Brains In The Family

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: 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

Best Toddler Classes: Basic sports class

The following is the first of a six-part series of blog posts about the best classes for your toddler's development.
Activity: Basic Sports Classes

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

What Your Toddler Will Learn: Ideal for children ages 3 to 5 years, these introductory classes teach kids about sports and encourage a healthy, active lifestyle. Your child will learn the skills necessary for soccer, basketball, baseball, volleyball, hockey, and more while practicing teamwork, cooperation, and sharing with the other children. You may be able to take the class as a parent-child team at first before letting him branch out on his own to learn independence and make new friends.

Source: Parents

Give Kids Space To Develop Passions

 Back off helicopter moms and dads.

A new study has found children and young adults are more likely to pursue sports, music or other pastimes when given an opportunity to nurture their own passion.

Université de Montréal researcher Geneviève Mageau performed a three-part study assessing if parental control would predict whether a child develops a harmonious or obsessive passion for a hobby.

Published in the latest Journal of Personality, the study was a collaboration with scientists from the Université de Montréal, the Université du Québec à Montreal and McGill University.

“We found that controlling adults can foster obsessive passion in their children by teaching them that social approval can only be obtained through excellence,” says Dr. Mageau.

“An activity then becomes highly important for self-protective reasons that don’t necessarily correspond with a child’s true desires.”

Teach Mental Skills: Make Groundhog Day Cupcakes With Your Kids

Cooking with your kids is not only fun but can teach them many wonderful mental skills such as paying attention to detail, following directions, delaying gratification, and many more.  As groundhog day arrives, here is a recipe for groundhog day cupcakes. They are almost too cute to eat.

Opera Singer Renee Fleming Provides A Performance Lesson

Lesson: Focus On Technique

Renee Fleming’s vocal talent is acclaimed worldwide as “the gold standard of soprano sound.”  An international artist for more than a decade, she is recognized for her compelling artistry, beautiful sound, and interpretive talents.  Fleming is one of the most sought-after performers onstage and in recordings, and has been nominated for eight Grammys and won the award twice.

As a world-class performer, Fleming can teach all performers an important lesson about doing the hard work needed to develop advanced technique.  Click on the following link to read about Fleming's important lesson to all performers: Learn More

Facial Recognition Talent May Be A Sign of Other Talents

Having the ability to recognize faces is a real talent.  To be good at facial recognition, people need to be good at noticing and remembering both the overall shape of a person's face and the arrangement of the smaller features.  One way people do that is by noticing angles and lines that are accentuated by shadows and contracting shapes and colors of the face.  For some children with this talent, it may indicate that they have a natural ability for design and art, a heightened appreciate for art, or a talent for being socially aware of other people.  As the podcast below from Scientific America indicates, research suggests that facial recognition is a real talent and may in the family.

Podcast:

The Talent for Facial Recognition