Posts Tagged ‘language development’
In the spirit of love and friendship that Valentine’s Day always spreads, I have a free gift for you. I created the ebook Laptime Songs for Mommies back in 2009. I had a musician friend compose and record his versions of some nursery rhymes. Then I found variations on lyrics for these songs as well as wrote some of my own. They are all put together in an interactive pdf ebook. You can play the songs from the ebook while looking at the new words. It’s such a fun way to share music, learning and snuggles with your little ones.
The ebook also includes information on child development and music as well as how to adapt the book for different ages of little ones. There are even some different theme ideas with songs, books, and crafts. We love the Laptime program as a way to share time together centered around music. This is right up Elli’s avenue!
Over the next few weeks I’ll be sharing this ebook’s treasures and showing how we have used it in our home. For now, you can download Laptime Songs for Mommies for free and get started exploring and singing.
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I love words. When I read, I am driven by the words on the page. As fast as I can absorb the words determines how quickly I turn the pages. This is fine for reading grown up books with few or no illustrations, but I tend to carry this over into my reading with the girls. I’ve really had to work at slowing down and looking at the pictures with them and answering the random questions that arise, entirely unrelated to the storyline, because of the illustrations. Even when I am trying consciously to allow time for studying the pictures, I still get caught up in the words. For this reason I now LOVE Chicken and Cat Clean Up.
Chicken and Cat Clean Up came to us from Scholastic for review. When Sammi first pulled it from the pile and wanted me to read it, I expected your typical picture book. But I was surprised when I opened the book and there were no words to read. I turned to the next page to see if there were words. None. I turned the page again. Hmmm. I was at a lost. So I went back to the beginning to figure out how to “read” this book to Sammi. But, Sammi’s observations and imagination came through to make this book a big hit.
We poured over the pictures on each page and looked for all the details that would help us understand the story. There is a little bit of print throughout the book, but almost all of it can be figured out through the illustrations. After we went through the book a couple of times, Sammi went off to her baby dolls to tell them the story over and over again. Then it occurred to me that this book was perfect for developing the early literacy narrative skill.
Storytelling is a part of developing literacy. When little ones understand the structure of stories, that they have a beginning, a middle and an end, they are better able to process the meaning of the words in the story. Retelling stories, or even making up their own, is great practice in developing literacy skills. I love to watch Sammi, and now Elli too, sit with a book and turn the pages as they retell the story to each other and their dolls. Sammi even has mastered holding the book facing away from her and “reading” it from the side. Elli is great at holding up the book and showing off the page to the whole room before turning the page and looking at the book herself again.
So, back to Chicken and Cat Clean Up. The illustrations are engaging, simple, but full of detail. The story is a bit of a page turner because you just wonder if it really could get any worse for poor Cat and then the ending is charming. I like this book not only for its strength in helping kids develop narrative skills necessary for literacy, but also because it created the opportunity for me to forget the words and lose myself in the illustrations. It really helped me experience literature from my little ones’ perspective; to remember what books are like when you can’t read; and how much joy there can be in that experience.
Use the code SSVDAY at Scholastic to receive 20% and free shipping if your order is $25 or more. This code is valid until Feb 1 (that’s Tuesday already!) This post is part of the Winter Wonderland Carnival. If you haven’t already, you can enter to win one of our great prizes from our fabulous sponsors. Please visit Join the Winter Wonderland and leave a comment. For an additional entry, you can also leave a comment on this post. We’ve also added this post to Adventu1re Mom Janna’s Feed Me Books Friday. Please visit to find other books to share with little ones!
What is your favorite story that you’ve heard your little one tell? What is your favorite story to tell you little one?
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On Thursday we talked about how music helps develop emergent literacy skills through emphasizing the rhythm of language and the parts of words. Rhyming songs are addictive to little ones because they have a predictable pattern and a catchy melody. We can use these same principles to enhance learning. By setting information to music, especially if it has a predictable pattern or a catchy melody, it becomes easier to memorize.
