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Music: Fun or Education?

3/1/2015

 
Many parents of young children enroll their child in music class. It is a fun way to spend time together and, since children are innately musical, it is an activity to which they are naturally drawn. Having fun is the best reason for your child to go to music class.

As a parent you want your child to have fun, but you also want him or her to have every possible advantage in life; to prepare her to thrive in later years, and to give him every educational benefit at your disposal. This is where music class really shines. Did you know that music has many educational and developmental benefits to offer your child?

Early Childhood Connections, a journal for early-childhood educators, recently listed these many benefits of music to young children:

• Music is a language, and children instinctively recognize spoken language as communication.

• Music evokes movement, and children delight in and require movement for their development and growth.

• Music engages the brain while stimulating neural pathways associated with such higher forms of intelligence as abstract thinking, empathy, and mathematics.

• Music’s melodic and rhythmic patterns provide exercise for the brain and help develop memory. Who among us learned the ABCs without the ABC song?

• Music is an aural art and young children are aural learners. Since hearing is fully mature before birth, infants begin absorbing the sounds of their environment before birth.

• Music is perfectly designed for training children’s listening skills. Good listening skills and school achievement go hand in hand.

• Developmentally appropriate music activities involve the whole child – the child’s desire for language, the body’s urge to move, the brain’s attraction to patterns, the ear’s lead in initiating communication, the voice’s response to sounds, as well as the eye- hand coordination associated with playing musical instruments.

• Making music is a creative experience, which involves expression of feelings. Children often do not have the words to express themselves and need positive ways to release their emotions.

• Music transmits culture and is an avenue by which beloved songs, rhymes, and dances can be passed down from one generation to the next.

• Music is a social activity, which involves family and community participation. Children love to sing and dance at home, school, and at church.

Best of all, unlike cribs, strollers, and clothes, children never outgrow music and all its benefits. Music has something special for each child – no matter his or her age.

As with any beneficial activity, the earlier you start and the more consistently you continue, the greater the benefit. But it is never too late to begin, and always beneficial to start (or re-start) at any age.

Musikgarten offers a sequential path to music literacy that incorporates all the benefits listed above. From newborn to elementary school, your child can benefit from Musikgarten. So this year, make room in your schedule for music; come for the fun, and stay for the education!

    Author

    Jane loves to share the background of the Musikgarten philosophy and pedagogy, together with the wide-ranging benefits of music in child development.

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