Music Tip - Teach Your Baby Sign Language

It's so frustrating not to be able to communicate--whether you're in a different country where they speak a different language, or on the computer with it's different language.  How about if you're trying to communicate with your teenager (who speaks a different language at times!) or even your baby/toddler!

If you're visiting a different country, a dictionary helps somewhat, and if you're on the computer, your younger children can help you (ha, ha!).  Communicating with teenagers can be challenging and  rewarding, BUT talking with your baby is an unbelievable thrill!

You can communicate with your baby through sign language!
From age 8 months to 2 years your baby begins to know what he wants and needs, but does not have the skills to express his needs to you, his mother.  How frustrating for your baby and you.  By knowing a few basic signs such as milk, play, eat, sleepy, water and so on, you can ask your baby what he wants, and he can tell you what he needs.

Plus, it's so fun!! Involve your whole family in signing basic words.  Repetition is the key to success.  After several weeks of signing words (while saying them, of course) your 8-10 month old baby may start attempting to sign the words as well.  Her signs may be just approximate gestures to the ones that you are using, since her fine motor skills have not developed fully, but she'll definitely be signing a word and you'll know what it is.

There are several websites that give basic signs to begin your signing adventure.

Just choose a couple of signs like mommy and daddy, or eat and play, then incorporate the signs with your words throughout the coming days and weeks.  Don't get discouraged if your baby doesn't immediately respond and sign back.  It takes TIME to learn, digest information and be able to respond and perform it back.

If you live in the Mesa area, join my baby signing music class!

Music + sign language =  a whole lot of fun!

Thanks for reading,
Cathy

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Music Tip - The Rhythm of Life

You've heard the phrase, "variety is the spice of life".  I think it should be changed to "rhythm is the spice of life" and I agree with Maya Angelou, an American Poet who said, "everything has rhythm, everything dances." 

Look at your children and their rhythm and dancing as they play, whine, read, eat and avoid their bedtime.  You probably haven't thought about them having rhythm and dancing during these times, but they do.  Think about a toddler who does the same repetitive activity like putting blocks in a container and dumping them out, over and over again.  Or the child who whines in a steady, nonstopable stream of complaining.

So I say, let's be proactive Moms.  Let's use this inherent rhythm our children have to our advantage.  Here are some examples of things you could do:

You're driving in the car with your children and they're tired and hungry.  Every intersection you come to has a red light.  You suddenly start chanting, "turn green, turn green, turn green" and immediately your children begin chanting with you.  When the light changes you all clap and say yeah!  Then as you approach an intersection with a green light showing you chant, "stay green, stay green, stay green."  Suddenly the atmosphere in your car is one of "funness" and your children are totally distracted from their hunger pains.

The bedtime fight is about to begin.  You start chanting and clapping, "bedtime, bedtime, pj-time, bedtime" as you help your child get into his pajamas.  Then you chant, "bedtime, bedtime, brush your teeth, bedtime", and again start brushing teeth.  Go through your whole bedtime routine, chanting, and doing the actions of getting ready for bed.  Then change your voice to whispering and slowly chant, "sleep time sleep time, close your eyes and sleep time."  Maybe you could continue whispering and stroking your child's face or body softly as you say, "I love you time, I love you time, kiss and hugs, I love you time."  

The house is cluttered with toys, you're fixing dinner, the baby is crying, the older kids are fighting instead of doing their homework and the noise is escalating. Suddenly you chant these words to the rhythm of "We Will Rock You": 

Who will,   who will,    help me? (clap, stomp, stomp, clap)

Who will,   who will,    help me? (clap, stomp, stomp, clap)

Then proceed to give directions in the same rhythm-ee way. 

Your children will probably look at you in disbelief, but the weirdness of  their mother acting like this will be so novel, they might just obey you.

So I say to all you Moms out there:
Try it,   try it,  try it! (clap, stomp, stomp, clap)
Try it,   try it,  try it! (clap, stomp, stomp, clap)

Thanks for reading,

Cathy

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Music Tip - Hand Clapping Games

I love hand clapping games.  They are so fun.  Even as an adult I love them.  Of course there are more benefits than just having fun that are connected with hand clapping games. A  study conducted at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel (BGU), “has found that young children who engage in hand-clapping songs and games show an increase in the development of a range of cognitive abilities including social integration, spelling and handwriting as well as a reduction in rates of dyslexia and dyscalculia.”  