The idea for this post was kicking around in my head last week when I came across a post that exemplified this fact for me. I was reading Mom-101‘s post about her picks for the top 50 mommy bloggers. In describing each blogger she gave a little quirky piece of background info on each one. In telling about Maternal Dementia she off-handedly mentioned her ability to sing all 50 states in alphabetical order. Can you do that? I can. I remember learning the song in elementary school and it’s still with me. All these years later. That’s the power of learning through music.
This is where our creativity can really take off. We can take any melody, or make up one of our own, and set to music the things we want our little ones to remember. We sing it with them, and voila! They remember. I’ve come across a lot of little rhymes for teaching hand washing skills to little ones. My favorite was this hand washing song sung to “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star“
I can wash my hands you see,
Wash them clean as clean can be.
Inside, outside, my fingers, too
Around my thumbs and then I’m through,
Now rinse away the dirt and stains,
Send those germs down the drain!
Another example of putting info to music in order to learn something new comes from Roger Day‘s newest album “Why Does Gray Matter.” This whole album has information about the brain. My favorite song is “The Brain Train” where he describes the process of a thought moving through the brain to become an action. The song contains words like corpus callosum, deep basal ganglia and cerebellum. Just imagine the looks if your little one memorized this song!
What have you or your little ones learned by memorizing a song?
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My musical journey has been an interesting one. I am not musical by nature. I enjoy music and even taught myself how to lead music. I took piano lessons, violin lessons and trumpet lessons, but they were short-lived and I’m not accomplished at any of them. I didn’t own many CDs and I rarely went out of my way to listen to a specific song or artist. I would say that up until I met my husband, music was not a priority for me.
All that changed when I met Brent. He is passionate about music. He knows all the bands, songs, concerts and pretty much anything else there is to randomly know about music. The night he told me he loved me for the first time he couldn’t quite figure out how to bring it up. He was bringing me home from a date and we had just pulled up to my apartment. He hesitated for a moment and then he said, “I want to share this song with you.” And he put in “It’s Alright” by Boyd Tinsley. It starts, “Can I tell you all that you are to me, girl? You’re really something And I give all my love to you.” Then the chorus says, “I wanna tell you I love you; it’s alright.” My heart melted.
One last example about Brent’s passion for music. During our first year of marriage we went on several long road trips. I would be anxiously running around, doing laundry, washing dishes, packing bags and getting snacks ready. I would haul luggage out to the car. Brent, on the other hand, was always found in the middle of the living room floor with all his CD books open and CDs sprawled about as he carefully chose what he thought would best fit our road trip. At first it irritated and then angered me that he would spend so much time choosing music for our trip. But, we’ve always had very fun road trips and a lot of that is because of Brent’s attention to music.
So it was no surprise to me that Sammi loved music and rhythm from an early age. I was a little, okay, a lot rusty on my nursery rhymes and kid songs. I found the laptime program at our local library and started going. I was reminded of all the classics and learned so many new songs, too. Sammi and I have definitely bonded over sharing music together.
But that only prepared me for little Elli who is the spitting image of her father in her passion for music. At first I accepted how important music was for Brent, but with our children, I have developed my own sense of how important music is. Through songs I can relate to my children in ways that would otherwise be impossible.
We laugh, we play, we fall asleep, we travel all to the original soundtrack of our life together. We love finding new artists and listening to great musicians doing music right. But at the end of the day, Sammi asks for Mommy and Daddy to sing. “Not the car. I don’t want to hear the car. I want you!” she said one day as we were driving home late at night from a fun day at Grandma’s house. She chose us over anything else. That’s the power music can have in your relationship with your little ones.
Because I want everyone to have as fantastic a time sharing music with their little ones as we do in our home, and because I know that not every library has a laptime program to get you started, I put together my first eBook all about how to do laptime with your little ones. Laptime Songs for Mommies …and Daddies and Grandmas and Grandpas walks you through introducing music to your littlest ones on up through preschoolers. It has music, classic nursery rhymes, terrific variations, crafts and book ideas. In short, it’s the ideal way to spend 20 minutes a day in front of your computer with your baby on your lap. But it also creates opportunities to take that music with you where ever you go.
This week’s giveaway is a copy of Laptime Songs for Mommies …and Daddies and Grandmas and Grandpas for two lucky readers. The giveaway will run through Jan 17 and the winner announced Jan 18. This whole week I’ll be exploring how music can fit into every aspect of your life with your little one. This will give you lots of chances to enter to win! Here are the details:
Leave a comment on this post to enter. What is your little ones favorite song or nursery rhyme?
