Tag: music lessons orlando
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.
An Amazing First Year
Written and Contributed by Will Lesnick
Checking my email In-Box, I just received my 1 year license renewal notice from Simply Music. Wow, time flies! It was a year ago that I became licensed as a Simply Music Piano Lessons educator, and what a year it’s been. It was about 16 months ago that my wife Holly (founder and director of Grow and Sing Studios) and I restructured our business lives to rotate almost exclusively around Grow and Sing Studios which until then had only offered Kindermusik programming for children up to age 7, all around Central Florida. I had slowly been becoming more and more involved, but it was last year we decided to make it official and put everything we both had into this being our primary family business. The next step was to figure out my roll, beyond being the “behind the scenes guy”.
Although for the first seven years I had little actual involvement in Grow and Sing Studios, I too have a musical background. I took piano lessons from the age of 5, and went on to play saxophone and clarinet in bands from Junior High through college, as well as community bands after my school years. We had heard from other Kindermusik educator friends around the country about a revolutionary program out there for teaching piano called Simply Music that many of them were introducing into their studios. I decided to look into what Simply Music was all about.
I will admit, when I first started investigating I was a little skeptical about this supposed method of playing piano where students as young as 5 are learning how to play a wide variety of great songs on the piano with both hands in such a short amount of time. But, I made a lot of calls, visited some others studios, and did more and more research and decided it was legit, and went ahead and signed up for my training. A month later I was a certified Simply Music piano instructor and we opened our doors to our first students at our brand new home piano studio called Piano Lessons by Grow and Sing Studios.
Simply Music teaches piano through what they call a playing method rather than a reading method. They use the analogy that children learn to talk before they learn to read. Basically this breaks down to teaching the children how to play all these songs by tapping into each child’s natural musicality, rhythm, patterns, shapes and other methods. Slowly but surely the music theory is snuck in there, but we start by getting our hands on the piano and actually playing songs! The thinking here is that the children are not overwhelmed at first by being taught too much theory from day one, which studies have shown leads to quick burn out and giving up. From what I’ve seen the past year, it works!
I can truly stay it’s been an amazing experience for me. Within the past 10 months, I’ve grown to 27 piano students here in East Orlando! They range in age from 4 years old to 44! It has been just amazing watching them learn through this method. They all soak it up and the growth as piano players and musicians in this relatively small amount of time is really something to see. On a personal level I can say that the good news is I truly love teaching piano to my students. Although I hoped I would, I can admit that when I first started there was that concern as to what would happen if I actually did not enjoy teaching piano as much as I hoped I would, but fortunately that is not the case at all! I am finding it very fulfilling working with all these children (and a few adults) and getting to know them and their families and see the thrill they get as they are becoming young musicians. I am looking forward to my first full piano recital scheduled for December. I can already tell how excited some of the students are getting at the idea of performing for their parents and loved ones.
As a first year Simply Music piano teacher I have also really learned how each child is such a unique soul, and all have their own way of learning. I have found that I am constantly adapting my teaching style based on the child I am working with. Of course it all follows the same basic guidelines, but every child learns just a little differently and I am really trying to tap into that with my students, so each and every one of them achieves their maximum potential.
When I started last year, my long term goal was to get up to 40 students. With 27 students signed up in under a year, I’m optimistic and excited about getting there sooner than later, and perhaps beyond! While my schedule is getting tighter, there are still plenty of spots for those interested in trying it out. I always welcome parents to bring their child by for a free sample lesson, to see how it all works and get to know me, and vice versa. I am excited about getting even more students in our studio.
You never hear anyone say that they regret taking piano lessons or learning music. I’m looking forward to watching my students get stronger and stronger going into 2014, and welcoming in new friends as well.
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