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Take a look at this video.  What do you see?

If you answered, “a room full of children and adults ‘driving’ around with hula hoops,” you would be right. But, if you said an early childhood music and movement activity teaching spatial awareness you would also be right! Children are using their whole bodies—and the whole room—to learn a vital math skill, the skill of spatial awareness. (Although they think they are just having fun driving around!)

So what is spatial awareness and why does it matter?

Spatial awareness is the knowledge of where you are in relationship to other people and objects in your environment.  To develop spatial awareness, children must be introduced to concepts such as direction, distance and location.

Studies have found a link between a well-developed sense of spatial awareness and artistic creativity, success in math, and the development of abstract thought.  But it’s that music-movement-math connection that many scientists and researchers are really starting to explore.

As highlighted in this study by Florian Krause at Radford University, there is a vital connection between the body and the brain.  This provides educators and parents with a powerful tool for helping children learn by giving them opportunities to make a connection from experiencing to understanding.

For over 30 years now, Kindermusik educators have been helping children jumpstart their growth and learning through the compelling combination of music and movement.  The research confirms… it simply adds up!

Learn more about using music and movement to support a young child’s early math development at http://www.kindermusik.com/about/benefits-of-music-for-children/.

Anyone around young children long enough soon realizes that a bulk of the time is spent getting them ready for something….ready for bed, ready for preschool, ready for a playdate/library/park, ready for bath, etc. But getting children ready for Kindergarten means more than just making sure they have everything on the school supply list. So what can early childhood educators and families do now to make sure kids are ready for one of the first major transitions in their lives?

You can find the solution in a music class!  Educators (and researchers!) agree that young children who start Kindergarten equipped with certain skills from day one tend to excel. When young children are actively engaged in music making with a group, they are also learning foundational school readiness skills. In fact, here at Kindermusik we call early childhood music and movement classes the ultimate playlist for school readiness.  Here are just a few of the reasons why we can make that claim.

Self-regulation – This vital skill has to do with the ability to control one’s own behavior, emotions, thoughts, and impulses.

Children who are given lots of practice with moving – and then stopping and re-starting their movement – are learning to control their bodies which in turn, leads to learning to control behavior and emotions.

Watch this delightful stop-and-go dance from the Kindermusik classroom at Kindermusik of Cleveland.

Listening – Not just hearing, but listening is a skill that must be learned and includes the ability to focus, discern, and distinguish sounds and meaning.

Children learn to listen, an intentional act, over time with lots of practice. In Kindermusik, we include Focused Listening (or active listening) in nearly every class.

Enjoy a little listening practice with this free Kindermusik Listening Game.

Social-Emotional Skills – These include the ability to share, take turns, be a helper, make friends, and wait patiently, just to name a few.

This list could describe much of what goes on in a group music class where we share instruments, wait for our turn to share an idea, help clean up our instruments, or make room on the Story Blanket for our classmate.

Watch what happens as this Kindermusik educator conducts an instrument demonstration of the slide whistle.

Early Literacy Skills – Early literacy depends greatly on phonological awareness, auditory discrimination, auditory sequencing, and vocabulary development.

A music class is a rich sound environment that develops the listening skills and vocabulary skills so critical to literacy success.

Listen for all of the descriptive vocabulary words that are used in this Kindermusik video from Kathy’s Music.

Early Math Skills – Success with math begins with developing an understanding of concepts like spatial awareness, counting by rote, and pattern recognition.

It might be surprising to discover all of the different ways that these concepts are explored and practiced in an early childhood music and movement class through hoop play, songs and finger plays, and all kinds of dances.

Watch how these children in Catherine Huang’s Kindermusik class are developing spatial awareness as they explore many different ways to play with the hoops.

Want to see for yourself how to use music to teach vital school readiness skills? Try these five musical learning activities with the children in your life. Or, learn more at www.kindermusik.com/schools and request a free demonstration at your school.

When it comes to gaining the most benefit from a music class, there are three essentials of participation – engagement, consistency, and longevity.  This according to a recent study led by Dr. Nina Kraus, the Hugh Knowles professor of communication sciences in the School of Communication and of neurobiology and physiology in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern

“Our results support the importance of active experience and meaningful engagement with sound to stimulate changes in the brain,” said Kraus, director of Northwestern’s Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory.

