Musikgarten uses musical instruments for a range of developmental and educational purposes in our classes.
For babies we have selected hand-held instruments such as rhythm sticks and rattles which can lead your baby to discover cause and effect as she moves her arm while holding a rattle and it makes a sound. When she is holding a rhythm stick and you tap that stick with another, she feels the beat and hears it, creating a link between hearing and feeling.
Ad children grow they love to use instruments as a means of self-expression, and we make sure each child has a turn as well as creating opportunities for them to take turns in an ensemble setting. The primary benefit of simple musical instruments is for your child to catch the beat of the music and establish playing with a steady rhythm themselves. As they grow we introduce two and three part ensembles with different instruments to develop their ensemble skills.
In the older classes your child learns to play glockenspiels, chime bars, metallophones, and resonator bars; widening their instrumental repertoire in preparation for the skills needed to play the piano.
Many of these instruments help your child develop a sensitivity of touch, which is a crucial component of much instrumental playing. Along with this we are exploring volume and dynamics, both with the tuned instruments and with our drums.
Ultimately each child has the joy of developing individual instrumental skills, combined with the social and instructional components of playing in an ensemble. All wonderful preparations for educational achievement and lifetime success!

In addition to your five senses: sight, sound, touch, smell and taste, there is an important "sense" that is one of the first to develop. the vestibular system is located in the middle and inner ear and gives a sense of balance and space. It has a very close relationship to gravity, safety, survival, arousal, and attention. Thus it is closely related to behavior as a child grows.

Our awareness of ourselves in relation to the space around us is only partially provided by eyes and ears. What we see and what we hear combine with information from the vestibular system to tell them brain if you are moving, balanced, and so on. Then the brain responds with motor, language and arousal responses. In this way, athletes, dancers, and others who are constantly giving their body and senses new experiences have more developed vestibular systems than today's majority sedentary population. This contributes to (but does not necessarily cause) the rise of response disorders such as ADD, ADHD, and other socially difficult behaviors.

In previous generations there were many more activities that developed the vestibular system: swinging on an old tire hanging  from a tree, climbing, jumping and running, rolling down a grassy hill, spinning or dancing are all examples of activities that have been replaced by screen time to day. Even in school there has been a massive decrease in recess and physical activities.

In our Musikgarten classes, we pay special attention to vestibular development through both dances, and stationary movement activities. Understanding that movement and learning are inextricably linked, we provide opportunities for your child to engage his or her body for deep-seated learning to take place. Many of our stationary movement activities provide your child with opportunity to develop balance, as well as to explore spatial concepts such as high, low, in, out, up, down. We also extend this to "my space" and "your space" to link vestibular development with social skills.

All these components are crucial because the ear's primary purpose of providing a sense of balance with spatial awareness must be fulfilled before it can get on with its secondary purpose of hearing. Scientists would put it this way: vestibular function precedes auditory function.

By prioritizing vestibular function, we give your child a balanced foundation for both learning through listening, and healthy social participation through a well-developed response system.

As we have resumed classes this week, watch for some of these factors with your child, and encourage movement that promotes vestibular development.

We all want our children to learn to share and take turns, but any parent will tell you it is not easy to teach these crucial skills! When cooperation skills pair with communication skills, your child is ready for the social world of school. But today's society has changed from past generations where large playgroups were the norm. Now most children grow up with one or two siblings and a great deal of adult attention. this is not a great preparation for school, where one or two adults are giving attention to a large group of children!

To address this skill gap, Musikgarten places a great deal of emphasis on sharing, taking turns, and speaking up. We start every class in the younger ages with a welcome song that greets each child by name. Then small vocal and gestural cues from the children are picked up throughout the class, mirrored back, and become part of the musical activity. Gradually each child discovers that they are making an impact on the events of the class.

As the children grow, they begin to participate in discussions about the songs and musical activities in the class. Each child has opportunities to add new twists to the class experience, drawing the class together and preparing them to be part of a musical ensemble. The teacher is observing and adding new elements contributed by the children, so they develop a sense for nuance which strengthens their ability to attend well.

