Archive for the ‘early childhood music education graduate program’ tag
Early Childhood Music Education
Educational toys are fun for babies and provide another tool to stimulate learning and brain development in your infant. There are many ways to teach a child and tens of thousands of educational toys on the market to help parents in the endeavor. The challenge for parents, child care providers and educators is to choose from the vast array of educational toys available in a way that creates a balance of learning techniques, is age appropriate, and most of all fun. This article will provide basic facts about; how babies learn, types of educational toys available and examples of each.
How Babies Learn
It is quite surprising the rate at which babies learn and develop. Learning begins in the womb and continues throughout childhood. In early life how a child learns centers largely around the relationship with the parents. At least until the child starts preschool, the job of stimulating and satisfying baby’s desire to learn falls primarily to the parents.
While babies respond to their parent’s voice there are many other sounds they find interesting. When parents are choosing educational toys for babies they should look for toys that have sound, colors that are bright and contrasted like red, black and white, and have interesting textures that babies like to touch.
Sounds
Babies’ respond to sound and some of the best educational toys include rattles and musical toys. Soothing music such as lullabies is usually best. Auditory and musical toys are known to stimulate logical thinking and imagery in babies and in adults for that matter.
One good educational auditory toy is the Electronic Metal Keys. These keys are good for a child 6 months and up. The Electronic Metal Keys are an imitation of the parent’s car keys. However, the Electronic Metal Key toy is safe for the child to chew on and has a push button that emits sounds like a car horn, doorbell, ignition, and remote control door.
Sight
Bright colors in educational toys stimulate baby’s vision. Look for toys with strong color contrast and patterns. A good one to look for is a colorful crib mobile that emits music, has different textures, curves and symmetry.
One such educational toy is the Bath Time Fishing toy. This item is appropriate for babies 12 months and up. It’s a great prop to use during a baby bath. Making the bath as fun as possible can also help overcome any resistance or fear your child may have during the bathing process. The toy is bright in color, has a rod and reel, and the strong magnets attached to its tails allow for easy catching. Bath Time Fishing is priced at around $16.00 dollars.
Fine motor play
Fine motor play educational toys are used to stimulate coordination in baby’s finger and eye movements. One such toy aimed at developing the hand-eye coordination is “Counting Pals”, which is aimed at babies 6 months and up. Counting Pals are 10 soft and squishy colored blocks. They can be stacked, tossed, chewed by the baby. Counting pals also provides animal illustrations that will enchant the baby. Counting Pals educational toy is priced at around $12.00.
Cognitive Skills
There are some educational toys that promote cognitive skills in babies, which is to say they stimulate the child’s memory, how they picture things and their problem solving skills. Educational toys like building blocks, activity boxes or puzzles are a good purchase for your child. The puzzles can deal with numbers, letters or pictures; it does not matter, but they should be fairly easy for a baby to grasp and manipulate.
About the Author:
Tim Lawrence is a father of two and co-founder of Colic Calm Gripe Water for Babies. Tim has written and been published on several topics related to parenting, education and family. His website is Gripe Water for Infant Colic.
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Educational Toys for Babies
Music, Culture, and Early Childhood Development
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Square Dancing Made Easy CD $15.95 You won’t be able to sit still! This rollicking collection of easy-to-follow square dances will have everyone up and dancing as students and teachers learn the basics of square dance in an enjoyable, non-threatening, sequential manner. Includes these songs: |
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Sticky Bubble Gum…and Other Tasty Tunes $21.48 Twenty-one engaging, participatory tunes for young children. Lots of fun and easy to do! Carole Peterson delivers a medley of original and traditional tunes that children love. The title song “Sticky Bubble Gum” encourages a lot of fun movements as listeners pretend that one part of their body is stuck to another part by bubble gum. “Parents will find it a treasure for using at home with their… |
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Get Ready To Square Dance $75.58 Students learn the fundamentals of square dancing and the value of listening, following directions, cooperation, taking turns, and rhythmic response. These easy, pleasant songs and movement games only teach one or two basic calls at a time for gradual mastery, leading up to two simple, complete square dances. Includes these square dance learning songs along with the skills learned: Cotton-eyed Joe… |
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Xavier’s Music Hall Vol 1: Treble $14.95 Xavier’s Music Hall: Treble, is the first in a series of computer animated music videos designed to teach very young children how to read and understand music. With vibrant colors, entertaining animation, and exposure to the major scales in the treble clef, this DVD allows children to have fun while learning the fundamentals of music.This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable me… |
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And the Cow Jumped Over the Moon: Over 650 Activities to Teach Toddlers Using Familiar Rhymes and Songs (For Toddlers and Twos) $12.15 With more than 250 songs, rhymes, and chants, this book is a fun way to enrich toddlers’ language experiences. While the selections themselves are a great way to enhance the development of literacy skill, the follow up suggestions for story time, outdoor play, music and movement, and literacy extension activities will be a sure fire hit with this age group…. |