Dear Our Time Parent:
According to a leading brain researcher, Arnold Scheibel, “Unfamiliar activities are the brain’s best friend.” We know that routine and familiarity are conducive to learning because they allow a child to relax and focus without stress. However, within limits, the unfamiliar is also important for developing new skills. “The brain pays closer attention to things that don’t fit an established pattern…. Anything new causes the body to release adrenaline, and adrenaline acts as a memory fixative.”*
Today’s class included both the familiar and the unfamiliar, providing the perfect balance for your child’s learning environment. Through familiar routines and in a familiar setting, we were able to explore the unfamiliar: a new instrument (sandblocks), a new movement song (Walking in the Green Grass), and a new fingerplay (Ten Fluffy Chicks).
The balance Kindermusik provides is optimal for learning. Can you believe learning could be such fun?
*Start Smart!: Building Brain Power in the Early Years, by Pam Schiller
Kindermusik’s Foundations of Learning - some of the benefits your child received from today’s activities are:
New and Different: “The brain pays closer attention to things that don’t fit an established pattern, things that are new and different (novel). …Over time, the brain reacts to routine stimulus by lowering levels of stimulations. Anything new causes the body to release adrenaline, and adrenaline acts as a memory fixative. Accordig to Arnold Scheibel, Director of the Brain Research Institute at UCLA, “unfamiliar activites are the brain’s best friend.’”
Fingerplays: During the toddler years, children typically are quite active and have short attention spans. By incorporation fingerplays and rhythmic body movements into nursery rhymes and stories, we can keep these youngsters’ attention by allowing them to be active. In gthe process, we also enable them to remember new words by association with movement, and we give them an opportunity to exercise new fine and gross motor skills.
-Nursery Rhymes More Than Fun by Janice T. Gibson.