What this study highlighted was that music training significantly impacts brain development, language development, literacy, academic achievement, and more, but only when the three essentials of participation are included.

Essential #1 – Engagement
It’s not enough to passively sit in a music class.  Kraus’ study illustrated the significance of active engagement by playing instruments.  In Kindermusik classes, children are also involved in music-making and learning through movement, use of props, and active listening.

Essential #2 – Consistency
Music isn’t a quick fix, according to Kraus, nor is it a one-time wonder.  There must be regular and consistent participation.  Kindermusik educators have observed time and time again that it’s consistent attendance, week after week and year after year, that has the greatest impact on a child’s complete development.

Essential #3 – Longevity
Interestingly enough, Kraus’ research also highlighted that it’s longevity that really counts.  It was “…two years of music training – but not one – improved the brains’ ability to distinguish similar-sounding syllables, a skill linked to literacy.”  Kindermusik has always believed in the multi-year benefits of early childhood music education, and their multi-level curricula support that belief.

Learn more about the benefits of actively participating in a music class.  Visit http://www.kindermusik.com/about/benefits-of-music-for-children/.

Contributed by Kindermusik educator Theresa Case, whose award-winning Kindermusik program is located in beautiful upstate South Carolina at Piano Central Studios.

When you read an article title like “Why Math Might Be the Secret to School Success,” you stop and pay attention.

“We think math might be sort of a lever to improve outcomes for kids longer term,” lead researcher Pamela Morris said.

Now that’s a powerful statement.  But here’s a more sobering statement when one considers how closely connected math skills and academic performance are:

“[T]here’s a real lack of math learning in pre-K.”

We have the solution – music and movement classes.

In Kindermusik, children learn:

Geometry: Spaces and Shapes

Moving to music and playing instruments in creative ways causes children to become aware of the space around them, deepening their understanding of positional and spatial concepts.

Try this at home – Rainy Day Playground
Encourage your child to climb over and under pillows, cardboard boxes and sheets turned into tunnels.  Talk about how his/her body fits in these new creative spaces!

Patterns

Movement games, circle dances, and instrument ensembles help children listen for and identify the patterns in music which also develops their ability to recognize patterns in math.

Try this at home – Brown Bear, Brown Bear
Read a story with repetitive text.  Afterwards, playfully challenge your child to come up with new “pages” that match the repeating pattern.

Numbers and Measurement

Rhymes, songs, chants, and fingerplays give practice with one-to-correspondence, counting, ordering, sequencing, and comparing and deepen early math skills.

Try this at home – Count It Out
Keep the numbers rolling with your child.  How many buttons on your shirt?  How many steps did we climb?  Did we use five blocks or four?

To learn more about how music lays the foundation for early math skills, download one of Kindermusik International’s “Music and Math” ebooks at www.Kindermusik.com.

Contributed by Kindermusik educator Theresa Case, whose award-winning Kindermusik program at Piano Central Studios is located in beautiful upstate South Carolina.

With increasingly more sophisticated technological advances, researchers are learning more and more about the powerful effects of music on the brain and the cognitive advantages of learning to play an instrument.

A recent study at the University of Texas at Arlington gave researchers a unique glimpse into the brains of professional musicians, skilled musicians who had been playing an instrument for a number of years.  The bottom line?  Musicians definitely have an advantage when it comes to processing, attention, and particularly, memory.

So why are these kind of findings important if you’re the parent of an infant, toddler, or preschooler?  It’s because the early years are the best years for instilling a love of music, building on the benefits of music making, and laying a foundation of musical understanding – all of which can grow into the successful and lifelong pursuit of learning to play an instrument, as a hobby or as a career.

With your Kindermusik enrollment, your child not only benefits from the richness of the weekly musical activities, but you are both able to take advantage of Home Materials that extend the learning and enjoyment from class to home all week long.

For a fun sneak peek into just the kind of unique music and memory benefits that Kindermusik provides, enjoy this free Memory Game with your child.

Want your child to experience the lifelong benefits of music?  Enroll in Kindermusik!  Find a local Kindermusik educator at www.Kindermusik.com.

Contributed by Kindermusik educator Theresa Case, whose award-winning Kindermusik program at Piano Central Studios is located in beautiful upstate South Carolina.