Head, Shoulders, Knees, and all that

Addicted to Children's Music

One of the dangers of my job (teaching kids and making kids music) is that I often have songs bouncing around in my head making all kinds of racket when I don't want them there.   We just recorded maybe our simplest song ever (the lyrics include the words "Uh-huh" "Unh-unh" "Yes" and "No", and that's it) and after recording, trying it out with the kids, re-recording, trying it out some more, etc. etc.... it was probably never out of my thoughts for more than 20 minutes for about 2 weeks.  And it's not a song you simply hear, it makes your head nod yes and no with each of the words.  Sitting on the train, I'd suddenly notice people kind of looking at me and my ridiculous nodding head, which I would then try to play off as a cool hip-hop bounce, wiping the smile from my face and doing my best scowl... compounding my foolishness.   I'm both proud and horrified of the song.

Sam Anderson has written a great piece for Slate magazine about his "unfortunate addiction to children's music".

Earworms breed in all kinds of musical environments—the gangrenous wound of a Coldplay chorus, the festering pit of a cellphone ring-tone—but the most fertile breeding ground, by far, is children's music. The genre is an earworm hatchery, the aural equivalent of an overstuffed Dumpster baking in the August sun. Its grubs are uniquely robust and brain-thirsty: Kids' music is all hook, cutesy melodies pared to the most efficient possible sequence of notes and repeated until the recording studio runs out of tape.

Perhaps an oversimplification...I don't think people are aware of the variety out there in kids music.  Just like people know all the top artists on their local Clear Channel radio stations, parents are aware of the kids music out there on Nick and Noggin, but may not be familiar with some great, lesser known kids artists.  I recommend everyone to check out CDbaby.com's kids music selection.

Melody, sing-ability, and catchy hooks are all hallmarks of good kids music (and what makes songs such great teaching tools)...but that's just a beginning.  Sam writes about two artists I think are very different and appealing for completely different reasons.  Laurie Berkner is a great artist whose lyrics are often very simple and repetitive, very catchy, very fun, very simple.  They Might Be Giants are definitely a bit more challenging, though certainly catchy...not something that all younger kids would latch on to.  While Laurie's songs will be immediately appealing to a 3 year-old, as well as older kids, They Might Be Giants is musically and lyrically more complex and creative than most of the top 40 songs you'll hear on the radio (have a listen to Bed, Bed, Bed).  Both are great kids artists, but they don't necessarily play to the same crowd.

A couple of bits of news about both performers....Laurie is the first children's artist to partner with Starbucks Hear Music and TMBG has a new podcast available.  Heads up on the podcast though...it's not kid-friendly.

Sunday in Harajuku

Not a bad day Sunday...I saw a group of rockabilly dancers straight out of the 50's, I almost collided with a skateboarding dog, and I spent several hours getting some great tips on teaching children with a few hundred other dedicated teachers, courtesy of Longman Japan (the teaching tips part was courtesy of Longman, not the skateboarding dog and the rockabilly dancers.)

The ELT textbook publishing companies in Japan do a really nice job of providing a lot of seminars to help teachers and to introduce their products.   Definitely a win/win situation. Longman, for the first time I know of, had a presentation in Harajuku on Sunday.  It was a nice change...often these presentations are given in, shall we say, less colorful areas of Tokyo where the rent is cheaper.  Harajuku is the youth fashion capitol of Japan, and some would argue the world.  There are people who make their living taking pictures of the fashions the kids are wearing in Harajuku and sending them to trendsetters like fashion designers and marketers.  It's a great place to people watch.

Also just outside of Harajuku station is Yoyogi Park, where on the weekends you can see all kinds of performers and buskers and, well, a little bit of everything (including, on this Sunday, a skateboarding dog, which I nearly stepped on as I was absent-mindedly observing everything going on around me...dang skateboarding dogs!).

But this Sunday the focus was on teaching English to children.  It was inspiring to see that, as is always the case, hundreds of English teachers showed up on their day off to try to pick up and share some tips and learn about what materials are out there for them.    I was happy to see Aleda Krause there.  She is the co-author of the very popular children's English textbook series (serieses? seriei?), SuperTots and SuperKids , heavily involved in the children's language teaching community, and really well known for being a great presenter.  Her materials always make great use of music, and the songs in her SuperTots series are some of my favorites for toddlers.  I've probably seen her present 5 or 6 times in the past several years, and she always comes with great new tips supported by an impressive depth of knowledge about teaching methodology.

Support music education

Janet McMonagle over at families.com's education blog let's you know how you can support music education in your local school district.  She links to a great resource, Support Music, which has great advice for advocating for music education in your community.  Support Music is a U.S. organization, but the research and strategies they present are applicable to communities everywhere.

