Babies, and Pathways in Movement

Parenting Tip: Travel in straight, zigzag, curvy, and circular pathways with baby!

 

Why?

Toddlers are kinesthetic learners.  They learn by moving, and doing! 

In movement activities, you're maximizing your child's spatial awareness by helping her to experience different pathways in her movement. 

By labeling the movement pathway you are taking, you are also building your child's vocabulary, and his understanding of what he is experiencing in class. 

These experiences, which connect vocabulary and movement, will build both vocabulary and movement skills.

 

How?

Talk words of position, with your child! 

Then, have some fun with a hulahoop :) 

Get out a throw blanket (or a bed-sheet) and take your child around the house on a blanket ride!  Will you take a straight, or curvy path?  Turn on the Waddaly Atcha song (from Kindermusik's Way Up High  CD), and ride away! 

 

Want to Learn More?

On our blog - did you know that movement activates the brain?

 

Kindermusik 7-Year Continuum:

As a baby, your child counts on you to move her body in a variety of ways – so that she knows what is possible.  In Kindermusik toddler classes, your child will use his vocabulary of movement experiences to move his own body to the music – movement is how toddlers learn best!  As a preschooler, your child will begin to use movement to express stories and music, using her own imagination.  In Young Child classes, your big kid makes use of the coordination & muscle control he's been developing over the years, as he holds glockenspiel mallets, and plays notes on his glockenspiel using just the right amount of force.  Small, quiet movements now become a lighter touch with the mallets, as big, loud movements become a heavier touch, producing more instrumental sound.

 

Babies, and Pathways in Movement

SP (pathways in movement + syncopation)

Parenting Tip: Travel in straight, zigzag, curvy, and circular pathways with baby!

 

Why?

Toddlers are kinesthetic learners.  They learn by moving, and doing! 

In movement activities, you're maximizing your child's spatial awareness by helping her to experience different pathways in her movement. 

By labeling the movement pathway you are taking, you are also building your child's vocabulary, and his understanding of what he is experiencing in class. 

These experiences, which connect vocabulary and movement, will build both vocabulary and movement skills.

 

How?

Talk words of position, with your child! 

Then, have some fun with a hulahoop :) 

Get out a throw blanket (or a bed-sheet) and take your child around the house on a blanket ride!  Will you take a straight, or curvy path?  Turn on the Waddaly Atcha song (from Kindermusik's Way Up High  CD), and ride away! 

 

Want to Learn More?

On our blog - did you know that movement activates the brain?

 

Kindermusik 7-Year Continuum:

As a baby, your child counts on you to move her body in a variety of ways – so that she knows what is possible.  In Kindermusik toddler classes, your child will use his vocabulary of movement experiences to move his own body to the music – movement is how toddlers learn best!  As a preschooler, your child will begin to use movement to express stories and music, using her own imagination.  In Young Child classes, your big kid makes use of the coordination & muscle control he's been developing over the years, as he holds glockenspiel mallets, and plays notes on his glockenspiel using just the right amount of force.  Small, quiet movements now become a lighter touch with the mallets, as big, loud movements become a heavier touch, producing more instrumental sound.

 

Toddlers - Becoming a Good Listener

Parenting Tip: Notice sounds, with your toddler – at home, and away!

 

Why?

In almost every class, we have an activity that focuses on the act of listening.  Hearing and listening are different. Your ears and brain naturally receive sound from the environment.  Listening, however, is an intentional, mental process that requires attention and focus as the brain sorts and interprets sounds.  Listening is key to learning, as well as for nurturing connections with others.  Listening activities that focus on one sound at a time, help children practice the skills of attention, and engaged listening.

 

How?

Make some Windy Weather!

Once you have the wind going, create some sky crafts, to ride on the wind!  

Get the whole family together, and have a windy dance party!  Play I Can't See the Wind (from Kindermusik's Up in the Sky CD), and enjoy dancing like wind-blown leaves, all around the house! 

