Raine Moments: Drawing with Music

This month's new theme at my daughter's Kindermusik class is "Splash." Her teacher had switched to the ABC Music & Me program where there is a new theme every month. Although I liked the old program that had 16 weeks for a bigger theme and a slower pace, I'm starting to like the new theme change every month.

There are songs about bathtime, bubbles, underwater, fishes, and more. I really like this month's theme. I especially like the slow, peaceful song where we pretended to be bubbles floating around...it is so graceful-like a ballet dance. Another song called, "What's Above the Sea" talks about a little fish asking his/her father what's above the sea. Each time they go above to see something different and return back underwater. When I played this song for my daughter a few days ago, I had her drawing along with the narrative song. This is what she came up with (I drew the clouds and one of the whales).

It was so fun watching my daughter create a picture about a song she learned just a week ago. Later, she was able to retell the picture to her dad which is a great for language development. Whenever I make art, I always like to put on music in the background-it just adds to the whole relaxing feeling of art making. When I did my practice teaching a few years ago, my host teacher showed me a "hand over hand" method of having a student put his/her hand over another student's hand while he/she drew with the music and then they switched. It was really an amazing sight. It was about being there at the moment and enjoying the lines created on the page...art making is really about the process-something I've got to keep in mind when I create.

Raine Moments: Music Mondays

I can't believe it but it's been 15 weeks since I started taking my daughter to Kindermusik classes at a private home studio. I first heard about Kindermusik through my cousin in laws who took their children to these music classes when their children were young. As a part time stay at home mom, I'm always looking for different and new experiences for my daughter.

I believe that the more she experiences as a young child, the more development there is. Brain development for children is an amazing thing and although I don't know all the specifics about it, I learned that different, repeated experiences will strengthen the connections in a child's brain creating a pathway for the way the child learns. I did a quick google search and came upon this article, Understanding Brain Development in Children by Sean Brothersome.  The following lines from the article really stood out to me,  
"The interactions that parents assist with in a child's environment are what spur the growth and pattern of these connections in the brain.
As the synapses in a child's brain are strengthened through repeated experiences, connections and pathways are formed that structure the way a child learns. If a pathway is not used, it's eliminated based on the "use it or lose it" principle. Things you do a single time, either good or bad, are somewhat less likely to have an effect on brain development."

When I took my daughter to Kindermusik class, I had the intention of getting her to socialize for more kids her age. What ended up happening was she was the only student in the class (until recently, in the last 4 weeks of class, 2 more kids joined the class). Despite this, it was really amazing to see how fast she caught on to the words and movements of the songs. Over the weeks, I've seen great development. She's more open at expressing herself through song and today, she stepped out of her shy little shell and said a lot of things out loud in front of the other kids (she gets really shy when there's other kids or adults around). She's also learning to share and take turns with the others during the last few weeks.

Kindermusik classes are normally structured with a theme. My daughter started her class with a Milk and Cookies theme where there were songs related to food, kitchen, and groceries. There are home materials provided such as a small instrument, a CD with songs learned in class, and a few books some full of ideas of what to do with your little one. I found the CD was so nice to have to include some music time during a regular day with my daughter. During class, the songs are sang with opportunities to use different instruments to tap, clap, shake along with the music as well as scarves, parachutes, and much more. There is a lot of imaginary play as children pretend to pour tea, buy groceries, wait for toast to pop. It's a lot of fun and I always feel refreshed and happy after the class. I guess music has a way of uplifting everyone's spirits.

I would definitely recommend Kindermusik classes for its variety of music, imaginary play, uses of different instruments, and children socializing opportunity but any classes are great for a different experience. And of course, experiences are not restricted to classes...interactions with your child, different things you do at home are all wonderful experiences that may shape who your child becomes.

My art lesson today...

Today I woke up feeling that I actually don't want to work. at all.
I'm so glad I did though. My English class was a nightmare...too many chatterboxes (even during a test day -_-) so let's skip that part.

My art classes were fabulous. The excitement in the kids voices as they realized they were going to be drawing Angry Birds based on the Pop Art style was priceless. There were chatty moments when kids connected to each other as they told each other about their favourite game and then there were the quiet moments of pouring their creative minds onto paper.

I was also quite happy to give the kids endless possibilities with suggestions that the Angry Birds meet other favourite characters; Mario, Pac Man, Pokemon, being in Toronto, shopping, The Lorax (that brought up quite a few smiles too). It's definitely interesting to juxtapose popular icons.

Also, one boy asked, "Can I colour the angry bird purple?"
I said, "Of course. You're the artist."
The boy said, "Yayy!"

I was quite happy to let the kids realize that art is about being creative. You don't have to draw anything like the handout. It's just a stepping stone for your creativity to soar.

I hope I can continue to do this for their future lessons but this school seems to put much more emphasis on technique which can dwindle some of the kid's interests. However, technique is still important as children around the age of 12 wants to create realistic drawings. If they can't achieve that, then they lose interest in art due to frustration. You can read about the drawing development here. I found it quite fascinating as it relates to my young daughter too. Will blog about it in a later post. Also, hoping to blog some of my art lesson ideas to share in the future.

toddler activity-dress up person

I miss blogging. Let's do one more post. I finally went back to the Early Years Centre this week because for once, my daughter woke up early enough to get ready to get there by 9:30 and we didn't have anything we HAD to do that day.

It was so nice to be back. My little girl definitely needs to get more time to socialize with little ones her age. She was rather shy and spent a lot of time observing other little boys and girls her age. She tried a range of activities but never really settled down to play one for a while. During circle time, she did not participate with all the actions but she did clap after each song. The one song she did remember and did the actions for was.
 

There was a crocodile (chop hand thing)
And orangutan (monkey action)
A snaky snake (wiggling arm)
An Eagle flying (fly)
A Bunny (bunny ears)
A Beaver (beaver teeth)
A crazy elephant (elephant trunk)
Na na na nan na na na

Lastly, we had a little craft and it was nice when there were choices for the children eg. Which one would you like? different coloured crayon to write name, showing the boy or girl, different coloured shirts and pants. Also there was a variety of decorations for the children to glue and paste. I was rather proud to see my daughter glue everything on her own with little assistance. The teacher pointed out something important to those parents who seemed to be doing the craft for the children. Something along the lines of..."We don't care what you can make. We care about what the children can make. We care about letting the children develop their fine motor skills."