When schools face budget crunches, music education funding can be one of the first things to go, and that's a tragedy.  A factoid from the Support Music site:

Based on a review of data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS: 88), University of California- Los Angeles researchers determined that students who were highly involved in arts instruction earned better grades and performed better on standardized tests. They also performed more community service, watched fewer hours of television, reported less boredom in school, and were less likely to drop out of school. U.S. Department of Education, Secretary Rod Paige, July 2004. For more information, see www.aep-arts.org

Music and Movement

Preschooleducation.com has a nice page up about ideas for using music with toddlers (music activities) written by C.M. Todd.  Of course, the great thing about using music is it can be used for so many different purposes.  You are teaching rhythm (more on the importance of teaching rhythm early in later posts), vocabulary, intonation, phonetic awareness.  You are stimulating the creative mind.  You can use music to signal transitions from one activity to another (one of the best tips for an efficiently run class or even at home.)  You can use music to explore feelings.  You can use music to help children increase body awareness and coordination.  You can use music to set moods...to pick kids up when they need a pick-up or to calm them down when it's quiet time. 

Have a look at at the preschooleducation.com kids music and songs page for some great ideas on super simple songs you can sing with your kids using pre-existing tunes.  For example, I'm a little teapot becomes I'm a friendly snowman, big and fat...Here is my belly, here is my hat.  Simple, simple songs, but so stimulating to kids.  Not only are they easy to learn and fun to dance to, but they lead in to so many activities.  It's great fun to see the kids singing, "I'm a friendly snowman..." as they work attentively on a snowman craft, or better yet, making a real snowman.  I love simple songs like this because even young toddlers can feel the accomplishment of being able to sing, and understand, the entire song, while older kids can still enjoy singing and dancing and creating verses of their own.

The economic benefits of early childhood education

Nobel laureate in economics, James Heckman, makes the economic case for early childhood education. 

There are many reasons why investing in disadvantaged young children has a high economic return. Early interventions for disadvantaged children promote schooling, raise the quality of the work force, enhance the productivity of schools, and reduce crime, teenage pregnancy and welfare dependency. They raise earnings and promote social attachment. Focusing solely on earnings gains, returns to dollars invested are as high as 15 percent to 17 percent.

The equity-efficiency trade-off that plagues so many public policies can be avoided because of the importance of skills in the modern economy and the dynamic nature of the skill-acquisition process. A large body of research in social science, psychology and neuroscience shows that skill begets skill; that learning begets learning. There is also substantial evidence of critical or sensitive periods in the lives of young children. Environments that do not cultivate both cognitive and noncognitive abilities (such as motivation, perseverance and self-restraint) place children at an early disadvantage. Once a child falls behind in these fundamental skills, he is likely to remain behind. Remediation for impoverished early environments becomes progressively more costly the later it is attempted.

There are communities that plan their future budgets for new prisons based on 2nd graders' reading scores.  It's that predictable.  It's so, so hard to get a child back on track if he/she doesn't have access to quality education from the get-go.  If you are working in early childhood education, take a step back every once in a while and appreciate the positive effect you are having on on your community.

The ABC's in French

Mama Lisa is awesome, as are the kid's in Monique's first grade class.

Computers are for girls too

The video posted in this blog entry (technology, gender roles, and early childhood education) over at Beth's Blog had me thinking quite a bit longer than the average 30 second video posted on the web might.  Topics like the technological gender gap, the digital divide, etc. kind of lose their immediacy behind such unemotional terminology.  When you see a 4 year-old girl talking about having to fight off the boys to stay on the computer at school (and when you think about a Mom involved in IT feeling the need to teach her daugther to stand up for her right to use the computer after watching the peer interaction at her pre-school), the reality and immediacy of a technological gender gap is a lot easier to grasp.  Plus, she's so cute when she says "I smack them on the face" (although as a teacher of 4 year-olds I wince at the thought of children being taught to smack each other).

Of course, it's not just computers...as Beth mentions, gender inequities start early.  As teachers or parents to young ones, it's not always easy to keep in mind the long-term implications on young children of simply shrugging off certain behavior as "boys will be boys", or "girls will be girls" for that matter. 

Childhood  is all about possibilities...take an occasional inventory to make sure all your students are free to pursue their interests without intimidation.

Free Kids Music

If you are looking for a good site to survey a lot of good kids music at the right price (free), check out freekidsmusic.com.  You can download full, high-quality songs from great children's artists.  In return, the artists there gain some exposure. 

The idea works.  I was just poking around and came across an artist I wasn't familiar with, but whose songs I really like.  Sue Schnitzer performs very simple songs (often just her, her guitar, and some children singing along) with an empasis on songs kids can move to.  I'm sure I'll be ordering some of her work from cdbaby.com or through itunes.

