Music Education For Children
Studies have shown that music and music training provide a wealth of educational benefits to children. Early exposure to music has been proven to help develop areas of the brain responsible for language and reasoning skills. Music education also increases the spatial and temporal reasoning necessary for advanced mathematics. Children who study music typically score better on standardized testing as well.
Music education not only provides children with a terrific healthy outlet for self-expression, it enhances creativity and boosts self-esteem. There are a number of ways for parents to help their child receive quality education in music, starting as young as birth. The most important thing is to expose your child to a variety of music, including several different genres, not just classical or kid’s music.
Sing songs to your infant each day. Fun, repetitive songs with movements or motions are best and as your child gets older, you can encourage her to join in. By the toddler years, your little one can dance along with music. Continue to sing simple silly songs with your toddler and dance together to a variety of songs, both upbeat and slow. Toys, like the Baby Einstein Learning Sounds Piano, will allow your toddler to create her own beats and songs.
Preschool age children can begin to differentiate between tones and pitches. Play games to pick which note is higher and which is lower. Introduce your preschooler to the specific sounds made by various instruments as well. Continue to listen to many different types of music with your preschooler and discuss how various pieces make you and our child feel.
Make musical instruments with your preschooler and play them together. Shakers are easy to make out of ordinary household items. Attach two paper plates together with a hole puncher and yarn or cover the ends of a toilet paper tube with construction paper and fill either with dry beans or rice. A coffee can and lid can be used as a drum. Have fun and use your imagination to create your own family band.
You may want to start formal music education with music lessons at this age. Discuss how various instruments are played and allow your child to choose the one he would like to learn. Visit a symphony or orchestra performance to investigate the various instruments. Piano lessons are typically best for this age because your child will learn to re
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ad and play music without having to remember difficult fingering techniques.
Continue your child’s music education as she enters elementary school. As your child gets older, she may begin to prefer a certain genre of music, but keep exposing her to a variety of music. Allow her to start learning an instrument by this age and make practice a part of her daily routine. Provide your child with encouragement and support in her musical endeavors.
By the middle school and high school years, encourage your child to be a part of a band, symphony, or orchestra. Playing music as a group provides even more developmental benefits than playing alone and a teenager’s involvement in a quality music program is important for self-development.
Music, even without the educational benefits research has proven, is a fun and relaxing pastime. Start at a very young age to instill the love of music in your child and continue throughout her childhood to provide an excellent musical education that will drive her future success.
By: Nicole Munoz -
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The Safety 1st High-Def Color Digital Video Baby Monitor is technology at it’s finest, always providing a 100% clear connection. Its state of the art wide band audio clarity ensures no interference or static, and guaranteed privacy while monitoring. DataLock technology means no loss of video picture or sound. Indoor/outdoor range is 650+ feet. It has a remote digital pan and zoom on the camera which parents love. The baby unit is battery operated or can run on AC power.
Video Picture Quality:
The Safety 1st High-Def Digital Baby Monitor has a high quality clear picture, color day vision and black and white night vision(infrared). That being said, it is NOT “high-def” by the standards of a high-definition TV, but it is high-definition compared to the picture of other monitors currently available. Keep in mind this is a baby monitor, not a video camera, it works fantastically for its intended purpose.
Audio and Reception:
The sound quality and reception are very good, excellent in fact. Generally there is no static or interference, however occasionally there is a soft “whoosh” (white noise) of interference that can be in the background when the receiver is on. The microphone is very sensitive and can pick up your child’s smallest sounds, like breathing noises, which is very reassuring to hear or turn the volume down so that you hear crying but not breathing or little murmurs.
The reception is excellent, it also has a huge range of 650 feet, you should be able to move anywhere in your house with no loss of quality.
It seems to vary quite a lot whether the Safety 1st High-Def Color Digital Baby Monitor will interfere with your wireless network or not. The majority of people don’t experience conflict with their wireless internet at all, however some people have experienced sporadic interference that has shut down their wireless internet service for a few minutes.
Pan/Tilt Feature:
From the hand-held parent unit, you can zoom in on the picture 2X to 4X. While in a zoomed view, you can move right, left, up or down within the picture. The zoom feature does actually produce fairly clear images.
Time Out Feature:
The Safety 1st High Def Digital Video Baby Monitor has an on-screen menu that allows you to set your preferences for the Time Out feature, AUTO level, Night vision (infrared) and adding other cameras. ‘Time Out’ allows you to set how long you want the screen to be on before it automatically shuts off to save battery life – 5 seconds, 15 secs, 25 secs, or OFF which leaves it on until you turn it off. The sound continues after the screen turns off unless you have set the AUTO LEVEL, which turns the sound off and then turns it on if there is noise in the room. For night vision you can turn the infrared on, off, or to auto.
Safety 1st Logo:
There is a Safety 1st Logo screen that comes on every time you turn the screen on, but it’s only there for 3 seconds then will automatically turn off or push the left button to manually turn it off.
Volume Control:
To change the volume you have to turn on the screen first which will beep, wait for the safety 1st logo to disappear, then adjust the volume. Anytime you push any button on the hand-held monitor it will beep softly, the beep feature cannot be turned down in volume or totally off.
Overall, regardless of a few minor features that some parents don’t like, the Safety 1st High Def Digital Video Baby Monitor is still highly recommended by parents who use this digital video monitor. When it comes to technical specifications this monitor has all the important quality features parents need and is certainly amongst the top few digital baby video monitors available today.
About The Author
Julie Freeman is a Medical Laboratory Scientist with 25 years experience and mother of 2 children aged 6 and 2 years. Julie manages http://thebabyvideomonitorshop.com which offers only high quality baby video monitors. Visit www.thebabyvideomonitorshop.com/2009/10/safety-1st-high-def-digital-color-video.html Julie also manages http://babyhealthsecrets.com providing informative Ebooks on pregnancy, newborn baby care, advice for new mothers, tips to get a colicky baby to sleep all night.
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