Studio3Music Blog

Posts Tagged ‘preschoolers’

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

Tags: kindermusik, Miss Analiisa, physical development, preschoolers, Things to do

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Oct
2

Why? How come? What’s next? Can I? What would happen if?

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

Do you hear those questions at home? We hear them in Kindermusik Imagine That classes all the time! Your child is a discoverer, and loves comparing and categorizing things, conducting investigations, problem solving, and most of all, talking about what they learn from exercising their curiosity.

The things your preschooler naturally wants to do will boost their cognitive development – the growing of thinking skills, including problem solving and decision making. Cognitive development is not about the acquisition of information, though that might occur in the process.

What’s important about helping your child acquire cognitive skills now in the preschool years is that this aptitude can then be transferred to any other learning experiences in their life. For instance, take puzzles. There is a lot of thinking involved in completing a jigsaw puzzle. Sorting, organizing, categorizing, visual discrimination, remembering (Where did I see that piece I now need?), a plan of action (Do I do the outside or the inside first?)

Now fast forward 30 years. Your preschooler has become a successful research scientist. And puzzles have helped her become so. She learned the scientific method as a child. She observed the puzzle, she hypothesized how to solve the puzzle, she tested her solution and concluded if her solution worked!

All mistakes or problems are really opportunities for cognitive development. Here’s why: Children thrive on routine and familiarity. When something happens that thwarts their “normal”, they are required to come up with a solution that is outside of their box, and in doing so, cognitive development occurs.

Take the proverbial spilled milk. Your child dropped his cup of milk. You could get mad (especially if you just cleaned your kitchen floor), but don’t. Remember – all mistakes or problems are really opportunities for cognitive development.

Ask your child to look at the spill – Wow! That little mug of milk sure spread out all over the floor. Is the puddle going to keep growing, or stop? Is it a deep puddle? How can you tell? What should we do about all this milk on the floor? Oh, clean it up? How? What should we use to do that? Milk gets sticky when it’s dried, because it has a kind of sugar in it. What do you think could put on our washcloth to get the sticky off the floor? Why do you think you dropped the cup? How can you hold the cup differently next time so it doesn’t spill? Observing, hypothesizing, testing and concluding!

Here is a list of 10 cognitive skill-building activities to do with your child.

Play Hot and Cold. Hide an object and give your child clues as to where it is by saying hotter, colder, or warmer.
Games like Dominoes, Uno, Skip Bo or Battleship
Cooking. Let your child mix, pour, etc. Lots of mistakes or problems can occur to solve in this activity. (Just ask professional chefs.)
Play I Spy with shapes, colors, textures, etc.
Household chores like sorting laundry or putting away silverware.
Ask (sometimes very silly) thinking questions. Is an elephant purple? Which is bigger – our cat or our dog? What did you eat for dinner last night?
With your finger, draw a simple shape or picture on your child’s back. See if they can guess what it is. Give clues if necessary. (It’s something you find outside. It is very tall.)
Category games. What doesn’t belong – cat, mouse, frog, tree? Find me 3 things that are yellow.
Create an obstacle course.
Let them make mistakes and then allow them to figure out how to solve them.

-posted by Miss Analiisa, who thinks she’s pretty cognitively savvy, until she plays the game Gobblet Gobblers with her children and loses!

Tags: games, kindermusik, language development, learning, Miss Analiisa, preschoolers, toddlers

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Sep
25

Big Fish, Little Fish

Posted in Child Development, Music and the brain, Our Time

You’ll very often hear your teacher talk about vocal development in class, and you might wonder what exactly we are referring to…. Are we talking about your child’s ability to sing or speak, or to acquire language?

Are we talking about the minute machinations we all do with our lips, teeth, tongue, and our hard and soft palettes to form phonemes?

Or do we mean the inflections in spoken language that tell a listener we are asking a question or telling a joke?

YES! Vocal development is all of these things.

I have dozens of activities I love to do in class to nurture vocal development, but I’m going to limit myself to just one today.

It’s the little ditty Above the Sea, aka “the song with the bathtub fish”. I love those fish because they open the door to world of vocal development for your child in a tangible and engaging way?

What makes this song and fish so special?

It’s a story song. Songs that tell stories engage children in a deeper way by growing and developing and changing. They have characters to connect with, so the child’s emotions are brought into play. This gives us a song the child is more interested in participating with.

Above the Sea has a conversation, and the song’s melodic pattern also mimics that conversation. When we ask a question, our pitch will naturally slide up at the end of the sentence. When Little Fish asks “What’s above the sea?”, the pitch moves up as well. So, when we sing this story we are helping our child to understand how people use language to communicate with each other.

Above the Sea also develops your child’s ability to produce spoken words. Singing is often easier for a child than speaking, because singing is slower and more deliberate. Syllables are broken down and clearly pronounced when you sing; consonants are enunciated and vowels are drawn out.

What will often times pass by in a blur in spoken word will be clearly heard and understood when sung. Now they can use those words in other parts of their life, and they can sing along with the song, too.

Each of the sung patterns has visual components to accompany them. The fish face each other when they talk, and I always wiggle the fish who is talking at that moment. When they go up to the top of the sea, we all swim our fish up and sing up a scale at the same time -nice little auditory/visual connection there!

When the fish come back down, our voices descend the scale, too. The kids can clearly see/hear/feel the patterns in the song. The more senses we include in the learning process the deeper the learning is!

My favorite part is the verse in the middle whose words we can change. Does your child love sharks? See the shark- hear him bark, his teeth are so scary!

Dinosaurs? See the dinosaur – and hear her roar, I think her name’s Marie!

What about Lightening McQueen? See Lightening McQueen – hear his engine scream, He’ll win the Grand Prix!

