At Kindermusik, we like to say that we are doing our life’s best work by creating and teaching early childhood curricula that instills a lifelong love of music and learning in children. Our life’s best work, however, also includes being mindful of our impact on the environment for kids. We strive to balance educationally sound curricula with business practices that support sustainability. Providing eBooks to families as part of enrollment in Kindermusik is one of the latest ways we can do both. eBooks support early literacy and the environment for kids. Here’s how:
5 ways eBooks support the environment and early literacy
eBooks encourage even reluctant readers to read more.Some children naturally gravitate towards reading and books, where other children need a little more encouragement. Research shows that eBooks can turn even reluctant readers into more eager readers.
eBooks are better for the environment for kids. Printed books result in the emission of almost four times the amount of greenhouse gases than e-readers.
With eBooks, reading together can happen wherever you and your child are—waiting at the doctor’s office, sitting on the beach, or snuggling on the couch. We know most parents—even librarians!—rarely carry a bag full of children’s books ready to pull out at a moment’s notice. However, most parents never leave home without their phone. Parents can access eBooks for kids at the touch of a button.
Printed books emit larger quantities of ozone-depleting substances and chemicals associated through their life cycles.
eBooks with rich visualizations, sounds and music appear to help early language and literacy skills, especially for young at-risk students.
Parents are a child’s first and most important teacher. Kindermusik gives parents the tools (and eBooks) needed to support that role. Our music classes for toddlers, babies, big kids, and families now include access to Kindermusik@Home. With Kindermusik@Home, parents can access favorite Kindermusik songs and activities, learning games for kids—and eBooks!—and more in a green-friendly digital format any time from any smart phone, iPad, tablet, laptop, or computer.
To learn more about enrolling in Kindermusik classes and receiving access to Kindermusik@Home, contact a local Kindermusik educator via our Class Locator.
Schools, preschools, and childcare centers can also benefit from Kindermusik@Home. To learn more about bringing our digital early learning curriculum into your classroom, email us at info@abcmusicandme.com.
Today’s children live in an increasingly digital and global society. These digital natives can intuitively navigate around a smart phone, tablet computer, or iPad. As early childhood educators and curricula creators, we closely evaluate how established and emerging technologies can be used in an age-appropriate manner that supports how a child learns best. More and more research continues to emerge about digital learning, including a new study about reading comprehension and eBooks.
How eBooks measure up on reading comprehension
As published in the Applied Cognitive Psychology journal, researchers assessed the impact of technology on reading comprehension. Under the leadership of Dr. Sara Margolin, the research team split the 90 participants with an average age of 19 into three groups to read 10 passages. One third read the passages on paper, one third read on a Kindle eReader, and one third viewed the passages on a PDF-reader via computer. The passages contained an equal number of non-fiction and fiction excerpts. After reading each passage, participants answered comprehension questions. The research team found no difference in comprehension scores across all three platforms.
English Language Learners and eBooks
While the students in this study were not ELL students, reading comprehension remains a key focus for teaching English to children. As mentioned in a previous blog, “5 Ways to Support English Language Learners,” the number of young ELL students in the United States continues to rise. However, teaching English to children extends beyond the United States as more and more parents understand how teaching a young child a second (or third!) language can help prepare a child for future success.
With ABC English & Me, we use music and movement to teach English to speakers of other languages that meets the TESOL curriculum standards for Pre-K. This beginners program for English Language Learners combines Kindermusik’s decades of experience in early childhood education with the latest research on learning a foreign language. Plus, with Kindermusik@Home, children and parents get the added benefit of using technology, including eBooks and music downloads, in age-appropriate and fun ways that engage the whole family.
(Source: The News Tribune DEAN J. KOEPFLER/Staff photographer)
Reading nooks, daily book reading during circle time, bring-your-favorite-book-to-school day, dressing up like the Cat in the Hat for Dr. Seuss’ birthday—the opportunities for preschool teachers to infuse early literacy and language activities into a daycare or toddler curriculum abound. A quick search on Pinterest can quickly add even more ideas! However, discovering age-appropriate and research-supported methods to integrate eBooks and digital learning into a preschool curriculum can be a bit more challenging.
Using eBooks during shared book reading in a preschool curriculum
A new study published in the Journal of Literacy and Technology observed how preschool teachers used eBooks in the classroom. As published in the article, the observations of Kathleen Roskos, PhD and Karen Burstein, PhD focused on preschool teachers’ implementation of a vocabulary-focused, shared book routine; language strategies at the touchscreen; mobile devices to extend the shared reading experience; and children’s learning of 40 target words. The research team wanted to gain a better understanding of using eBooks for kids as an instructional resource in a preschool curriculum.
Over a four-week period, the eight preschool teachers participating in the study imbedded eight eBook shared reading sessions with each eBook being read two times. In addition, the children browsed or reread the eBooks on a digital device. The researchers found that eBooks can support vocabulary acquisition and that teachers easily transitioned from traditional books to eBooks as part of the shared book reading. The teachers used the same reading methods whether using a traditional book or an eBook. However, it came as no surprise that additional digital learning research specifically focused on instructional techniques and strategies are needed to maximize eBook features and support eBook browsing and reading on mobile devices, especially when used with the youngest learners as part of a preschool or toddler curriculum. The researchers noted that eBooks with rich visualizations, sounds and music appear to support early language and literacy, especially for young at-risk students.
