Play with me the ABC

Play with me the ABC

Play with me the ABC: The early childhood education course your child needs. And the empowering of your child’s language & early literacy competencies you have been looking for.

JUST A FEW OF MANY CHILDREN’S REQUESTS AND DEMANDS THAT INSPIRED ME TO CREATE THIS COURSE:

“Nina, let us paint music again… can we speak music?” (3-years-old girl)
“Mrs. Vasileva, I am hungry to learn!” (4-years-old boy)
“No, no eating now… Nina, I still want to learn more ABC-s…” (2-years-old girl)

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The approach by designing the course:

“God has created a universal language, and that is music.” (Sri Chimoy)

The Play with me the ABC classes use music and body movement as means to promote communication skills and social-emotional learning in children’s first years of life. Music is the connecting element in each class. It helps evoke nice emotions and foster the continuing development of oral language and early literacy skills necessary to learn to read and write later.

What do I consider designing courses for young children?

Their age-related needs and age-specific learning interests point the way for designing the program.

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    The young children’s need for acceptance, attention, appreciation, trust-inducing relationships, emotional secureness and comfort, all required conditions to engage and to learn lighthearted, happily and without fear.
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    The young children’s need to move and their natural delight in being active.
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    The contagious joy and enthusiasm for experimenting and learning new things through exploration and imitation play.
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    Young children’s need to grasp something, so they can understand it.
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    The young children’s drive to do things (as much as they can) by themselves (“Me alone!”).
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    The young children’s attitude to “work” and “train” hard. “Again…Once again…again!” Learning needs repetition.
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    The young children’s curiosity to discover symbols and writing; their interest to learn and the ability to recognize first signs and letters while playing.

The parent-child courses Play with me the ABC take your child on Language & Early Literacy learning adventures through music-rhythmic activities. It’s all about taking up the child’s interest in playing with sounds, syllables, words, rhythm, signs, letters and training age-adequate communication and articulation skills with others.

The classes are a blend of movement and moments of rest. While enjoying hands-on exploration of elementary musical instruments and materials, your child trains motor skills and coordination. She/he engages in nursery rhymes, knee riders, doing finger gymnastics, reading picture books and playing songs. By producing the sounds of the language, by breaking down words in sounds and syllables, your child joyfully practices rhythm and rhymes and discovers her/his voice as an immediately available instrument. Sensory exploring and introducing of some letters are made, too. The course lays the foundation for continuing the development of the ability to talk, pay attention, understand, “draw”, all skills necessary to learn to read and write later. Each Play with me the ABC class also helps your child continue to develop her/his age-adequate social-emotional competencies. While experiencing the joy of playing and making music, your child has the freedom to express feelings, learns to regulate and understand emotions, trains sharing, taking turns, gratitude, kindness, communicating with others via gestures, facial expressions or words.

Benefits of Language & Early Literacy education by means of music-rhythmic activities

  • In general, the courses promote perception, cognitive development, the area of thinking and memory performance that is important for all learning in the years to come.
  • Through using music and bodily movements the courses have a beneficial effect on motor development. They are useful for children of preschool age, whose psychomotor stimulation influences their overall further development.
  • The development of auditory perception is stimulated by making music; accuracy and coordination are improved through bodily movements. Together they improve the perception of the rhythm of music and speech.
  • The courses not only help children enhance their ability to hear sounds, but also to form sound combinations, to understand oral language, to expand their passive and active vocabulary and to use language age-adequate for a range of purposes (to express wishes, thoughts, ideas, feelings). The performed music activities and finger gymnastics help children to recognize some letters, remember their sounds and continue to develop pre-reading and pre-writing skills.
  • The courses support social-emotional learning, enable children to expand their emotional knowledge while having the freedom to express feelings. Through music-rhythmic activities children practice sharing, taking turns, gratitude, empathy, kindness, working in team while at the same time they build confidence and age-appropriate independence.
  • The courses help children to facilitate age-adequate listening, attention, concentration and endurance competencies.
  • Last but not least: the courses promote the recognizing and understanding of basic musical elements that are required for music lessons or learning a musical instrument later.