Have you heard of the ‘summer slide’? Apparently, it’s when kids lose some of their learning over the long summer break.
Clare Shaw, Founder and teacher at Mini Mozart says: “It’s important for children to have a complete break over the summer holiday but there are ways in which you can keep their brains engaged without them noticing.”
Mum and ex BBC Proms presenter Clare says: “Music can be used to help your child to develop the skills s/he needs for school readiness. I’m not just referring to learning intellectual skills, like reading and writing (although music helps with these skills too). But music can also help your child to develop fine motor skills, language skills, memory skills, and social skills plus qualities such as confidence, curiosity, discipline and respect.
Homemade musical instruments
Get your child involved in sensory play. Sensory play activates and stimulates a child’s senses. These senses are how children learn about the world around them and make sense of the new things they’re experiencing each day. Sensory play builds observational skills and abstract thinking and encourages experimentation. It’s excellent for helping to calm a child who may be feeling anxious or angry.
To get started you could encourage your child to make their own musical instruments. They can make drums using pots and spoons or maracas with dried beans and a paper cup or a guitar from an empty tissue box and some rubber bands. Sound tubes can be made using an empty paper towel roll filled with uncooked rice or beads and secured at the end with fabric or tape. Your little one will delight in the process of making the toys as well as hearing the different noises they make.
Express yourself
Songs provide an outlet for children to express themselves. Through music, children can eternalise and process feelings. This helps to promote emotional intelligence and self-regulation, key skills for well-being and development. One simple and fun game to encourage your child to express themselves involves calling out a song (eg Old Macdonald had a farm, If you’re happy and you know it) and an expression eg hop like a bunny, scurry like a mouse, clap to show you’re happy.
Action and movement songs encourage children to move their bodies. They help to develop fine and gross motor skills and enhance hand-eye coordination.
Musical arts and crafts
Give your child some arts and crafts activities while listening to music. Music and rhythm can help to enhance memory retention in children. Songs that incorporate educational themes such as alphabet, numbers and colours make it easier for pre-schoolers to remember complex information.
A trip around the world
Experience the world together through music — while teaching your child to be a better listener. Find folk songs and traditional musical styles from different countries and regions, and listen to the songs together.
Talk about what you like (“I love the strong beat!”), what you hear (“I hear a piano”), how you feel (“This song makes me feel relaxed”), what the words in the songs mean.
Dancing games
Turn on some fun music and encourage your preschooler to dance. When you pause the music at random times, your child should stop and “freeze,” holding whatever position s/he is currently in. This game is great for building a child’s concentration, listening and balancing skills.
Work up a sweat with a dance competition
Get some exercise with your preschooler while you challenge each other to make up the funniest/happiest/saddest/highest/lowest/fastest/slowest dance moves in accordance with what song is playing.
Sing together
Incorporating songs into your daily routine supports language development. Through repetitive listening and singing, children are exposed to a range of vocabulary and linguistic structures, helping them to comprehend and use new words. Rhythmic patterns in songs also help with pronunciation and intonation. So expose your child to melodies by singing often! Even if you don’t think you have a good voice, sing along to your favourite playlist. Turn the grocery list into a song by singing it to “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.” Sing your instructions to your child with any melody that pops into your head even old Britney Spears’ songs work! Try it and see how this will help your child develop memory skills and confidence.
