I found this article today on www.life123.com  regarding TV and our toddlers.  It is very informative.  However, I must say when my son was little, I would put him in the supersaucer and turned on ‘Baby Einstein’, it was the only way I could take a shower or make dinner.  Do I feel guilty?  Of Course!  That’s being a mom sometimes.  We may not be able to completely follow this advice, but it would be great if we all tried.  What do you think?

Children love television. Bright colors and constant action draw them in and can keep them occupied for hours. But is it good for your toddler to be watching television? And if so, how much is acceptable?

 The Professional Opinion

The American Academy of Pediatrics’ position is that children under two shouldn’t watch any television at all, and children over two should be limited to two hours a day. Watching television, they say, even children’s television programs, can lead to attention problems down the road. One study, published in the April 2004 issue of Pediatrics, claimed that television overstimulates the brain and essentially reprograms it. It has to do with the fast-paced images flashing constantly across the screen, which interfere with the brain’s development.

So what about children’s television programs directed at children under the age of two? The study found that there was no link between what children were viewing and later attention problems. The simple fact that they were watching television, with its rapid images, was enough to cause interruptions in normal brain development. Children’s television shows like Blue’s Clues, while educational for children old enough to comprehend them, do nothing for children under two.

The American Academy of Pediatrics advises that parents play with and read to their children instead of watching TV. This personal interaction, they say, is far more important to a child’s development than any TV show could be. Once your child is two years old, limit TV watching to one hour. Gradually you can increase the amount of time spent in front of the TV as your child grows and develops.

Never let a child keep a television set in their bedroom, as this can be an unnecessary temptation for a rebellious toddler. It also makes it harder to monitor what your child is watching. And although it can be relaxing to unwind in front of the TV while eating dinner, try to avoid this. Watching TV while eating can lead to mindless eating, which may contribute to weight problems and obesity.

 What They’re Watching

Although content itself doesn’t seem to increase attention problems for children under the age of two, one concern for children of any age watching television is what they may be seeing. Inappropriate images of violence and sex may hinder a child’s development. Children aren’t ready for the adult content that we have become used to. They may not understand it and have questions. It may also cause behavioral problems.

Children’s television may be harmful as well. “Pediatricians strongly oppose targeted programming, especially when it’s used to market toys, games, dolls, unhealthy food and other products to toddlers,” says the American Academy of Pediatrics. As with commercials, children have trouble associating entertaining television from programs whose purpose is to get kids to want products.

 What Can They Watch?

Once a child has reached the age that watching TV is considered appropriate, you can choose educational shows which will encourage your child to sing and learn new words. Several studies have shown that educational TV shows, in moderation and at a reasonable age, may help a child’s learning. Stay away from violent programs and scary shows.

Watching TV programs together is another way to make TV a positive thing for your child. Watching together sends the message that you care. There may be times when you need to use the TV as a babysitter, but these should be as few and far between as possible.

Watching TV with your child can help them to differentiate between the programs and commercials. You can also explain the purpose of commercials, to lure people into buying things they don’t necessarily need. Watching TV with your child also means that they won’t get a chance to view something they’re not ready for.

 You can find this article at: http://www.life123.com/article_TopicHome/TV-and-Your-Toddler_3000003080880.html

Please leave a comment or give me a tweet!

I have been awhile for a couple of weeks due to having surgery.  I am feeling much better now and can’t wait to start blogging again!  I love sharing stories and tips about child development and music.

I hope you are having a great summer!

peace and music, Angie

Here is part two of games for Babies.  Originally posted by Studio 3 Music on April 17th of this year.

Babies aren’t born with the ability to accurately and smoothly direct their eye movements; it’s something they learn over time. Eventually, good visual tracking skills allow us to follow a line of print without losing our place.

My son Kurt is having some trouble with poor visual tracking, and he has been seeing an occupational therapist and doing “eye exercises” every day. We didn’t know he was having trouble until he started struggling in school.  Hopefully with treatment and his exercises he will keep improving.  Too bad we didn’t go to Kindermusik when he was a baby.  However, we could do some of these exercises even though he is a big boy.  We actually do some exercises with small pointer lights, so this could be fun too.  Read below for Analiisa’s suggestions for fun activities to develop visual tracking.

