donna Detweiler, who thinks learning to decode children’s behavior makes parenting more interesting!

I believe that music, as the only activity that simultaneously stimulates every area of the brain, is the best choice for my children through first grade.  But what after they were done with Kindermusik?

All my children are homeschooled, so I get to help make those choices. In my house, we continue music . Rob plays violin, Nathan plays flute. (And no, I don’t force them to do music!) But what about the other arts? Visual arts (painting, drawing, photography, graphics, set making, etc.), and kinesthetic arts (movement, dance, and theater).

My instincts told me that as my children were interested (Rob loves musical theater and gymnastics – Nathan loves Sculpey clay and drawing), I should let them integrate the other arts into their day.

Thanks to Facebook, I reconnected with 2 college girlfriends over Christmas. Pam the percussionist is now an elementary music teacher, Lucy the trumpet player now a Principal at middle and high school.  We traded memories, laughs and books.

Pam gave me a book she’d read by Eric Jensen called Arts with the Brain in Mind. It confirmed what my heart already knew – arts enhance the process of learning. The brain systems they nourish, which include our integrated sensory, attentional, cognitive, emotional and motor capabilities, are, in fact, the driving forces behind all other learning.

That doesn’t mean your child can’t learn without studying music, or visual or kinesthetic arts. The arts, however, provide learners with opportunities to simultaneously develop and mature multiple brain systems.  

The arts develop neural systems that often take months and years to fine-tune. The long-term benefits of the arts include everything from fine motor skills to creativity and improved emotional balance. 

Maybe the most valuable benefit of including the arts in your child’s education is that the arts make better human beings.  The arts promote self-discipline and motivation, social harmony, enhanced creativity, emotional expression and a greater cultural awareness.

What long-term studies are beginning to show is that students who participate in the arts may be less likely to be dropouts, have higher attendance, be better team players, and have an increased love of learning.

And who doesn’t want to have children grow up to be happy, well-balanced, creative, problem solvers, and work and play well with others?

­-posted by Miss Analiisa, who as her children’s teacher, is seeing for herself the long-term benefits of clay, paint, band and drama.

We all know that a baby needs to have bodily contact with his mom and dad. By this, I mean rocking, snuggling, holding, carrying, dancing, or baby massage. But why?

It is the sensations from these kinds of bodily touch that are interpreted by the brain and helps him form his first emotional attachment.  

Touch is a baby’s source of comfort and security. Bodily touch leads to bonding, and gives your baby her first knowledge of her physical body. If this first emotional attachment is incomplete, it will be harder for your baby to form emotional attachments later in life.

If you’ve been in both Village and Our Time, you’ll realize that these classes give a very different experience. And our Kindermusik moms and dads and grandmas and nannies all treasure the Village experience. They might not be able to put it into words, but it is all the touching we do that makes this time so special.  

So, hold your baby close. Dance a little more often. Snuggle a little bit longer. Far too soon they will wiggle out of your arms and begin their journey towards independence.

It is what you do now that has a tremendous impact on your baby’s ability to have happy, healthy, well-adjusted and secure relationships as a grownup.

-posted by Miss Analiisa, who is a wee bit sad that she no longer has babies to snuggle in her arms, but is glad her youngest still is small enough to cuddle in her lap.

Barbara Curtis’ book, Small Beginnings, First Steps to Prepare Your Child For Lifelong Learning has a big ending. In the final chapters, Barbara teaches us how to do practical activities called “Small Beginning Exercises,” which help bring home the concepts she has discussed throughout the book: independence, order, self-control, concentration, and service.  Not only do these game-like “exercises” help kids move forward in their development, they are a lot of fun to do!

Here is an abridged example taken from Chapter 12:

Sorting
Materials on tray: small container of buttons, five or six each of different colors.

Setup: With child, carry tray to table. Carefully demonstrate removing everything from the tray.  Set a container of buttons on the left.  Smaller dishes on the right. 

Presentation: Using your pincer grasp, (thumb and forefinger), remove a button from container and examine it closely.  Place in one dish.  Remove 2nd and examine.  Compare with button in dish.  If same color, put in dish also; if not, put in another dish.  Continue sorting, inviting the child to take over when the moment is right.  And so on.

Remarks: Any object can be used for sorting; shells, different dried beans, marbles, etc. Muffin tins can also be used for sorting.

Age Range: two to four years

This sorting game promotes reading readiness through working left to right (just like we read), practices a proper pencil grip, develops visual discrimination, as well as cognitive and pre-math skills.

Each simple exercise Barbara gives uses easily available household materials and is designed with a particular emphasis and age range in mind for up to seven years old. Barbara includes a detailed explanation for presenting the exercise and a suggestion for storing the materials so that the child can repeat the exercises independently if they are old enough to do so.

After the final section on exercises, Barbara draws us back out of the trees to the forest:

“Never lose sight of the goal; a self-reliant child who has a sense of order, can concentrate on a task; a child equipped to serve; a joyful child who loves to learn.” 

Isn’t that a package of character traits we’d love to give our child?

Small Beginnings is one of my favorite books from 2009.  Whether you have toddlers or older children, I highly recommend it to you.  Barbara’s book comes from the pen of an experienced writer, educator, and parent—of eleven children, may I remind you! Every page speaks from the depth of her experience and character. And it’s a pleasure to read.  As a bonus, reviewing this book has had a very positive impact on my life, in addition to my parenting.  Parenting is jam packed with lessons in character building, Barbara says. And she is talking about the character building that happens in our lives, not our kids’!

“Who said parenting would be easy?   And how many people find it fun?  But the truth is, it can be much easier and a lot more fun when you learn what really make children tick, when you’re ready to relax a little and be prepared for new surprises each day.”

-posted by Donna Detweiler who was excited to give this book to several family members for Christmas—so she can talk about it more!

Did you ever wonder why children expect a favorite activity to be repeated again and again and again? They love to hear stories repeated, roll the ball back and forth and back and forth, bake that 100^th batch of pretend cookies, and tell the same knock-knock joke over and over.

Repetition is a necessary building block of development. Learning, or the growth of neural connections in the brain, is strengthened every time an activity is repeated. A one-time experience is not enough for a neural connection to form and stabilize. It is through repetition that possibility becomes ability.

In Kindermusik, we repeat activities such the Hello Song every week for the entire semester.  Other activities are repeated for several weeks.  At home, you can take the cue from your child.  As long as they find an activity interesting, they will ask to repeat it and continue to learn. 

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. So smile and enjoy, knowing that you are doing what is best for your child!

-posted by Miss Anita, who played “store” with her son AGAIN today.