Also from Up in the Sky, try honing in on the owl's call.

Find some soundmakers at your house, and find ways to make sound on our drums

Listen to the upward and downward chimes in Sunshine Play and move your body (or a scarf!)  accordingly.

 

Want to Learn More?

On our blog - Learn more about how to help develop your child's listening skills!

 

Kindermusik 7-Year Continuum: 

As a baby, your child honed in on the sound of your voice, first.  Now, in toddler Kindermusik classes, you are guiding your child to knowledge of new sounds, through focused listening activities (including labeling, and imitating each sound).  As a preschool Kindermusik kid, your child will discover the sounds of specific instruments through listening games (am I playing a shaker, a bell, or rhythm sticks?).  In Young Child classes, your child will use her listening skills to make sure that she is playing the correct notes on her glockenspiel, and that she is going at the same tempo as the rest of the group.

 

Preschoolers - Learning Through Contrast!

Parenting Tip: Explore opposites with your preschooler – using music!

 

Why?

Learning through opposites enhances vocabulary and word association, encourages sensory and motor development, develops discrimination and classification skills, and provides plenty of opportunity for fun games!

 

How?

Play the Dolphins & Seagulls game!  Will you swim down low, or fly up high? 

Then, search around town for some dinosaur (or dragon?) eggs!  Help your child to discover the opposites in the game (that egg is up high, on the shelf, but this egg is down low!). 

Teach your whole family how to dance at the ball, by playing 'Sing a Song of Sixpence' (from Kindermusik's Make Believe CD).  Remind them that the Queen prefers tiptoe dancing, with much grace and restraint, while Rupert & the pirates rather enjoy jazzy dancing.  Enjoy exploring contrasting movement together, at home!

 

Want to Learn More?

On our blog – Do you like the jazzy sections of 'Sing a Song of Sixpence?'  Then try this Scooby-Dooby-Doo-Wop jazz activity!

 

Kindermusik 7-Year Continuum:

As a baby, you helped your child explore opposites when you would move up high during high musical sounds, and down low during low sounds. During Kindermusik toddler classes, your child explored opposites by imitating you as you played loud & quiet sounds, or as you moved the scarf in smooth or bumpy ways.  Now, as a preschooler, your child is exploring more intricate opposites, like the difference between the classical and jazz styles of Sing a Song of Sixpence (from Kindermusik's Make Believe CD).  As a big kid in Young Child classes, your child will explore opposites in relation to musical instruments (did you know that the long bars of the glockenspiel play the lowest sounds, while the short bars play the highest ones?  How can you play the glockenspiel in a staccato, or legato way?)

 

Babies and Heavy vs. Light Movements

Parenting Tip: Stomp, tiptoe, and float to music with baby!

 

Why?

Weight is just one of many elements in movement.  (Others include:  space (personal or general);  direction (forward, backward, sideways);  level (high, middle, low); and pathway (straight, curvy, zig-zag, circular). 

Working with contrasts in weight (Light and Heavy) teaches children to control and understand the impact of their movement (if I hit the drum with more force, the sound is louder).

As baby switches from heavy to light motions, he also begins to notice differences in the music he is hearing (stomping for strings, and tiptoeing for flutes, helps to highlight that those timbres/sounds are different). 

 

How?

Dance, Little Baby! 

Then, find ways to (safely) practice tossing & catching, inside the house! 

What about a family movement game, using the High & Low Dance (from Kindermusik's Way Up High CD)? 

Can you teach the family how to stomp to the strings, and tiptoe to the flutes?  Can you find other 'heavy' movements to use for the strings?  Or other 'light' movements to use for the flutes? 

 

Want to Learn More?

On our blog - Find 5 Ways to Celebrate Spring, with Music & Movement! 