Here’s a fun game to play with your baby to assist with developing visual tracking skills:

• Take your baby and a flashlight into a dark room. (At night before bed is a natural time, and this activity is very relaxing.)
• Lie down on your backs. Shine the flashlight slowly around the walls and ceiling and encourage your little one to track the light. Point to the moving light. “Can you see the light? Where is it going?”
• Turn on some favorite music. Move the light with the tempo – faster or slower as it changes, or “long” or “short” to match the music.
• Sing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. Turn the flashlight on and off with the words “twinkle, twinkle”. For the rest of the lines, leave the light on as you move it around the walls and ceiling as before.

I will warn you, however, that as your baby gets older, he or she may demand a flashlight to play with, too, and that’s okay!

posted by Miss Analiisa, who knows that toddlers and preschoolers love this game as well.  http://studio3music.com/category/games-for-babies/

When things break it can be upsetting to children, and they often need help getting through the upset. 

Below is a Kindermusik activity that we do in “Our Time” class, pretending to have a wheel break, fix it and then continue on with song.

Playing out a resolution to this type of event helps children rehearse an attitude of “I can do something about this.”  Being able to respond to unexpected of undesired events in this way is an important life skill. 

Little Red Wagon

Let’s sit on your adult’s lap for a bumpy wagon ride. 

V1:  Bumpin up and down… Sing and bounce children on laps

V2:  One wheel’s off.. Lead into 2^nd V w/a surprise movt to the side, leaning over as if a wheel on your wagon has fallen off “Uho-oh! One of the wheels fell off my wagon, and I’m all lopsided.  Hang on tight, let’s see how it rides.”

• Sing verse 2 while playfully leaning over to one side. 
• Fix the wheel: “Can you fix your wheel?  Let’s hammer it back together.  Clang clang, there all better, let’s go for a ride.     
• Repeat verse 1

V3:  Other wheel’s off… Lean to the other side, Now the other side has fallen off! Hang on! Let’s Go!  Bounce & sing verse 3 leaning over to the other side.  Fix the wheel.  Repeat verse 1 bouncing as you sing.

Sing: Little Red Wagon

V1: Bouncin up and down in my little red wagon, Bouncin up and down in my little red wagon, Bouncin up and down in my little red wagon.  Won’t you be my darlin?

V2: One wheel’s off and the wagon’s draggin,  One wheel’s off and the wagon’s draggin’. One wheel’s off and the wagons draggin’.   Won’t you be my darlin? 

V3: Other wheel’s off and the wagon’s draggin’. Other wheel’s off and the wagon’s draggin’. Other wheel’s off and the wagon’s draggin’. Other wheel’s off and wagon’s draggin’   Won’t you be my darlin? 

For an added surprise, adults can let children fall (gently) through their legs onto the floor at the end of the song.  Of course, the children will then need to fix the hole in the bottom of the wagon.  And then you will want to ride once or twice more and the hold may come back….

Sign up for a Kindermusik class this fall or come to a drop-in class this summer!  Call 503-708-2827

This is a great article about reading with our toddlers!  It offers suggestions of ways to get started and the benefits to our children when we read to them.

The main thing to keep in mind about reading with toddlers is that it has more to do with pointing and talking than with sitting still and listening.

There are many great options for toddler books. Board books fall into two categories: storybooks and content books. A good toddler storybook often shows the sequence of common routines—such as bedtime, taking a walk, or bath time. Helen Oxenbury’s Tom and Pippo series is a great example. A toddler and his imaginary companion, a sock monkey, go through simple activities together under the loving care of mom and dad. While reading storybooks, take time to talk about what is happening and make connections to what your family does that is either the same or different. Books that incorporate touching and feeling, like Pat the Bunny and any book with flaps, create moments for interaction that are ideal for this age.

Board books by Sandra Boyton combine humorous stories with learning concepts, such as animal sounds, and opposites. Your child’s ability to remember and her vocabulary are growing tremendously, and books that introduce first words and emotions feed her desire for information. The structure of a book helps her organize what she is learning. (It is a good idea to save alphabet and counting books for another year or so.)

