Toddler Physical Activity - Surprised by Recommendations! | Buying Your Child's First Guitar

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  By: Kindermusik

  Music Expert

  As parents and educators it is our responsibility to listen to and learn how our children perceive the world through their experiences.  By doing so, we're able to support, nurture and even guide their further learning in ways that are meaningful to them as individuals.  Talk with your child about what he sees, hears, touches and smells.  Ask him how these senses make him feel emotionally.  Does touching a flower petal make him feel happy?  Does smelling gas pumping at the gas station make him feel 'yucky'? Does listening to the buzz of a fly by his ear scare him; even if it's just for a moment?
  
  There are many fun and creative ways to foster listening skills, social interaction, emotional and cognitive development within your child.  Research suggests that musical activities are among the best. Expose your children to all kinds of musical genres and talk about why they like or dislike something. Encourage her to be expressive as she listens to or creates music. Give her scarves to wave in the air as she dances. Take pots and plastic containers out of your cupboard and arrange them upside down on your table.  Hit them with plastic spoons, wooden spoons and metal spoons. Discuss the different sounds made.
  
  "As a child, I had a lot of freedom of expression in my eccentric family of artists and musicians. I would dance in the living room with my mom and pretend to be Madonna, while my dad would be practicing Chopin in the other room. My parents opened my eyes to different cultural and artistic experiences because they took me to recitals and art openings from a young age," explains Kindermusik At School of Rock teacher Melody Mendis.
  
  You can do something as simple as dancing with your child in your living room.  Or consider a more structured music education program. But the key is to introduce your child to music at the earliest age possible.
  
  According to the report of the National Commission on Music Education, “…music shares with the other arts a resource that is of paramount importance to the education of the young: Music is a highway for exploring the emotional and aesthetic dimensions of experience. Indeed, here is where music and the other arts make their unique and most visible contribution.  Education without music shortchanges our children and their futures. Education with music offers exciting possibilities in two directions. As we look to the future, educational research on the nature of intelligence and brain function give promising indications that could change the face of education. And as we look around us in the present, we see connections between music education and changes in students that offer direct and immediate benefits, not only to them, but to the educational enterprise as a whole.”

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