Screech!

This article is taken from Reader's Digest July 2007 issue.

Want to improve your child's brain power and memory? Enrol them in music lessons from as young age as possible. Brain tests conducted on a group of kids be researchers from Canada's Mc Master Institute for Music and the Mind show that early musical training improves memory and IQ - and results can be seen in four years old in as little as four months. Two groups of children aged four to six were studied. One group was given music lessons and the other was not. When brain scans were conducted afterwards, it appeared that the children with musical training generated more sophisticated responses, their brain processing system worked faster and general memory capacity increased.

Thought you would be interested to know this...

Cities! Lesson 9

Hi folks, boy....these few weeks are just whizzing past......before I know it another day gone, another week ago and very soon another year gone! Towards the end of the year, I know some of you have gone on holidays and things are rather quiet at the music school. Anyhow, classes are still on right till the end of the year.....

We are going to sing Hello this week with our drums playing hello rather than us singing the word 'hello'. The focus of this activity is audiation: which means the ability to hear music when no musical sound is present. When you audiate, you have internalized music and are 'thinking' music.

We will continue with There's a little drum activity, still using the drums and practicing steady beat, exploring various movements we can play with the drum and again at the end, using the same song to focus on audiation. This time we will play the word 'drum' rather than sing it.

We are going to introduce the Three Artists Matching Game which is a complex game that involves listening, counting, moving and pretend play. This week we will start slowly by just learning about the artists and moving like them to the song San Sereni ( which was introduce last week when we explore different movements of people with different jobs) using different props like scarves to represent ballet dancer, stick for guitarist and bells for painter.

Then we will zoom to a country far away call China where we will listen to a song call Kang Ding City and allow the kids the opportunity to do some analytical listening: such as who is singing? did you hear instruments? Was the music slow, fast, did it change? There is a story to this song ( thanks to mum-in-law for translating it to me!) and I will explain it to the kids. This is one of the beauty of Kindermusik program. The children gets to listen and appreciate songs from all over the world. We have so far listen and learn about a french song ( Bonjour) and a song from Zimbabwe ( Sorida)

I'm sure we all remember the statue game we played last the week before while we Walk All Around? This week we will be doing it in class with mummy and daddy's help and let's see how well we have learn to pose and stay still!

During parent sharing time, we will be teaching the mums and dads the rhythm of Sorida as we move together as partners. Lastly, with Christmas around the corner, of course I will have a Christmas surprise for you all......which you will see when you come to class!

For those that are away, a blessed Christmas....