Other research  shows that rhythm and a sense of timing has an effect on our brain and body functions.  Children diagnosed with dyslexia may be deficient in their sense of timing.  Brain training using a metronome is helping children with their reading fluency and language processing.

Babies usually learn to clap by age one.  By playing and singing clapping games with your toddler you are helping him develop his eye hand coordination. Songs like Pat a Cake and If You’re Happy involve simple clapping that you can do with your child.

I’ve been teaching clapping games to my 3-6^th graders at school. They are loving it.  I found some really fun routines on you tube but they looked so complicated, I wondered if I could learn them myself, so I could teach them.  But the two girls doing them on you tube, slowed the patterns down and it was surprisingly easy.  In fact, there was a trick.  You only sing 3 words and each word has a different movement.  So all you have to do is learn 3 movements, then figure out the pattern.

I pointed the pattern out to my students and even wrote it on the board.  I really believe in helping my visual learners by writing patterns on the board.  I’m a visual learner and I need to see something before I can learn it. 

Here’s the pattern of part A (do it twice)

Bim   Bum   Bim   Bum                         Bum           Bum                      Bum    Bim   Bum

(clap) (snap) (clap) (snap)

                                          Biddy biddy           Biddy          Biddy biddy

                                            (pat legs 2x)

              

Part B  (2xs)

Bim            Bum                         Bum           Bum                      Bum    Bim   Bum

(clap)         (snap)

                               Biddy biddy           Biddy          Biddy biddy

                             (pat legs 2x)

So go have some fun.  Do the hand clapping games with your family.  Have a contest to see who can do it the fastest.  Can you beat Dad? 

And if you want more fun, look up Boom, Snap Clap.  It's a really fun one too!

Thanks for reading,
Cathy

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Music Tip #51 Kleenex commercial clapping routine

I watched the Kleenex school clapping commercial on you tube for over an hour http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcEkan8Lprs, stopping and starting it to get this clapping routine so I could teach it to my music classes at school. But what I discovered was that each new scene at school is a different clapping routine. I don't know if the different clapping sequences are really all linked together or not, but you could link them by having the students do each set 4 times before adding the next section. Here's the clapping routines:

1. Opening scene close up: (palms together and back of right hand touching partner's back left hand)Flip flop hands with partner, then your left hand claps open palm of your own right hand, clap partner's right hand above, clap own right hand in middle, clap partner's hand below, clap middle.

2. Hallway scene: Students in line. You pass the clap down the line one student at a time (like the wave). Clap both hands of partner on your left, clap your own hands as you turn and clap left hand of next person in line on your right, clap your own hands as you turn back to the left and clap original partner's both hands, clap own hands as turn to the right again and clap left hand of neighbor, etc. You just keep twisting back and forth.

3. Classroom scene:(1) pass from person to person (at desks) by clapping both hands of neighbor, then turning and clapping both hands of next person. (2)pass from person to person by just clapping right hands (3)sitting sideways at desks-clap right hand of partner, clap own hands, clap left hand of partner.

4. Hallway scene: one single line. Pass clap down line from person to person by clapping right hands. Boy runs down empty hallway and continues to pass clap by right hand clapping next person's right hand.

5. Hallway scene with partners(only 2 seconds long!): right clap with partner, clap under leg

6. Hallway scene in single line: (Pass clap down line from person to person til boy sneezes). Left palm under neighbor's right hand palm. Slap right hand on neighbor's right hand who then slaps his neighbor's right hand, etc.

7. Hallway scene with partners: clap both hands of partner, clap own hands, clap both hands of partner, turn and clap right hand of person behind you with your right hand, clap own hands as turn and face partner and continue with pattern.

8. Hallway scene with partners in two rows: clap own hands two time, do a vertical flip flop (right hand claps down on partner's upturned left palm simultaneously with your left hand palm coming up to clap partners right hand palm. Switch palm directions and clap), clap own hands, clap under leg.

9. Gym scene: (Lines in a spokes formation. Spokes going North, south,east and west are kids standing up. Spokes between these lines are kids sitting down.) Kids in the sit down lines are passing the beat same as in scene 6. Kids in the stand up lines are doing the flip flop like in scene 1, then clapping own hands as they turn and clap right hand of person behind then, clap as they turn back to partner.

Whew! Of course, they only showed partial clips from each set of routines. When I did this with my 5th and 6th graders, we made sure each set contained 8 beats and repeated it 4 times before going to the next scene routine. We did scenes 1,2,6,7, and 8. Then we chose music to put with our clapping routine. My students loved it!!