Beat Baby!

After a training course at the weekend (that was fabulous) I came away all inspired and motivated to do new things with the children.  On the course I learnt all about the importance of phonics to young children, and what we can all do to help pave the way for our children to learn when they start (pre) school.


It is vital that children experience lots of reading and singing, which are things that we ordinarily do anyway.  Before I attended the course I was not however aware of the huge importance of rhythm, rhyme and the ability to maintain a steady beat - according to research carried out in 2003, a child's ability to maintain a steady beat (beat competency) is a powerful indicator for later academic success, and children who have developed this important skill are at a considerable advantage in learning situations.


On Tuesday I set out the musical instruments in the back garden, and we read 'The Ding Dong Bag' book, which is a story all about two boys listening to lots of noises and capturing the noises in their bag.  After the story finished we played with the musical instruments to hear the different noises that they made, we described the noises.  We then set out to make lots of different noises around the garden; stomping on the floor, swooshing our feet through the gravel, banging sticks on the floor, shouting into the watering can spout, putting stones into empty plastic milk bottles and shaking it about.  The children enjoyed making lots of noise, and they were very good at it!

As the children were having lunch someone very special came to visit us - Blue Beat Baby!  He is quite shy so we have to be quiet and calm around him and ask him nicely to come out to see us.  When the children first saw Blue Beat Baby's face they all said "ah" and they were very calm and quiet, everyone took it in turns holding and cuddling him, and we all sang him a song.  The children are very intrigued with him.  

Over the coming weeks and months we will be using Beat Baby to engage the children in singing, dancing, rapping and rhyming activities.  I am also confident that Beat Baby will help to develop the children's language skills, creativity, imagination and empathy.  Beat Baby will also travel between here and the children's homes; I am hopeful that the children will then be able to tell us all about the adventures that they have shared with Beat Baby!