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Newborn Sensory Play: Exploring Scarf Play with Music
Scarf play with music for a newborn? OH YES! Discover the magic of scarf play with music for your newborn and how it can engage their senses and promote development.
Multi-Sensory Stimulation:
As your baby feels, touches and sees the scarf moving, and hears the music match the movements, so many of their senses are sending messages to the brain all at the same time. In turn, your baby’s brain is absorbing and integrating this sensory information, building neural connections that can become automated awareness, leaves their brain energy for new things to learn.
Interactive Play for Development:
Because infants rely on interactive play with a loving family member to stimulate them, calm them, and enable them feel joy… all which are key to optimal infant development, scarves offer a gentle way to accent your play and spark creativity.
Incorporating Scarf Play in Family Time:
Mommy and me music playtime with a scarf can provide all of that… moving the scarf along with vocal play, describing words, upbeat tunes or sweet lullabies. Daddy and me activities can be a bit more robust, holding baby up to their chest facing out, and marching through the room with a scarf hanging over their legs… swishing on their skin with the movement. Siblings can lay down in front of Baby, facing them for some delightful infant tummy time playing peek-a-boo, or bouncing the scarf to the beat of rhymes they chant. Scarves are actually a wonderful prop for infant play with your whole family seated in a circle around them tossing the scarf to each other and peeking out at baby in turn.
Understanding Your Baby’s Sensory Sensitivity:
Be aware, each baby has their own sensory sensitivity. Now is a good time to carefully watch to see what your baby is communication to you and adjust accordingly. When your baby seems to avoid or whimper during scarf play, you may need to slow down, start with just visual play or only gently touch extremities. Often young babies can become averse to scarf play when it is immediately used on their face and it may freak them out since they don’t understand it. Any peekaboo play should start with your own face, and they will love it. Once your baby knows what to expect, and enjoys this multi-sensory play, they may be eager for more close to the face movement and robust movements.
Enhancing Scarf Playtime:
Try this: Start with vocalizing on “aah” or “ooh” going higher or lower in pitch MATCHING the movements of the scarf above them as they are laying on the floor. (They love your voice, even if you don’t.) You may include describing words to add the benefit of language development. Use directional words such as up-down, around, over-under, in-out, or action words like swoop, swish, swirl, hop, jump, etc.
Add a personal touch by singing your baby’s name. As you slowly move the scarf upward, focus on the first vowel in their name as the pitch in your voice slowly climbs higher before finishing their name in a playful way. Enjoy the same going lower until the scarf rests on their belly. If they reach for it, let them bat it around and maybe even grab it and pull it in toward the center of their body.
Enhance your play by playing some instrumental music and move the scarf along with the flow of pitch, with small movements for quiet music and bigger movements for louder music.
Benefits of Scarf Play:
As a tiny infant, your baby may not be moving their head side to side yet, so seeing the bright blurry scarf flow above them, and hearing the pitch of your voice sync with the scarf movement is an incredible learning experience. As your baby starts to move their head side to side, they are eager to practice and develop their independent eye tracking to watch the scarf glide across their vision.
As your baby reaches for the scarf, they are practicing their ability to extend their extremities, and as they grab at it and pull it in, they are practicing their ability to flex and hold, critical gross motor skills for infants. Stephanie Johnson, in her book “Baby Bare” calls the first three months of a baby’s life the “Squishies” stage, and these specific visual and motor skills are the first most important aspects of their critical early development.
Before babies can try to imitate anything, their brain is programmed to learn quite complex concepts from their experiences. Babies’ brains are primed to create neural pathways for intervals and math through the more rich classical and jazz music. Simply listening is a delightful background for their daily experiences, but interactive play while listening is when the real learning occurs. Once a child begins to try to imitate, we adapt it for their singing range and capabilities.
Choosing the Right Music:
The barbershop quartet version of “Home Sweet Home” on the free Kindermusik APP (available for any mobile device) is found in the Theme: Relaxation, and has a wonderful high and low flow, perfect for scarf play. For a delightful song with verbal directions, enjoy “Up, Up in the Sky” with your little bird. Download the APP today for music YOU will love to listen to repeatedly as well.
Next Step….Kindermusik!
For an ongoing supply of new ideas and music you can use together with your baby, join us anytime during your infant’s first three months with our special Newborn Offer. If your baby is older, sign up today to Preview a Class and see the musical magic in action with other families with newborn infants, and babies up to walking.
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We hope this inspires you to embrace scarf play with music as a valuable tool for newborn sensory development, fostering a strong bond and providing enriching experiences for your baby.
With Music and Magic,
Team Grow and Sing Studios
Rocking and a-Rolling Trains the Brain for Balance
By Debbie Mondale, Accredited Kindermusik Educator
Do you wonder why it is so important for our babies to rock and roll – move freely… and why toddlers love repeatedly falling over on purpose or preschool-age children spin themselves silly?
Balancing is not a skill we are born with, it must be trained in coordination with our body and brain. The good news, training for this cognitive development is natural and FUN, and this is a skill that impacts us every day of our entire lives, even essential for our survival. Encouraging children to move creatively is a good start, AND there are many mommy and me type activities that enhance this process.
The movements of our little one’s bodies train their brain to know how their body is positioned in the space around them, where UP is, and how to balance. The video below shows a pretty cool way to demonstrate this vestibular system as it occurs in the inner ear and sends messages to train the brain for balance and so much more.
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Usborne – How Your Body Works – 1975
The inner ear is a curled up tube with three extra loops which are filled with a liquid, somewhat like the balloon in the video. These loops are also filled with nerves, that go with the flow as we move around and send messages to the brain. As the head and body moves, the liquid stays level with the ground, and the nerve endings tilt from their secured end as the liquid moves. Messages about HOW these nerve endings move are sent to the brain to create neural connections that allow us to subconsciously balance and move through space effectively.