Parents read to share their own love of books, to bond with their child, to stimulate their child’s language development (among other great reasons). All of these goals can be reached with a toddler by following these recommendations.

How to encourage reading in a toddler:

• Keep durable books in a visible and easy-to-access location.
• Allow your child to choose what to read whenever possible.
• Provide your child a variety of books—story, learning, humorous, rhyming books.
• Build several moments for reading into your daily routine.
• Resist taking away reading time as a consequence. (“Mommy will not read a bedtime story tonight if…)
• Limit television viewing.

How to manage reading with a toddler:

• Be willing to read only parts of a book and pages out of order.
• Read when asked.
• Let your child hold the book and turn the pages.
• Sit close to your child, as much as possible, while reading.

While you are fostering a love of books, disregard the commonly held idea that you must read to your child for a set amount of time (20 minutes) in one sitting everyday, or that you are a failure if you can’t get your toddler to sit still to “read.” Home literacy has a lot to do with having dynamic conversation, using a varied vocabulary, and modeling a love of reading. If, in your literacy rich home, you continue to make books available and offer to read on a routine basis, your child will take interest. At some point, the momentum to read together will shift from you to your child…and then be ready to sit down with a pile of picture books.

Credits: 60 second parent website: great articles! http://www.sixtysecondparent.com/_webapp_218785/Reading_with_Toddlers

Control of emotions is one of the most complex challenges facing toddlers and their parents.  children vary greatly in the intensity of how they experience and express feelings, depending on inborn temperamental  factors, but it is a rare toddler whose feelings do not become intense and overwhelming at times.  As parents provide both limits and loving support to their toddler, they are helping the child gradually learn ways of handling and modulating their feelings so  that the tantrums of the 2-year-old ideally give way to emphatic verbal argument of the pre-schooler.

Developing competence in language and increasingly complex symbolic play skills will help this process immensely.  Music as a fundamental route for the expression of human emotion, is an excellent tool for helping young children learn to identify and channel emotions.   Very young children can identify and channel emotions.  Very young children can identify music that makes them happy or sad, and enter enthusiastically into singing songs, or even verses within the same song that express emotion.  Learning to identify loving, contented feelings and feelings of anger, fear and sadness are equally important human tasks.  Musical expression of these wide ranges of emotion can help make them more manageable, less overwhelming, and much more understandable to the child who language skills are still emerging.

It is clear that many of the elements that make up a Kindermusik class enhance a toddler’s ability to progress in these crucial tasks.  The structure of the Kindermusik program and the opportunities it offers have the potential to directly enhance each parents ability to support his or her child in these tasks, and thus increase th joy inherent in parenting a bright, musical toddler.

 Here is a great article about setting limits on TV Watching and helpful tips to keep your (and my) family away from the TV!

A new study has found that children whose parents set consistent rules about television use were less likely to exceed recommended screen time limits. The study, “Influence of Limit-Setting and Participation in Physical Activity on Youth Screen Time,” published in the July print issue of Pediatrics (published online June 14), also found that children who were more physically active were less likely to exceed the recommended screen-time limits.

Researchers surveyed both the parents and children in 5,685 households with 7,415 children aged 9 to 15 years. Children were asked about their screen time, physical activity and their parents’ rules regarding television. Parents were asked how often they set limits on their children’s screen time.

Researchers found that more than 27 percent of youth aged 9 to 15 years exceeded the recommended limit of screen time, and that boys, black children and children from lower-income families exceeded this limit more than other populations. However, children who strongly agreed their parents had rules about television viewing time were less likely to exceed recommended screen time limits.

