If you’ve ever come to a Kindermusik class, you’ll notice that we will have a steady beat activity every week, in every age group. It might involve shakers, streamers, or drums. Or singing, chanting or lap bouncing. Or maybe moving our bodies or dancing. Or even stomping, gliding or tiptoeing.

A baby hears a constant steady beat (mom’s heartbeat!) by 22 weeks after conception. And every infant is born with the ability to keep a steady beat – his own internal beat.  Sometimes in a Village class, a piece of music will match a baby’s own beat, and you’ll see him or her banging away in perfect rhythm!

Steady beat for babies:
Exposure to steady beat (hearing it, feeling it, “seeing it”, being moved to it) is important for a baby’s developing sense of steady beat. An internalized awareness of beat will help him to coordinate his movements.

A baby who is beginning to internalize a steady beat will show it through rocking, nodding, patting and kicking. Later she’ll be able to demonstrate steady beat through clapping and playing a drum to a steady beat.  Steady beat will be a key factor in his learning to walk.

Steady beat for toddlers:
Children 18 months through 3 years old are learning to control and coordinate their body’s movements. The ability to keep a steady beat helps in walking with a smooth gait, leading to running and jumping with confidence.

It is at this age that feeling and moving to a steady beat develops the ability to organize and coordinate movements with proper timing – like bouncing a ball and catching it.

Steady beat for preschoolers:
Steady beat competency is central to the development of movement organization, such a marching in time, dribbling and shooting a basketball, using scissors and writing smoothly. Being able to move their entire body to a steady beat leads to the ability to speak and read with a smooth cadence, thereby enhancing communication abilities.

Interesting steady beat facts:
A sample study was done of first and second string NFL players.  100% of the first string players could maintain a steady beat without any external stimulus for 45 seconds.  Only 50% of the second string players could accomplish the same.

Tests show that children with steady beat internalization are better readers and more successful in math. Children with better abilities in steady beat are reported to be better behaved in class and have less aggressive physical contact with other students.

It is well-known that a stutter does not stutter when singing or using a steady beat while speaking. A stuttering student figured out her own solution: when she wanted to answer a question, she tapped a steady beat on her leg before speaking. This allowed her to answer without stuttering.

As the result of a study done in 2002 by University College in London, scientists believe that a poor sense of rhythm could be the cause of dyslexia. “Researchers concluded that an awareness of beats can influence the way young children assimilate speech patterns, which may in turn affect their reading and writing abilities.”

Steady beat helps children to understand and organize their world. So if you are going to run with scissors, make sure you’ve got a good sense of steady beat. You’ll run more coordinated and smoothly, and thereby be a little bit safer.

-posted by Miss Analiisa, whose mother reported that at 2 weeks old, Analiisa consistently rocked in time to a piece of classical music that had been often played while she was in utero. But sadly, she was a horrible basketball player.

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.

Babies and toddlers enjoy blowing. As they practice blowing, they strengthen mouth muscles and develop awareness of their breathing, which will help their language development.

With preschoolers and early elementary, blowing develops their diaphragms and builds muscle control necessary for singing and wind instrument playing.

Blowing also helps children become aware of the fact that they can use breath to make a variety of sounds, move things, blow out candles, or create a cooling breeze.

Blowing for all ages
Blow kisses – even babies can do this!
Blow through a straw into your milk, juice or water.
Blow bubbles
Play a slide whistle or a harmonica (like the one in this semester’s Our Time)
Put a dab of watercolor or thinned tempura paint on a piece of paper. Blow on it with a straw and make beautiful designs.

For older children
Put a fluffy craft feather partially into the end of a drinking straw. Blow on the other end and see how far you can make the feather fly!
Place a ping pong ball on the table. With players on each side of the table, try to blow it off your opponent’s side with a drinking straw.
Whistle
Play a duck call or kazoo

-posted by Miss Analiisa, who wants you to breathe in through your nose, and blow out through your mouth three times right now. Don’t you feel calmer?

By the time I was in Junior High, my chores included cleaning, laundry (and ironing!), milking the goats, hauling wood for the fireplace, working in the garden, and cooking full meals for my family. Can you tell I grew up in a rural area?

As much as I really didn’t like all those chores, what I was really learning were life skills. Good life skills are what enabled me to move to New York City on my own at 18 and survive.  (Though I admit that the time I got on the wrong train and ended up at Flatbush Avenue instead of the Upper East Side and didn’t get mugged or worse was luck, though it was life skills that told me NOT to get off the train!)

My children have it way easier than I did (though I’m positive every parent says that). We live in the city (so nothing to milk), we have a house cleaner who comes once a week, and I rarely iron, let alone make my children do so.

As my oldest just turned 11, and is on the cusp of adolescence, I knew I had to really start thinking about the process of parenting with the goal of letting him go.  His frontal lobe (and therefore his ability to make decisions taking into account all the long-term consequences) won’t be fully developed until he is 25, but he’s going to be ready to fly the nest long before then. (I hope!)

Although I can’t control his brain maturity, I can help him to develop life skills – aka “chores”. As I made a list of the skills he should master, it was overwhelmingly long. So, I decided to pick 4 this year, working alongside him until he’s competent, and only then adding another.

Below I’ve made a list of some life skills that every child should know, divided by age range. It’s by no means exhaustive, but meant to be a jumping off point for you. As well, keep in mind that every child develops at a different rate, and yours may be able to master some skills earlier and some later. And that’s perfectly normal.

Toddlers
How to pick up toys
How to wash hands
How to get dressed
How to come when called
How to “freeze” when told to stop
How to make a bed in the morning

Preschoolers
How to set the table
How to stir and mix, how to cut with a blunt knife
How to take sheets off the bed
How to put sort dirty and clean laundry
How to put clean clothing away
How to take on and off shoes and coat (buttons, zipper, Velcro)
How to fold towels and washcloths

Early Elementary
How to take care of a pet
How to clean the bathroom
How to answer a phone call
How to put away clean dishes
How to help put groceries and the bags away
How to clear the table and rinse the dishes
How to write a thank you note

Mid-Late Elementary
How to load the dishwasher
How to do laundry
How to fold clothes
How to vacuum
How to change sheets on a bed
How to prepare simple recipes
How to sew on a button or mend a small tear

-posted by Miss Analiisa, who can truthfully say that she had to walk to the school bus in the snow UPHILL both ways!

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.

In order to develop balance and stability, babies age 1-2 should practice walking in different directions and in different patterns. Non-walkers begin to develop the sense of balance by experiencing varied movements in a grown up’s arms.
 

For your walker, pull the car out of your garage. Take some sidewalk chalk and draw all sorts of different kinds of lines on the floor. Play follow the leader and have fun walking, running, jumping and tiptoeing on the lines. Be sure to change leaders, and let your child lead when he or she has the hang of the game. You’ll be surprised at how quickly your child will catch on.

-posted by Miss Analiisa, whose middle child Rob had a very clear preference to be held and rocked upside down when he was a baby. No small wonder he now is loving being a gymnast!