According to neuroscience evidence, exposure to and involvement in regular music making from birth can have a significant impact to boost children’s brain development, physical and mental health, and happiness throughout life.
All of the following networks are connected to the 3 main cortices of the brain, and all are seen to be activated by music practice:
- Super sense network – making sense of language
- Reward network – giving a sense of achievement and motivation, re-enforcing positive learning experiences
- Cognitive network – the engine room, figuring out how to do things, the steps or process
- Perceptual network – predicting what comes next
- Cognition network – figuring out what it all means, what we like or do not like
- Emotional network – effecting mood, resilience emotions and empathy
Neuroscience studies provide evidence that given the opportunity of regular, varied and creative music provision, children in early years can develop the 6 networks listed above and the neural pathways that provide strong foundations not only for literacy and maths but for learning generally. AMAZING! Boogie Mites created a parent information sheet to explain this potentially incredible impact of effective music making in early years on brain development: click here to view.
Mood Boosting:
Music and movement make us happy! We all know this, but do you know the science behind why?
Neurotransmitters are the body’s chemical messengers. Four chemicals that are stimulated when we are involved in group music making and exercise:
- Dopamine – plays a role in how we feel pleasure
- Oxytocin – plays a role in social bonding
- Serotonin – plays a role in modulating mood
- Endorphins – trigger a positive feeling in the body
These chemicals are produced by our bodies when we are involved in group music, no wonder it boosts our mood! Are you getting your daily music DOSE of happiness, motivation and bonding!
Eco Friendly:
Music in early years doesn’t require expensive instruments, instead, you can raid the recycling bin to find:
- Pots or plastic bottles that can be filled with pasta or rice and decorated to make shakers
- Wooden spoons make good rhythm sticks
- Boxes, tins or tubs can be decorated to make drums
- Scraps of fabric can make dancing scarves
- Cardboard tubes can make trumpets
Our bodies also make great musical props – we can clap, stamp, march, click fingers and jump to the beat!
Music can be played via a digital device, no need for CDs or tapes anymore.
The oldest fun of all time, music, has no negative impact on the planet but a very positive impact on our wellbeing and cognitive development!
Boogie Mites Tips for Music Time at Home
At Boogie Mites, we have written
and recorded music of many different genres and developed specific musical
activities so we can achieve the maximum brain-boosting benefits that regular
music practice can offer to support early years development. Also, and most
importantly, we recognise the importance that this music is as enjoyable for
the adults (parents and practitioners) taking part as it is for the
children. Here are some tips for effective music making at home with your
children:
- To engage and motivate the children, the music activities should be led by enthusiastic adults. Make if fun! Upbeat music, catchy tunes, steady beat, props and instruments all help.
- To inspire and engage the themes should be relevant and exciting – such as jungles, dinosaurs, dragons.
- To encourage engagement, confidence and creativity take part with your child, have the same instrument or prop, work together, asking them to follow you at times and you follow them at times. Keep the beat with sequences of actions and tapping/banging/shaking of instruments and progress to more advanced sequences to develop rhythmic awareness.
- Encourage vocalisations through sounds games and singing to develop melodic awareness.
- To maximise progression, offer regular practice of the same songs with extension activities.
- Enliven story time with music use sounds, chants, rhymes and junk percussion instruments to help tell the story.
- Music time should be in a quiet space so that listening can focus on the music activity.
- Playtime should be without music: playing in the background so that listening can be focused on play and communication with others.
You can purchase access to Boogie Mites digital music resources for home use and try music time and musical stories at home to support their development and to create lasting musical memories of fun times shared.
Boogie Mites at Tops Day Nurseries
Tops Day Nurseries follow Boogie Mites Music Programmes in the nurseries and will be extending this to all age groups during 2022. The children would love to share the songs with you at home!
The core programmes will provide everything you need for creative music time sessions at home:
Babies Pack (birth to crawling)
Teenies Pack (crawling to 2 years)
Minis Pack (2 to 3 years)
School Ready Parent Pack (3 to 5 years)
Mities Themed Song Collections (2 to 5 years) offers 14 themes each with 5 songs and supporting videos and notes.
Click here to learn more about Boogie Mites at Tops Day Nurseries.
Boogie Mites would like to offer an exclusive 20% discount to all Tops families throughout December on any orders placed via their website. Use code BMTOPS20% at check out.
Make it a magical musical Christmas and New Year. Happy boogying!