She's got an interesting story as well.  From her bio:

In December of 1992, Sue was a Special Agent of the FBI in the San Francisco Division.  When her daughter Jamie was born, Sue took a few months off to enjoy motherhood and lots of hilly walks. She also took out her guitar and sang and played for Jamie.  She sang songs she remembered from when she was a child, songs from youth group, and lots of folk songs.  In fall 1993 after 13 years as an agent, Sue decided to turn in her badge and move to Boulder, Colorado with her husband and Jamie.  She also decided she wanted to go "back to music" and start a children's music business.

Read more about Sue Schnitzer here.   

Children's music from around the world

Mama Lisa has a tremendous site listing children's songs and nursery rhymes from all around the world, complete with audio samples.  A great resource for teachers, parents, and children's musicians.  She's also blogging now (who isn't?!).  Warning, it's the kind of site you can get lost in for a while without realizing...she has compiled a tremendous collection of international kids music and rhymes.

Head, shoulders, knees, ...and peanut butter?

I sometimes do this thing at the end of my classes with 3 year-olds where I pretend to pop a piece of bubble gum in my mouth, start chewing away, blow a huge bubble, and then it pops all over my face.  I pretend to pick it all off my face and start chewing it again.  The kids (well, 83% of them) go nuts, rolling around on the floor laughing, asking me to do it again and again, taking turns popping my imaginary bubble, and then blowing their own bubbles.  We can talk about what flavor we are going to chew, how big should we make the bubble ("Bigger?!  YEAH!!!"), cleaning it off the different parts of our faces ("Oh no, it's in your ear!  Ewwwww!!").  And it just doesn't seem to get old.  The 2 year-olds don't find it remotely interesting ("What the heck is Devon doing?"), and about 39% of the 4 year-olds get a chuckle out of it (but the other kids kind of look at them like "what are you laughing at?"  The 4 year-olds' favorite seems to be when I get my name wrong).  But, I'll tell you, it's a homerun with the 3 year-olds. 

Why?

Check out this great short piece from Paul McGhee on what makes children laugh (pdf file), adapted from his book Understanding and Promoting the Development of Children's Humor. 

Also check out an article in this week's Washington Post Magazine, The Peekaboo Paradox.   It's an interesting read about a performer for kids' parties in D.C.  I'm sure it will be optioned and we'll be seeing the Peekaboo Paradox at a megaplex near you sometime soon, starring Brad Pitt as the lovable children's performer with a gambling addiction.  Anyway, it contains some interesting perspectives on children's humor:

--Even before they respond to a tickle, most babies will laugh at peekaboo. It's their first "joke." They are reacting to a sequence of events that begins with the presence of a familiar, comforting face. Then, suddenly, the face disappears, and you can read in the baby's expression momentary puzzlement and alarm. When the face suddenly reappears, everything is orderly in the baby's world again. Anxiety is banished, and the baby reacts with her very first laugh.

At its heart, laughter is a tool to triumph over fear. As we grow older, our senses of humor become more demanding and refined, but that basic, hard-wired reflex remains. We need it, because life is scary. Nature is heartless, people can be cruel, and death and suffering are inevitable and arbitrary. We learn to tame our terror by laughing at the absurdity of it all.

This point has been made by experts ranging from Richard Pryor to doctoral candidates writing tedious theses on the ontol-ogical basis of humor. Any joke, any amusing observation, can be deconstructed to fit. The seemingly benign Henny Youngman one-liner, "Take my wife . . . please!" relies in its heart on an understanding that love can become a straitjacket. By laughing at that recognition, you are rising above it, and blunting its power to disturb.

After the peekaboo age, but before the age of such sophisticated understanding, dwells the preschooler. His sense of humor is more than infantile but less than truly perceptive. He comprehends irony but not sarcasm. He lacks knowledge but not feeling. The central fact of his world -- and the central terror to be overcome -- is his own powerlessness. --

Humor obviously plays a large role in early childhood education.  The world can be a very scary place for adults, let alone youngsters, especially  when Mommy and Daddy aren't there (I mean for the kids, not me...no really).  Humor is more than a chance to just be silly for a while, it's reassuring, comforting, and it allows kids to get to a place where they are receptive to all kinds of learning.  When you are around children all the time, you have an unspoken understanding of what is funny.  It's interesting to see it put in to words, and a good thing for folks who work with kids to remind themselves of from time to time. 

Occasionally I'll read the reviews of chidren's CDs on a site like Amazon.com, and I'll see a comment like, "I don't know why everyone likes this...my 2 year-old listened to it once and that was it!"  And then you listen to the recording and it's full of riddles and word play and things simply beyond what your average 2 year-old is likely to find amusing.  If you are a parent, teacher, or children's music artist, know your audience and understand that just because something is labeled as children's music, it doesn't mean it appeals to or is intended for all children.  That sounds obvious, but if you are a teacher struggling with a particular group of students, ask yourself if you are communicating with them at their level.  You may be suprised to realize that time you recently spent teaching a different group of children changed your sense of what is amusing or interesting, and you simply need to re-calibrate.