activities for kids at home Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Minds On Music

FOL Fridays – Creativity: It's In All of Us

Creativity isn’t a trait that some people have and others don’t. It’s a way of using your mind and body as you engage in a task that has no prescribed approach. In the creative process, your ideas, feelings, skills, and knowledge flow together in innovative ways, allowing you to make or learn something new.”
(“Creative Minds at Play” in Scholastic Parent & Child Dec./Jan. 1998 by Charlotte Doyle, Ph.D.)
Ideas for parents: There are many simple ways to effectively encourage your child’s creativity. Here are just a few…

Ask open-ended questions or silly “What if…” kinds of questions.
Use the technique of scaffolding – Observe what your child is doing. Copy it, then suggest or model a slight change to what they’re doing. (This is a good technique with instrument play.)
Recycle paper towel tubes, plastic containers, and boxes and keep them available for open-ended play inspiration.
Keep a box of dress-up clothes in the playroom – from cowboy hats to princess shoes to tutus to a fireman’s vest to scarves.
Stock up on simple art supplies like large sheets of paper, washable markers, finger paints, and crayons. Turn on some music and encourage your child to draw what he hears.
Turn off your cell phone, sit down, and play with your child. Pretend play is a great way to relieve stress and bond with your child!

Try this Creative Activity with your Kids

Here’s a sample activity from Kindermusik@Home that allows your children to show their creative side. Watch these silly animals and let your kids imitate their movements – in their own creative way.
Shared by Theresa Case, whose Kindermusik program at Piano Central Studios in Greenville, SC, is proudly among the top 1% of Kindermusik programs worldwide.

Child's Play

We call it play, the work children do all the day long. From rolling a ball to tasting it, from building with blocks to knocking them down, a child’s job is to play.

Activities for Kids at Home

Children learn and grow through play. Toys that mimic everyday objects, like kitchen appliances and gardening tools help a child to act out what he sees the grown-ups doing. Toys that specifically encourage creativity, like blocks, scarves, and Legos equip children as they use their ever-amazing minds to construct and pretend. Other simple things that inspire open-ended play include cardboard boxes, dress-up clothes, and Lincoln logs. Read here for more open-ended play ideas.

The most important play-thing

As parents, we want our children to have the best toys to help with their development. After

all, creating a stimulating home environment is the least we can do. But the most important play-thing that your child can have does not come in a box or from a store. Children need loving parents and caregivers to not only provide them with quality tools for their work, but they need adults to stop, sit, and become co-workers at play. This is one of the best educational activities for 2 year olds, 3 year olds, and beyond. It’s easy to delight a child with a new toy and walk away. But a child needs personal interaction with the adults in her life as she learns and grows.

It’s hard to take a break from what we view as important: work-related issues, financial problems, the upkeep of a home. But investing daily in the lives of our children by sitting down with them, allowing them the freedom to choose what to play, following them and labeling their actions, resisting the urge to organize and perfect their play, is the most important work that you can do as a parent.

Inspiring play through music and movement

In our Kindermusik classes you’ll find lots of inspiration for play, both musical and non-musical. Though our classes are music-based, we’ll give you lots of tips and ideas for playing with your child in class and at home – tips and ideas that come from an understanding of the concept of scaffolding, from learning more about your child’s developmental stage, and from the child-centered way that we approach our classes. There’s nothing like a Kindermusik class to give you a reason for playing with your child – once a week in class and throughout the week at home.

The simple act of investing time in play with your child is one of the very best investments you can make. Take a few minutes to play today!

Edited and revised by Theresa Case, whose Kindermusik program at Piano Central Studios in Greenville, SC, is proudly among the top 1% of Kindermusik programs worldwide.

3 Advantages of Kindermusik@Home

You might have heard the exciting news – there’s something new at Kindermusik. But not only is there a brand-new curricula with fresh and delightful themes, there is also a whole new kind of home materials to complement those themes and extend the classroom experience in a whole new way.
Introducing… Kindermusik@Home!

Advantage #1: More educational activities for kids to enjoy

The new curricula introduce a new theme every four lessons, and with every new theme comes another set of learning activities and parenting resources, automatically delivered to you.

Advantage #2: With you wherever you (or your device!) are

As long as you have your phone, your tablet, or your computer, you have your Kindermusik@Home with all of the activities, resources, play ideas, and music at your fingertips.
Whether you’re at home, or on-the-go, you and your kids can enjoy fun and educational activities, any time or day of the week!

Advantage #3: Yours for always and forever

The longer you’re enrolled in Kindermusik, the larger your library of Kindermusik@Home learning games and educational activities for kids becomes. And that library will always be available to you, even if you are no longer enrolled in Kindermusik classes.
There’s no better gift you can give your child than Kindermusik, especially when it includes all of the advantages of Kindermusik@Home!
Shared by Theresa Case, whose Kindermusik program at Piano Central Studios in Greenville, SC, is proudly among the top 1% of Kindermusik programs worldwide.