 

Kindermusik 7-Year Continuum:

As a baby, your child counts on you to move her body in a variety of ways – so that she knows what is possible.  In Kindermusik toddler classes, your child will use his vocabulary of movement experiences to move his own body to the music – movement is how toddlers learn best!  As a preschooler, your child will begin to use movement to express stories and music, using her own imagination.  In Young Child classes, your big kid makes use of the coordination & muscle control he's been developing over the years, as he holds glockenspiel mallets, and plays notes on his glockenspiel using just the right amount of force.  Small, quiet movements now become a lighter touch with the mallets, as big, loud movements become a heavier touch, producing more instrumental sound.

 

Toddlers - Today's Expressive Movement Means Musical Expression Later

Parenting Tip: Act out a musical story with your toddler – like the Robin Story!

 

Why?

Neural pathways in a child's brain develop through all kinds of movement.

Movement combined with a concept helps you remember that concept.

Cognitive learning is activated by movement.

Children learn movement from others the same way that they learn speech, by imitation and repetition. 

Did you know that each person has their own instinctive way of moving, called a 'movement signature?'  When a child imitates another's movements, her movement vocabulary increases, and her personal movement signature begins to form.

 

How?

Go on a Bird Walk! 

Then, Be a Cloud! 

What if you use items from around your house, and re-enact the Robin Story (from Kindermusik's Up in the Sky CD), as a family?  Use as many or as few props (and makeshift 'costumes?') as you like, and have fun! 

 

Want to Learn More?

On our blog - Learn why movement & learning go hand-in-hand

 

Kindermusik 7-Year Continuum:

As a Kindermusik baby, your child heard lots of labeling and saw pictures of many new things (animals, clocks, whatever was in this week's song).  Now, in toddler class, your child is beginning to 'be' those animals (like a robin!) and act out stories about it (with you as his model).  As a preschool Kindermusik kid, your child will take ownership in her own expressive movement, by deciding just how a Pirate might move to swab the deck, or hoist the sails.  In Kindermusik Young Child classes, children take what they've learned about expressive movement to control their hand muscles, and breathing, to play glockenspiel, dulcimer, and recorder with just the right amount of volume – musical expression!

 

Preschoolers' Emerging Literacy

Parenting Tip: Use musical pretend play to discover shapes, sounds, creatures, and new words!

Why?

Creativity and Communication are part of literacy development.  (Your child uses these skills in Kindermusik classes during activities like: Out Here on the Sea – where he goes looking for sea creatures & things in his curler/binoculars during a pretend sailing trip). 

Recognizing shapes is a pre-literacy skill (Like discovering shapes during a pretend game about 'instrument treasure').

The more language a child knows the more she is able to think about things not present. Strong language and vocab skills support comprehension, listening, reading, speaking, writing – all skills essential for literacy.

Print Awareness helps your child realize that all of those curved and straight lines have meaning… (like when she tells you a list of things that pirates do, and you write that list for her to see). 

How?

Be a pirate! 

Then, use some Dragon Logic. 

What if you play your own version of Out Here on the Sea (from Kindermusik's Make Believe CD)?  You can use hand-binoculars (or toilet paper tubes, or other cylindrical items) to look all around as your pretend vessel sails the seas. 

What if you helped your child make a list of all of the things that were seen?  (more 'print awareness!')

Want to Learn More?On our blog - learn ways to make every day 'Read Across America (or the World!) Day.'

Kindermusik 7-Year Continuum:

As a Kindermusik baby, your child heard labeling when a new picture or concept was presented.  In Kindermusik toddler classes, your child furthered her understanding of those concepts & things by exploring them together with you, through movement and play.  Now, as a preschooler, your child plays musical games that allow him to recognize shapes, imaginary creatures 'out on the sea,' and he notices that when you write things down on paper, or white board, those squiggles have some sort of meaning.  As a big kid in Young Child classes, your child will use the many pre-literacy skills gained in early Kindermusik experiences to help decode music notes & symbols.