Earn extra entries:
- Tweet this: Another great giveaway from @ajpassey: http://bit.ly/6uKKQ0 Share the power of music with your little ones!
- Facebook this: I just entered to win Laptime Songs for Mommies from Because Babies Grow Up. Share the power of music with your little ones! http://bit.ly/6uKKQ0
- Blog about why you think it’s important to share music with your little ones and at the end of your post, include something like this “This post is part of my entry in Because Babies Grow Up’s giveaway for Laptime Songs for Mommies.”
- Come back each day and leave a comment on that day’s new post about music in the life of little ones.
I don’t expect you to do all of the things to get extra entries! Just if your interested, pick the ones that fit your schedule. I’d just love any help in sharing the message that music is a great way to bond with your little ones.
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We visited a preschool this week. Unfortunately they were all full so we’ll keep doing things at home! While we were there, Sammi got herself into this adorable bee costume. Afterward, when she was sad they didn’t have a spot for her, I promised her we’d practice some letters. She choose to practice the letter B and I set to work thinking of a few things we could do.
B the Bee
The first activity was to make a bee. I drew it with pencil. Then I had Sammi trace it with the black marker. I helped her trace it in the direction that we write the letter b. Then we drew stripes for the body and colored away. I was going to have her glue yellow construction paper on for the wings, but she colored them in on her own while I was finding the paper.
My favorite part is the pipe cleaner antennae with pompoms glued to the ends. I let Sammi pull the trigger on the glue gun to attach the pompoms to the pipe cleaner. She loved it! She felt so grown up and since it was a short project, it was easy to keep it clean and keep her safe.
B is for Butterfly
Since the bee was such a hit, we moved on to butterflies. To introduce how the B could become a butterfly, I folded a piece of paper in half and drew the letter B on the fold. Then I held it up to the mirror and asked Sammi what it looked like to her. She saw the butterfly right away. To make the mirror image appear, Sammi painted the B with black paint. Then while it was still wet, we hurried and folded the paper back in half and pressed down with our fingers. When we opened it up, the image had transferred to the other side. Sammi thought it was pretty cool. We did it a few times to get the paint dark everywhere on the mirror side.
To decorate the butterfly, we took cut squares of tissue paper. Sammi chose purple and black and I chose the multicolored ones. I gave her a sponge brush and put some glue on a plastic plate. She painted the paper first then put the squares over the glue. We folded the edges in so they wouldn’t cover up the paint lines. Then Sammi drew the antennae and added the jewel stickers.
In the Meantime
Elli was awake from her nap in the throes of both these activities. So, to entertain her she did her own projects. The Bee day she colored a Cars ColorWonder page. She wanted googly eyes, too so I gave her two to add to Lightening McQueen. Instead, I found one eye stuck to the side of her head. She’s just too cute!
On the butterfly day, Elli painted one half of the paper and then we folded it in half. When we opened it back up, it looked just like something out of a psych evaluation. She sure looked cute with her black smudge of paint under her eye. When she was done with her picture we strung beads on a string while Sammi finished gluing the tissue paper to her butterfly.
We had a fun time with our projects!
I was at the health department last month and picked up an information card highlighting milestones of child development for little ones birth through 4 years old. I thought it fitting to share with you as it has great things to look for in your little ones as they change month to month.
The purpose of the CDC’c campaign “Learn the Signs. Act Early.” is to help parents and healthcare providers catch the signs of developmental delays and disorders early so resources and treatments can begin as early as possible thus allowing children the maximum benefit from those resources and treatments.
I’ve been blessed with two healthy little ones so I love this information from a “oh ya, she does that now!” perspective. But my best friend from high school just told me that her second child was recently diagnosed with high functioning autism. A label to the behavior somehow seems to change the whole experience. Sometimes it’s in a good way because now real information and solutions become available. But sometimes it’s in a negative way when there’s denial or an uncooperative attitude from a parent or teacher. I think information is the key to understanding. That coupled with the love we have for our little ones will get us and them far in this life.
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