Musical Parenting Tip: Clap, Pat, Stomp & Play to the Beat with your Preschooler!
Why?
Thanks to the steady beat of our hearts, we are created to respond to a steady beat. It's probably why we can't help but tap our feet or nod our heads along to the beat of the music we hear.
The ability to consciously recognize and demonstrate steady beat, however, takes practice. In our early childhood music classes and early childhood curriculum, we help young children, including at-risk students, to develop steady beat by leading children to move their bodies to a beat, play instruments, clap their hands, or even walk, jump, and tiptoe to a steady beat.
How?
Read the e-book, Shoofly Pie, with your child. The children all seemed to relate to Barley Bear, who really wanted to try some yummy 'shoofly pie,' but was always being delayed by the other activities at the carnival, and by the needs of his family members.
Going along with our classtime drum exploration, watch the Big Drum, Little Drum video.
Do you have drums (or containers that can be used as drums) in your home? Maybe you can have a family, carnival parade? Try marching and playing the beat to songs like: 'Liberty Wagon', 'Ta Ra Ra Boom De Ay,' or 'Marching Band/Brass Serenade' (all on the Carnival of Music CD).
Cue up the 'Bands and Balloons' track (also from Carnival of Music). Play a game, with your child, of listening to hear whether to float like balloons, or march like a band!
Want to Learn More?
On our blog: Discover Four Reasons Why Steady Beat Skills Matter in Early Childhood Education.
Kindermusik 7-Year Continuum:
Kindermusik babies are patted, moved and bounced to the steady beat by their parents, as the music plays.
Kindermusik toddlers imitate the steady beat as adults demonstrate how to play & move to the beat, as they find their own, internal, steady beat (usually matching the tempo of their heartbeat).
Kindermusik preschoolers practice matching an external steady beat source (like musical recordings, or following the beat played by their teacher), as they begin to take ownership of their own music education.
Kindermusik big kids use the steady beat skills they have learned to play, in ensemble, with their classmates. In this way, we can start and stop each song, together, as we play our glockenspiels, recorders, and dulcimers.
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