Music and Art

A little child gripping a paintbrush in her hand can quickly discover her “inner conductor.” Smocked in your old shirt and hovering over the kitchen table, arms raised, she conducts the swirl of colors on (and sometimes off) the page.

That’s just one small example of how music and art can go hand in hand. Plus, the same activities that develop musical skills in a young child also develop skills that a young artist needs: hand-eye coordination, creative expression, and visual literacy.

Want some ideas for bringing music and art together with your child?

For Babies…

Your face is the artwork. You instinctively tend to hold your baby about eight to nine inches from your face—just close enough to provide her with needed visual stimulation. In the first two months of her life, that’s also her best field of vision. According to Carla Hannaford, author of Smart Moves, Why Learning is Not All in Your Head, sight is the least developed sense in a young baby. Most learning, almost 90 percent, occurs through touch and taste. Visual literacy (the ability to see texture and perspective in two-dimensional pictures) is learned later. You can help your baby develop visual literacy by showing her things that encourage her eyes to move. And in the first year of life, her favorite thing to look at is your face.

Your baby loves the contrast between your bright eyes and dark mouth, the many lines of your face, your facial expressions, and so on. The distance between your facial features begins to give your baby the information she needs to build her visual literacy.

Visual and auditory experiences actually shape the wiring of the brain. While seeing moving objects is not necessarily easy for infants, your newborn’s attention will also be attracted to bold, sharp patterns and objects. Showing your infant high contrast items such as black-and-white designs, brightly colored toys, and smiling faces is a great way to support his or her development.

Here are a few more activities to develop eye strength:

• When you read together, trace your finger across the words as you read. This encourages your baby to follow your finger.
• Hold and shake a rattle or instrument. Move it slowly allowing your baby to track the instrument with her eyes.
  
• Sing. Research has shown that babies will turn their heads to look in the direction of the sound of their parent’s voice.

For Toddlers…

The development of your toddler’s drawing ability begins when the scribbling stage is over. Sometime between the ages of 12 and 18 months, your toddler will probably attempt to “write” by making marks on paper, and at about 18 to 24 months she may surprise you by drawing vertical and horizontal lines or a circle, according to Art and Creative Development for Young Children by Robert Schirrmacher.

The toddler years also mark a phase of drawing sometimes referred to as “Potato People.” These are drawings that feature wide bodies with stick figure legs and arms. Since your toddler spent so much time looking at your face as a baby, much of what he draws in the first year will be faces like these with appendages as an afterthought. Give him plenty of time with paper and crayons to help him develop his drawing skills and move beyond the “Potato People” phase (despite how cute those drawings end up being).

For a colorful activity, “paint” with tissue paper:

• Cut the tissue paper into strips, or squares and put a very small amount of water into shallow bowls.
• Show your toddler how to scrunch up the tissue and dip into the water to create a watercolor effect.
• Encourage your toddler to tell you all about his creations. Talk about the colors, ask him about the shapes. To incorporate music, can you two make up a little song about the creation? Point and label—as you do with everything else in your toddler’s world.

For Preschoolers…

With preschoolers, you can dive in and draw to the music! With her increasingly abstract reasoning skills, her imagination is soaring. She’s also more physically coordinated and able to hold a pencil, crayons, and scissors with greater control. And while she enjoys being to able to draw more geometric shapes, much of the preschooler’s choice of color, is emotional, according to Art and Creative Development for Young Children.

What does the music look like? The emotional aspect of music, combined with tempo and rhythm, make drawing to music a perfect activity for this age.

• To really get the imagination going, pick out some music and ask your preschooler to “draw out the music.” Ask him if this is blue music or red music. What would purple sound like?
• Use the paper for wall art or wrapping paper. Glue it to bookmarks and give them to Grandma and Grandpa.

Happy Birthday Disneyland

Disneyland, Walt Disney's first theme park, opened on July 17, 1955 in former orange groves in Anaheim, California. According to the History Channel, Disney intended Disneyland to have “educational as well as amusement value and to entertain adults and their children.” Sounds like something near and dear to my heart … Kindermusik.

Just today I found myself at Costco talking to a stranger (yes, a mother with two preschoolers) about Kindermusik. You would think I could explain Kindermusik easily after 6 years of teaching. But, I still lack the words to tell her just how much fun it is, or how much my own children learned from Kindermusik, or how Kindermusik moms make friends who often make lunch dates following class and playdates on the weekends.

In fact, I’m guessing that those of you who have attended Kindermusik could best describe its benefits. So here are some highlights of the past year. The following quotes were taken from letters, emails and surveys I’ve received.

“… has learned so much, and the improvement in his abilities to listen, share, and follow directions is amazing. It has also really helped push his speech along. Plus, he just loves going to class!”

“Our Kindermusik songs have become lifesavers! We were having a very fussy time in the car this weekend and I started singing … just smiled so big and started bouncing and clapping! I have seen how she understands several new words just from the one week class. It truly helped me gain a new perspective on playtime. It is more fun to play and help her learn because of the new things we learned together in Kindermusik.”

“I have seen firsthand the way children grow and change during just one session of Kindermusik, particularly in the ‘Our Time’ age range. They learn so much more than an appreciation of music, such as how to share, how to follow directions, and certain fine and large motor skills.”

“This class gives us a time to learn things together in a really fun way. While he is learning the principles of music, I think we both have benefited from the time to learn how to interact and share especially with children younger than him.”