Researchers also found that as children spent more time being physically active – both on organized sports teams and in free-time activities – they were less likely to exceed screen time limits. Study authors suggest that initiatives that encourage parents to set limits and that promote physical activity may help reduce screen time among children aged 9 to 15 years.

www.sixtysecondparent.com has these tips to help limit the amount of time your family spends in front of a screen:

• Set a time limit for each child in your family. Try using a simple chart to track screen time. Each day give each child their allocation of screen time. With preschoolers you may wish to draw (or print off and cut out) a TV program icon e.g. Blues Clues and Dora the Explorer.
• Limit your own screen time. Set a good example. Try recording your own favorite shows to watch after your kids go to bed and try to avoid spending extended periods of time on the internet.
• Try to preview program and movies your child is going to watch, it is important for you to know exactly what they are watching. Decide whether it’s appropriate. Always check out computer games and web sites before letting your child use them.
• If you have older children in the house, make sure they know the rules. Talk about what program and games their younger siblings are allowed to watch or play with. Sometimes preschoolers can sneak into an older siblings room and become involved with inappropriate activities/discussions.
• Control the number of screens you have in the house. The fewer screens – the easier it is to monitor.
• Turn the TV off at mealtimes – studies have shown that children eat more when they watch and eat at the same time. Use mealtimes to connect as a family.

Hey, even Bill Gates sets screen time limits for his three children!! Bill and his wife Melinda have limited their 7 year old and 10 year old children to a total of 45 minutes a day of total screen time and an hour a day on the weekends. This is in addition to what their oldest child needs to do on the computer for their school work.

So, have a family meeting and discuss WHY you are setting screen limits. As a family decide what is fair and make a list of all the other activities they can do once they have used up their precious screen time!

What are your tips for monitoring and or reducing screen time in your home? Would love your comments below.

Source: The American Academy of Pediatrics

 http://www.sixtysecondparent.com/_webapp_371233/Parents_Can_Successfully_Set_Limits_On_TV_Watching

Part Four: The Emotional Life of the Toddler

One of the key developmental accomplishments for toddlers is communication through language.  As children move into the second year of life, they begin to grasp the concept that words stand for objects and alter the even more complex concept that words can  also stand for ideas and feelings.  Many things go into helping this process develop.  The stream of language from loving caregivers around the child is the most important. 

Extending Kindermusik activities into the home with home materials such as literature books and music CDs not only reinforces the development of language, but also provides a loving ritual between parent and child.

Also helpful is the opportunity to play with toys — which, after all, are small representations of larger objects, or symbols.  A doll standing for a real baby helps pave the way for a word standing for a real object.  Exploration Time in Kindermusik class is one example of associating language with objects.

Another element that contributes to language development, of course, is music.  As children “tune in” to the elements of pitch, rhythm, contour, repetition and variation, they are learning to focus on the key elements of language.  They are also learning about the pleasurable possibilities inherent in the human voice, and about how sounds carry meaning.  For example, in the Our Time curriculum, songs with vocal play are fun for children to sing, but are also helping them develop essential language skills.  As children grasp these concepts, they fall in love with the magic of language and the joy of being able to communicate their thoughts and needs through speech.

It just poured as we were setting up for our families

Thank goodness for Husbands who help!

Miss Missy

and her family             

My husband Keith

The dads helped set up the tent, blow up balloons and more!

Lots of Balloons!

Watching the beautiful dancers while waiting for parade to start

Our Banner Holders

These little girls held the banner all through the parade and while waiting at various points through out the day, Yeah girls!!

Walking in the Parade

Ava and Angie

My little sweetie from Our Time class who also happens to be my little cousin!

We had so much Fun, hope you’ll join us next year!

Part Three: The Emotional World of the Toddler

The granddady of developmental theorists, Sigmund Freud, talked about the major task of toddlerhood as being the acquisition of control over toileting.  While most developmental scholars now have a much wider view, it is still important to keep in mind how crucial the issue of devleoping control for a toddler–control over body functions, over physical activities, over feelings, and over the world around the toddler.

Wise parents and educators strike a blance between structure and clear expectations on the one hand, and avoiding unnecessary regimentation and sources of conflict on the other.  Toddlers do best when they are invited and attracted into ctivities, and diverted into other activities, rather than required to participate in them.  Happily, their incredible curiosity and motivation to learn makes thier easier when the activities in quesion are as nturally appealing as music and movement.

In Kindermusik Our Time, children are invited to participate in activities, but at no time is there an expectation of performance.  Activities such as the object and instrument exploration in Our Time remove any performance expectations because the parent becomes the teacher in a playful interaction that is controlled by the child’s desire to participate.