Brains In The Family

Art For The Mind

Art For The Mind, Sandro Botticelli from Michael Cerreto on Vimeo.

Best Toddler Classes: Storytelling Class

The following is the final part of a blog series about the best classes for your toddler's development.

Activity: Storytelling Groups

Where to find it: Check with your local library or bookstore for regular storytelling times.

What They'll Learn: Attend a regular storytelling group to teach your child a love of reading at an early age. Storytelling professionals are trained to engage children with voices and sound effects, and to encourage them to interact with the book and each other. Further encourage a love of reading by allowing your child to choose a few books to take home after each reading group. She'll look forward story time and soon be reading on her own!

Best Toddler Classes: Music Classes

The following is the fifth of a six-part series of blog posts about the best classes for your toddler's development.

Activity: Music Lessons and Classes

Where to find it: Gymboree locations offer group sessions, or check your local listings for certified music instructors for one-on-one attention.

What She'll Learn: Help your child develop a love of music and sounds early by enrolling in a toddler music class. Whether your little one attends alone or with a family member, she's sure to pick up the rhythm soon and continue her exploration of music in the future.  Learning music and playing instruments is great for kids' cognitive development, and children exposed to a multi-year music program have been shown to display higher cognitive performance in reading and language skills. You may wish to move your child into private lessons down the road (which aid in intellectual development and help develop patience and discipline), and group music classes are a great starting point.

Source: Parents

Best Toddler Classes: Art Classes

The following is the fourth of a six-part series of blog posts about the best classes for your toddlers' development.

Activity: Art Classes

Where to find it: Gymboree locations, or check with your local art center or museum.

What He'll Learn: Take an art class with your child -- or let him explore his creative side on his own. Either way, your child won't even realize he's learning while he paints, draws, and sculpts his creative side into shape. Who knows -- you may even find you're raising an art prodigy!

Source: Parenting
 

Best Toddler Classes: Water Aerobics

The following is the third of a six-part series of blog posts about the best classes for your toddler's development.

Activity: Water Aerobics

Where to find it: YMCA locations, or check with your local fitness center or public pool.

What She'll Learn: Whether you try this water-based fitness routine as a parent-child duo, or let your child strike out on her own under the careful supervision of a trained adult, your little one is sure to learn a love of water and exercise. Through organized movement routines and swimming exercises, she'll get her heart pumping and her limbs moving. Some organizations include a play time at the end of the session so your child can splash around with the other children just for fun.

Source: Parents

Best Toddler Classes: Tumbling class

The following is the second of a six-part series of blog posts about the best classes for your toddler's development.

Activity: Tumbling Classes

Where to find it: Most YMCA locations offer tumbling classes for kids, or check with your local fitness center.

What She'll Learn: Toddler tumbling classes are a great way to help your child develop strength and flexibility, as well as concentration skills. Your little one will jump, run, roll, crawl, swing, and have a great time! She'll also learn to overcome fear and try things that may seem a little scary at first. Tumbling and gymnastics is also a very social sport, and your child is likely to make new friends along the way. She'll also develop positive associations with exercise.

Source: Parents

Art For The Mind Video Channel: Observing, interpreting, and creating art strengthens your mind

Art For The Mind

Watch this video and give your mind an artistic workout by watching wonderful dancers at work and play.

URBAN BODIES/CORPI URBANI from marzio on Vimeo.

Art For The Mind

Take a break today and give your mind an artistic workout.

Art For The Mind, John Mix Stanley from Michael Cerreto on Vimeo.

Moms Influence How Children Develop Advanced Thinking

Executive functioning is a set of advanced cognitive functions - such as the ability to control impulses, remember things, and show mental flexibility - that help us plan and monitor what we do to reach goals. Although executive functioning develops speedily between ages 1 and 6, children vary widely in their skills in this area. Now a new longitudinal study tells us that moms play a role in how their children develop these abilities. 

The study was conducted at the University of Montreal and the University of Minnesota. It appears in the January/February 2010 issue of the journal Child Development. 

The researchers looked at 80 pairs of middle-income Canadian moms and their year-old babies. It turns out that the ways moms act when they're playing and solving puzzles with their babies can explain some of the differences in children's development of executive functioning. 

Children of moms who answered their children's requests for help quickly and accurately; talked about their children's preferences, thoughts, and memories during play; and encouraged successful strategies to help solve difficult problems performed better at a year and a half and 2 years on tasks that call for executive skills than children of moms who didn't use these techniques in interacting with their youngsters. 

"The study sheds light on the role parents play in helping children develop skills that are important for later school success and social competence," according to Annie Bernier, professor of psychology at the University of Montreal and the study's lead author. 

From: Medical News Today
Sarah Hutcheon
Society for Research in Child Development