When rolling and spinning round and round, the liquid in the ear whirls around too, even for a little while after stopping, which leaves a bit of a dizzying feeling which children LOVE (adults?… not so much). Spinning sends totally unique messages about balance to the brain and improves focus since coordinating both sides of the body and brain are required.
The more your child’s body moves, in every which way, the more they will be able to coordinate their actions to dance, ride a bike, play sports, and problem solve situations in which they become off balance, stuck, or disoriented.
Usborne – How Your Body Works – 1975
Think about the last time your body instinctively recovered after you stumbled on uneven ground. Have you ever been disoriented under water after a wave knocked you over? These are the moments when all this vestibular training kicks in to save the day.
Movements you do with them, such as rocking, dancing with mom, wrestling with dad, and even fun pillow fights with the family are training the brain. I remember when my son was young, he loved being carried upside down. He insisted for almost a year that THAT is how he wanted to be taken to the bathroom to brush his teeth!
Movements they do for themselves, like nodding or shaking their head, rolling on the ground, falling down, spinning, jumping, tumbling… are naturally processing cognitive development in your child. If you see your child repeating a movement ad nauseum, their brain is actively SEEKING this type of stimulation.
ONE occurrence only makes the brain aware it is an option. Only thousands of repetitions can truly build the neural connections needed to make these reactions instinctual enough to act without thinking about it in an emergency situation. Early childhood development specialists WISH they could share this parenting advice to all young families since the first five years is a critical period for this brain development.
Our job can be as simple as making sure they are in a safe place to move and let them GO! Add maybe add some language development to the mix by describing their actions and how it makes them feel. Adding delightful music during movement multiplies the fun factor and increases their attention span. Download the free Kindermusik APP and get the action going with the songs in the Themes: Body and Playtime.
- As your child becomes more capable, challenge them with creative obstacles that make it fun to move their body in unique ways.
- Indoor diy obstacle courses can include piles of pillows and blanket tunnels and fun objects to pick up and toss in baskets. This can be set up in a living room, or even a hallway to keep them on a forward path.
- It can be so fun to set up their own little ninja warrior outdoor obstacle course with balancing beams, wobbly surfaces, things that spin, tunnels, rolling and tumbling paths, and so much more.
Our Kindermusik curriculum makes this all easy for you as it is designed to provide your child with a wide variety of movement experience. And our Accredited Educators here in Central Florida are specialists that will teach you more about it and provide tools you can use to meet your child’s unique needs for developing their gross motor skills and vestibular capabilities. Join us for a $5 preview class and see the magic in action.
Enter to win $100 of KINDERMUSIK CLASSES and an INSTRUMENT/PROP GIFT PACK!
Dear Families,
It’s time for Kindermusik International’s annual “We Love Kindermusik” week ALL around the world. Kindermusik is enjoyed by so many, and once again we can all share our experiences and love for this amazing enrichment program together.
“WE LOVE KINDERMUSIK” week is truly intended to be a week of happy reminders of why we all love Kindermusik and most importantly, of all the special people – educators, families, and children – who come together every week to change the world through music…. one child and one song at a time.
Read below for details on how to share the love, and enter to one of our exciting prizes! We are giving away $100 of CLASSES AT GROW AND SING STUDIOS and also an INSTRUMENT AND PROP GIFT PACK.
We hope you enjoy sharing the love, and good luck! — The Grow and Sing Team
Here are all the different ways to get an entry into our SHARE THE LOVE GIVEAWAY. (entries are unlimited, so have fun!)
- Color a “We Love Kindermusik” coloring sheet complete including a testimonial of WHY your family loves Kindermusik classes. Not in Kindermusik yet? That’s okay, tell us how you incorporate music at home with your kids. (THIS PART IS REQUIRED FOR ENTRY). Take a photo of your coloring sheet and post to one of our socials (IG, FB, or TIKTOK) or you can even email it to . Be sure it’s set to public so we can see it. Use #growandsing Click here to print coloring sheet.
- Comment on any of our posts, reels or tiktoks and be sure to tag us so we see (each comment is an entry)
- Tag us in a REEL, POST, or STORY. Be sure to use tag @growandsingstudios or we may not see it (each tag is an entry)
FOLLOW US:
FACEBOOK
INSTAGRAM
TIKTOK
We will be keeping close track of entries, and submit your name accordingly. However, you are welcome to email us your entry count. If you choose to do so, please be sure you let us know exactly how many and WHERE your entries are, so we can verify and get your amount right! Do not send us several emails to verify, just wait until you are done and then send us one complete email listing all the ways you entered (and how your name appears on social media!). Thank you! The contest begins Monday, February 12, 2024 and will close at 11:59pm Sunday, February 18, 2024. Prizes may be gifted to someone else if you are not able to use it. $100 credit prize can be redeemed for ANY service offered by Grow and Sing Studios including lessons or birthday party. Winners for our giveaway will be chosen by random draw. Winners will be announced sometime during February on our socials once we tally up all the votes, so be sure to like our social media accounts and select get notifications so you don’t miss the announcement of winners.
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. A PURCHASE OF ANY KIND WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. ODDS OF WINNING WILL DEPEND ON THE TOTAL NUMBER OF ENTRIES RECEIVED. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW. THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOT ASSOCIATED WITH KINDERMUSIK INTERNATIONAL, FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, TIKTOK OR ANY OTHER SOCIAL MEDIA OUTLET.
GOOD LUCK!!!!