You can download the full article, “Descriptive Observations of Ebook Shared Reading at Preschool,” here.
Preschool curriculum uses eBooks and digital learning with music
With twice as many children reading eBooks today than just two years ago, eBooks for kids can become a key component to a preschool or daycare curriculum and a way to increase parent involvement in early childhood education. At Kindermusik International, we know how important it is to implement the latest research (and tools!) on how young children learn best. After all, with more than 35 years of experience creating music classes for toddlers, babies, big kids, and families, as well as standards-aligned preschool and daycare curriculum, we’ve experienced breakthroughs over the years on reaching even the youngest learner. In fact, we continue to create new early childhood curriculum that implements the latest research, including how to use digital learning—and eBooks for kids—in an age-appropriate and effective manner. For example, with Kindermusik@Home parents can easily access favorite Kindermusik songs and activities, music, eBooks, and lyrics—as well as recipes, learning games for kids, crafts, and more in a green-friendly digital format any time from any smart phone, iPad, tablet, laptop, or computer. Families and teachers also love our music apps for kids.
To learn more about enrolling in a Kindermusik class and receiving access to Kindermusik@Home, contact a local educator via our Class Locator.
Schools, preschools, and childcare centers can also benefit from Kindermusik@Home. To learn more about bringing our daycare curriculum into your classroom, email us at info@abcmusicandme.com.
Have you seen the video of the one-year-old child interacting with her father’s iPad and then a print magazine? After touching the tablet screen to make images increase in size, she tried doing the same thing to pictures in a magazine. Of course, that didn’t quite work!
Most children today will never remember a time before the Internet, smart phones, and tablets. Not to mention, with 30 percent (and rising!) of today’s college students taking at least one online class, higher education will look quite different for our children.
Digital learning and early childhood
Children engage in digital learning from an early age. Even the youngest child can model the actions of a parent talking on a smart phone or reading an eBook. A recent report, Take a Giant Step: A Blueprint for Teaching Children in a Digital Age, published by the Digital Age Teacher Preparation Council, includes strategies and tactics to better equip preschool and elementary teachers to provide age-appropriate digital learning opportunities for young children.
“Teaching young children today demands a new approach to an exciting but increasingly complex set of challenges,” said Linda Darling-Hammond in a press release. “Quality early learning programs in our digital age will be led by highly prepared, flexible teachers who can effectively integrate what they know about healthy child development with the resources of an always connected, thoroughly modern environment.”
The report highlights the understanding that integrating digital learning into early childhood works best when it enhances children’s engagement, such as talking, interacting, manipulating, pretending, reading, constructing, and exploring. (Sounds like a Kindermusik class to us!) In order to help early childhood educators best capture the power of digital learning, the report outlined several goals to accomplish by 2020:
Advance technology integration and infrastructure
Modernize professional learning programs and models
Expand public media use as a cost-effective asset for teachers
Create a Digital Teacher Corps
Digital learning: making connections between the classroom and home
In one early childhood digital learning study featured in the report, researchers worked with a Kindergarten teacher and her five- and six-year-old students. The researchers loaded math activities, video clips, and digital worksheets onto tablet computers. The tablets also included material for parents on the goals of the activities and information on the math topics and keywords the students learned at school. For homework, each student received a tablet to take home for four weeks.
After the four weeks ended, parents said that they felt more connected to what was happening in the classroom and were better able to offer their children help because they knew exactly what they were working on and what concepts they should understand. Plus, children spent more time on their homework and improved mathematics skills.
Digital learning and eBooks with Kindermusik@Home
After more than 30 years of developing early childhood curricula, including music classes for toddlers, babies, big kids, and families, we understand that the days may pass slowly but the years fly (or dance) by. One day a baby may be taking her first steps in a Village class and seemingly the next day she is walking across the stage to receive a high school diploma. Wow. Talk about a fast dance.
We know that music can impact a young child in profound ways and can set a child up for early academic success. We also know, as the above report showed, how important technology fluency will be to your child, which is one of the reasons we created Kindermusik@Home. With Kindermusik@Home, families can engage in age-appropriate digital learning, such as virtual field trips and active listening games, read eBooks, and download all the music from class. Kindermusik@Home connects the classroom learning with a family’s everyday life, making the learning (and fun!) last throughout the week.
To learn more about enrolling in a Kindermusik class and receiving access to Kindermusik@Home, contact a local educator via our Class Locator.
Schools, preschools, and childcare centers can also benefit from Kindermusik@Home. To learn more about bringing our digital early learning curriculum into your classroom while also increasing parental involvement, email us at info@abcmusicandme.com.
At Kindermusik, we like to say that we are doing our life’s best work by creating and teaching early childhood curricula that instills a lifelong love of music and learning in children. Our life’s best work, however, also includes being mindful of our impact on the environment for kids. We strive to balance educationally sound curricula with business practices that support sustainability. Providing eBooks to families as part of enrollment in Kindermusik is one of the latest ways we can do both. eBooks support early literacy and the environment for kids. Here’s how:
