This Week…
Has it ever been so much fun to fall down?
So often we rely on words to tell us what to do, but musical cues, or letting the melody “tell” us what to do can be just as clear. By listening and letting our bodies respond, we know when to fall down, how long to wait, and when to get up.
Listening to musical cues is an important skill if your child ever belongs to a musical ensemble, and being a good listener is essential for whatever he chooses in life.
 
At Home…
Keep listening to your At Home CD and come up with your own actions for words you hear in the songs, use your activity guide to help.
 
The Children Are Learning…
 

  1. Laughter: Laughter helps strengthen the immune system, lower blood pressure and reduce stress levels. In addition, humor helps young children handle problems or crisis situations, enhances their social skills and helps them to create social bonds.
  2. Falling Down and Getting Back Up: As young toddlers have the physical experience of falling down and getting back up, a significant emotional event occurs as well. They are encountering and overcoming a fear of imbalance, and are developing confidence in their physical skills. “Bodily movements often carry strong psychological meanings. With young children in particular, motion conveys emotion more powerfully than words. In the second year of life, motion is centered on the achievement of balance, and the risk of losing this balance becomes a central concern. Physical balance stands as a symbol for emotional balance, in child play as well as in adult imagery.” –The Emotional Life of the Toddler, by Alicia F. Lieberman
  3. Pictures and Words: “Describing the pictures in books to your child will expose her to vocabulary that’s not used in everyday speech, while letting her connect the spoken words to recognizable images.” “Play on Words” by Emily Bloch, Parenting April/1999
  4. Fine Motor Movements: During the first part of life, gross motor activities dominate the child’s repertoire of movement with the major objective being the mastery of walking. Now the child can focus on activities that encourage the development of the fine muscles. Fine motor movements allow the child to increase skills that require finger and hand movements such as putting together a simple puzzle, painting with a toothbrush, turning a page of a book, or stringing beads.
  5. Tuning and Twirling: With its focus on transportation, Away We Go! Includes many opportunities for going around and around like a wheel turning. In addition to being enjoyable, all the turning and twirling in Away We Go! Is helping young children develop: balance, coordination, directional awareness (especially if you emphasize turning one way, stopping, then turning the other way), and spatial awareness. –Hello Toes, by Anne Lief Barlin and Nurit Kalev

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