Breath six:
This time of year, Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas” is playing nonstop on the radio, in stores, and in my home. In fact, this evening our family sang it as a finale to our evening Christmas carols in the living room. While we love to sing at Christmas time, music really fills our daily lives, like a daily dose of medicine.
Don’t you love to see people rockin’ out to music in the car? Yep, I am singing in that car. Jason is too. Perhaps you heard him turn down our street? Sometimes I’m singing to children’s music and sometimes I’m belting out my own selection. Music can make me cry, get up and dance, reminisce on days gone by, and bring me peace. As a child, we listened to records during dinner, sang songs at bedtime, and Dad always turned up the volume in the car. My parents took us to concerts of their favorite artists, signed us up for piano lessons, violin lessons, encouraged me to participate in orchestra, choir, and attended endless concerts of their budding musicians. Bless their hearts! We all know what those concerts sound like with the squeaky violins off key. My parents, however, also utilized music as a teaching tool. They chose music to teach us lessons on behavior- my favorite childhood song to pass down to my children is a song called, “Be Patient.” Music helps to teach of Jesus’ forever love for me. My sister and I even learned our address through a song. I sang in the shower, in church, in choir, at my grandpa’s and grandma’s funeral with my sister and cousins, and on long road trips to Missouri and Oklahoma. Music has, and continues, to inspire me.
I miss playing the violin, and singing in choirs; however, I still get to sing daily to my children and of course for my own pleasure. Many of us even develop musical identities. We connect with our friends over music and singing iconic lyrics together. In our own family we now continue the musical tradition. Jason, also a lover of music, is often found singing in the living room, the kitchen, and definitely in the car. We have had conversations about children’s delicate ear drums at times. He shares songs with me on Youtube and downloads songs to his iPod constantly. He has introduced me to completely new genres of music. In our home, we sing bedtime songs, we sing bath time songs, we sing at each meal and snack time, we sing as we play and as we go places. We sing walking to school, groove to dance parties in the kitchen and living room, and race to and grab instruments for marching band parades. When Lee is strumming the air guitar, Jane singing, and Frederick beating on the drum, they are developing a life-long love and connection to music and our family memories. These are the moments I want to create for our children, and also for Jason and me. I personally use music to calm me when I am stressed out with children screaming. Yep, I turn it up and tune them out. I use music to lift me up when I feel depressed, and I use music to help celebrate, and set the mood. I recently started watching a one year old little boy who now demands and expects music every time he is in the high chair. He even invented baby sign of swaying to music to remind me when I forget to turn on the music. Music is like daily nutrition for our children. Music arms our children for school and success.
Here are some ways music positively impacts our children:
1. Music can introduce new and rich vocabulary to our children. Be careful what vocabulary you teach though.
2. Music can teach and introduce topics for further discussion. We love the science album by They Might Be Giants, Veggie Tales, and World Playground/Folk Playground/Animal Playground CD’s to name just a few.
3. Music introduces rhythm to children and is a building block for math. For example, we sing fast and slow tempos. We thump on drums and shake rattles and egg shakers to the beat. We sing number songs, counting songs forwards and backwards, and we sing at various pitches, both high and low for variations.
4. Music introduces rhymes and can be a building block to reading. While we sing simplistic nursery songs, I also make up rhymes and songs for tasks around the house or rhymes with their names.
5. Music develops fluency. The flow of language from music provides opportunity for children to hear and develop natural fluency.
6. Music encourages movement and dance, essential to children’s growth and development. Our kitchen and living room get the most dance action.
7. Music can relax, and energize children. Singing songs and listening to music on the way to school pumps my kids up. While our bedtime lullabies promptly create sleepy children on a good night.
8. Music creates pleasure and shared memories with family and friends- concerts, musicals, sing-a-longs, and more.
9. Music lights up neurons in the brain, encouraging brain cells to connect and neural networks to form (see the following article).
10. Music creates community and a sense of belonging, whether it is in a classroom, or in your home. You create traditions and the unique culture of your family through music.
So, turn it up. Let loose for a moment- it’s good for you and your children!
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