Archive for the ‘education’ 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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Get Ready To Square Dance $15.95 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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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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Too Much Fun! Demasiada Diversion, Volume 2 $15.95 More great songs for starting and ending the day, learning the calendar, counting, adding, subtracting, letter sounds, telling time, vocabulary, movement, manners, and a combination story and song about being who you are. Includes lyrics, translations and instructions. Includes these songs: |
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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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Creative Resources for the Early Childhood Classroom $50.95 Creative Resource for the Early Childhood Classroom 5th edition is a theme based curriculum planner containing 70 different themes ranging from Ants to Zoo Animals. Each theme contains: Curriculum Web, Theme Goals, Concepts for the Children to Learn, Vocabulary, Bulletin Board, Parent Letter, Music, Fingerplay, Science, Math, Dramatic Play, Arts and Crafts, Sensory, Large Muscle, Small Muscle, Fie… |
Music for babies
Since the dawn of the age of the walkman, there have been studies on the effect of music on babies in the womb. Will it make him or her smarter? More musical perhaps? Although these studies are, excuse the pun, still in their infancy, playing music to your baby is a simple and easy way to form a prenatal bond.
Although your baby’s ears don’t completely develop until the fifth month, fetuses respond to noise before that, which has led some researchers to believe there’s more to hearing that the ears.
There has been no proof supporting claims that listening to music in the womb will increase your child’s intelligence, but an interesting UK study has shown that it will increase memory. Babies that listen to music in the uterus respond to the music played for up to a year after birth. This shows that the fetus is capable of creating memories will still in the womb.
Using prenatal stimulation helps to connect you to your child before birth, so that the baby will be able to communicate. Playing familiar and soothing sounds, or even singing a simple lullaby will put your child at ease, and provide a grounding point after birth.
Amniotic fluid is a great sound conductor, so your baby will be able to hear you and your music just fine. Turning up the sound too much can disturb the fetus, so try leaving your stereo as background noise, or turning the volume down on the headphones if you’re planning on placing them on the belly. It’s not yet the time for sleepless nights; try not to over stimulate the baby with too much noise.
When choosing music for your baby to listen to, keep in mind that repetition is key. Choose anything you enjoy listening to, as your baby will benefit from the hormones you produce when you’re happy. Beethoven and Mozart are always favorites, but you can listen to anything from Madonna to traditional African drumbeat music, as long as there’s enough repetition to increase the chances of memory production. Mixing up the types of music helps diversify your baby’s tastes, and activates different areas of the brain. Baby Einstein offers a line of classical music CDs that you and your baby can enjoy together.
Singing a lullaby to your baby is a great opportunity to make a lasting connection. The baby will sense your mood, and respond accordingly.
Additionally, the baby will learn to recognize your voice, which will increase your bond after birth. It has been proven that babies can recognize their parent’s voices, which creates a sense of familiarity postpartum. Babies that have been sung to in utero frequently sleep easier than babies with no prenatal stimulation, as the parent’s voice is comforting.
Use moderation when stimulating your baby. You can overwhelm the fetus by playing music too frequently. Take your own feelings into consideration.
If you’re tired of hearing the same song over and over, your baby might be tired of it too. Make bonding a special time for you and your baby.
About the Author:
Sounds of a traditional drumbeat can be soothing for a mother and her baby. X8 Drums offers a collection of drum rhythm cd’s ranging from beats of the cajon drum, conga drum, bongos and the djembe.
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Music For Babies in the Womb
Dolphins Chillout – (music for babies-pregnancy)
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Cloud b Sleep Sheep – Four Soothing Sounds From Nature $18.79 Designed for babies and adults, Sleep Sheep is the perfect nighttime companion to help soothe the whole family to sleep in a safe, calming and effortless way. A sound box tucked safely inside of Sleep Sheep lulls you to sleep with soft sounds from nature and the reassuring sound of a mothers heartbeat. Sleep Sheep soothing sounds are an audio pacifier that can calm even the fussiest babies to slee… |
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Cloud b Sleep Sheep On The Go – Travel Sound Machine with Four Soothing Sounds $16.00 From the award-winning Sleep Sheep & Friends Collection, this adorable travel companion brings its comforting sleep time sounds with you when you are away from home. Similar to the Original Sleep Sheep, this compact version (8 inches tall), has four soothing sounds to help your child sleep easier.Features: From the award-winning Sleep Sheep & Friends CollectionFour soothing sounds: gentle stream, … |
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Cloud B Two Piece Combo Set – One Twilight Turtle & One Twilight Lady Bug $52.99 Twilight Turtle, the first plush constellation nightlight ever created, transforms any room into a starry night sky to help comfort children to sleep. From within his plastic shell, Twilight Turtle projects a magical constellation of stars onto bedroom ceiling and walls in three soothing color options. Twilight Turtles shell illuminates like a nightlight to help ease children’s fear of the dark. T… |
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Baby Einstein: Lullaby Classics $3.55 For newborn and up.Features:A peaceful musical collection to soothe and calm little onesIncludes ‘Brahms Lullabye’ and other relaxing and delightful melodies… |
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Disney Baby Lullaby: Favorite Sleepytime Songs for Baby and You $3.99 No Description AvailableNo Track Information AvailableMedia Type: CDArtist: DISNEY BABIESTitle: LULLABYStreet Release Date: 01/25/1995… |