These developmental steps, and the experience of becoming part of a group are fundamental to our curriculum design.The folk songs and musical traditions we offer foster the sense of music-making as a community-building activity. This in turn gives each child a sense of value as they feel heard, imparting confidence they carry into life at school and beyond.

One way parents can foster these positive traits (beside bringing your child to Musikgarten each week!) is through deliberately building in small delays before responding to your child's desires, so she/he can develop the patience needed to take turns with others. Actively modeling compassion for others is another aspect of this cultivation of social skills, and often our classes provide a setting where this can happen.

Finally, joining in with the songs, rhythm patterns, and musical stories on your CD and in class will model communication for your child and help her/him to learn to communicate freely with others.
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Have a great week off from classes, and we'll see you next week!

Psychology Today defines impulse control (or self-control) like this: "Self-control separates us from our ancient ancestors and the rest of the animal kingdom, thanks to our large prefrontal cortex. It is the ability to subdue our impulses in order to achieve longer-term goals. Rather than responding to immediate impulses, we can plan, evaluate alternative actions, and, often enough, avoid doing things we'll later regret. The ability to exert self-control is typically called willpower. It is what allows us to direct our attention, and it underlies all kinds of achievement".

Clearly impulse control is a vital skill for a child to learn, and many parents have impulse control high on their wishlist for the growing child. Dr. Dee Coulter, a renowned brain science educator who is part of the team that develops Musikgarten curriculum, has this to say: "Children need impulse control to be successful at learning, at making friends, and doing complex movement tasks. Without it, the future is bleak. Impulse control has three ingredients – the ability to calm, the ability to wait, and one last skill that develops more slowly – inner speech. Inner speech is a kind of self-talk children use to guide their actions. Because inner speech is out loud until age 8 or 9, we can hear children use it to direct their actions. In music, this inner speech or self talk is developed when words are linked to movements like “head, shoulders, knees and toes” or song stories that are acted out while singing. In each case, the words are practiced and, through repetition, become automated. By age 4 or 5, this inner speech or self talk becomes strong enough to override temptations and they can use it to control their impulses. Later, children will need this inner speech to guide their silent reading. Without it, reading and writing fail to develop well."

In Musikgarten we start to develop inner speech from the earliest ages. Even before a child can speak, they are building their listening vocabulary and can offer ideas through gestures. When this is mired back to them, they experience their own thoughts for the first time.This form of conversation and listening builds a foundation for developing inner speech or self-talk once children reach the stage of rapid language development.

By linking music, movement, and language together for children, Musikgarten strengthens the children's ability to organize their listening skills and their ability to control their behavior. When  we add movements or drumbeats to songs, then drop off the words so the form is being held only by the movement or the beat, we are placing an intense demand on their inner speech to hold the focus, developing impulse control.

Another thing children love about Musikgarten is that I invite them to make up music and movement stories. Pooling their ideas for turning a poem into a song, or creating new verses to a movement-based song, they learn to work in a group, to share ideas, to link their language with movements, and become comfortable with speaking up. Studies have found that a strong vocabulary and an ability to engage in classroom discussions by the time a child reaches school age are strong indicators of higher success rates in academic learning.

Parents ask me how they can teach inner speech and impulse control. The short answer is by modeling! Sing and talk to your baby or toddler as often as you can; singing (with whatever vocal talent or lack of it you have) is far more interesting to your young one than your speaking voice! And sing along with your Musikgarten CD too! For older children, encourage inner speech by listening for it (remember it is out loud until around age 8) and affirming the process you hear. Coach your preschooler by talking out loud to yourself about planning dinner, shopping for groceries, or drawing a picture. As you help your child master the lyrics on the Musikgarten CDs you are helping to build impulse control and prepare for a successful decade of school life.

And remember: it's not too late to invite a friend to join our classes!