Come to class and sing me your verses. I’d love to hear them!

So go ahead – sing a fishy song with your child today to encourage their vocal development. By all means, play with your words! They are the best and cheapest toys our children will ever have. And, unlike plastic sharks and dinosaurs and Lightening McQueen cars, they will last the longest.

-posted by Miss Allison, who adores words, spoken, sung and written.

Tags: brain, kindermusik, language development, listening, Miss Allison, music, preschoolers, singing

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Sep
15

A Helping of Music Outside the Home

Posted in Family, Things to do

While music can greatly enhance a plain ‘ol day at home, plenty of community music events happen away from the home worth venturing out for. They are often affordable, if not free!

Here are a few ideas to stimulate our thinking about finding music events outside-the-home in our communities.

Kindermusik classes are outstanding once-a-week classes that provide your child with a musical experience with “home-work” (really, “home-play”) and resources (CD’s, musical instruments, books and activity guides) to keep music a focus of your child’s life all week long.

Libraries usually provides a few concerts for kids throughout the year. In addition, the library has the information about what other concerts and music events are happening in the area. Asking questions will get us plugged into the resources for our music quest.

Public schools perform throughout the year. The high school concerts can be good enough quality and the musical selections are most often classics. Another benefit is that kids get to see kids performing, giving them a vision for their own musical involvement.

Community colleges also have concerts open to the public that are free or low cost, usually with an increase in quality as the students are older.

Churches have been a harbinger of great music for centuries. Today many churches are still active music venues. Not only do they often have their own semi-professional choirs or bands, but they often invite other performers in for special concerts. Around the holidays, churches are the best place to find free musical events to attend or to be involved in. Special Christmas choirs welcome children. Some churches offer free or low cost musical lessons. The internet can help us search for these opportunities locally.

Local symphonies commonly offer student ticket rates or special children’s events. These folks know that their survival depends on the next generation falling in love with classical music. As a community organization, their goal is to get their music out to the public, not be exclusive. So ask for a discount or scholarship if needed!

Bookstores like Third Place Books and Barnes and Nobles offer free musical events all year long. During long winter days, these concerts can save the day. Their schedules are often posted or printed for busy parents to take along, or available on the internet.

Summer concert series are just about done for the season. In most communities, we can find a free outdoor concert at least one day of the week, if not more. My friend’s community combined their concerts with the farmers markets. Any place people gather in the summer, people are likely to include music.

With a little planning, our kids can have a rich musical experience. Such a variety is available whether we’re investing big money, or living on a shoestring in a down economy. Our children’s lives can be enriched as we dish up a good serving of music daily, whether at home or outside.

-posted by Donna Detweiler, who is encouraged that a child’s musical diet doesn’t need to be skimpy even in lean economic times!

Tags: babies, concert, Donna Detweiler, kindermusik, music, preschoolers, Things to do, toddlers

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Sep
7

In Celebration of Messy

Posted in Bits and Pieces, Family, parenting

Messy is underrated. I recently heard of a movement of mothers who are trying to make messy the new “in.” I like that idea. It goes along better with the Law of Entropy: My house moves naturally toward messy without any help from me. When neat is the goal, I have to put some scrub to the tub, so to speak.

When I heard about this messy movement, it captured my attention. Are my standards too high I wondered? Am I bowing to the gods of neatness when my time could be better spent elsewhere? Mind you, we’re not talking about dishes left in the sink for days, or filthy bathrooms. We’re talking about how picked up and beautiful we feel our house should look all the time. You know that fleeting ideal– how the house looks when there are no people in it. When the cleaning lady (me) has finished and no one is home yet, or before the guests arrive for our child’s birthday party with its festive table setting.

When I heard of the messy movement, I immediately thought of a few friends who I’ve always admired for their toleration of mess—no kidding! There’s Caroline (name changed just in case she doesn’t yet see being messy as an admirable trait.) When you enter her house, you notice that her main living room has a large pop-up princess fort and one of those crawling tunnels. The Little Tykes kitchen is in the corner with the cookware and fake food strewn around. Living in a chilly, rainy climate, these toys provide an indoor large motor play place for her children. Because the living room has the most space, they use it for what their family needs most in this phase of life. On the occasions that grown-ups are over, the stuff gets moved, but on a daily basis, the living room is play central. That practical attitude gets a messy award!

Another friend of mine has a messy art table by their front door (which I blogged about earlier this year). No hiding away this messy space in shame. Art projects are not interrupted prematurely by a need to clean. Once in a while pens and paint jars are capped, but not before some have dried to a crust. Piles of paper grace the floor and scissors, crayons and glue cover the table top. A true messy haven for a budding artist, who paints and draws for hours each day I’m told.

The point of the messy movement, I would guess, is not mess for its own sake. It’s a reaction to a perfectionistic mentality. When we have an unhealthy ideal of what our home should look like, we can be so driven to achieve this unrealistic goal that we drive ourselves and our families crazy. We aren’t having any fun and neither is anybody else as we chase this illusion of a perfect home.

Parents, I have a proclamation for us: Family life is messy. Seems to me the messy movement is all about bringing balance to our lives. There’s a time to clean and a time to be messy. When our children are young, it is the time to be messy. Celebrating messy is part of celebrating kids. So let’s spend a bit less time restacking the Tupperware they’ve thrown into the cupboard (or whatever our neatness obsession is), and more time taking our kids out to the garden to play. Afterwards we can cut some beautiful flowers to put in a vase for the kitchen table. We can clear a space for it in the middle.

-posted by Donna Detweiler who hears there’s plenty of time to have a clean house (and be lonely and wish it were messy again) after the kids are gone.