{"id":57,"date":"2008-02-13T15:14:37","date_gmt":"2008-02-13T21:14:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.parentingzoo.com\/members\/?p=57"},"modified":"2008-02-13T15:14:37","modified_gmt":"2008-02-13T21:14:37","slug":"bilingual-beats-lead-to-language-literacy-and-math-fun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/parentingzoo.com\/members\/?p=57","title":{"rendered":"Bilingual Beats Lead to Language, Literacy and Math Fun"},"content":{"rendered":"

My friend Beth runs the fabulous site called Boca Beth<\/a>.\u00a0 It’s perfect for your preschoolers.\u00a0 Here’s a great article about teaching your kids using music and in particular – helping your preschoolers learn a second language.\u00a0 Enjoy!<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Never has it been this easy to find materials to bring \t\teducation into your home as a stay at home mom, a grandparent given the \t\tdistinct and honorable task of watching your grandchildren or as a \t\thomeschooling parent striving to do the best you can do. The internet \t\thas provided us the means to seek and download countless varieties of \t\teducational materials along with the medium to research other \t\tinstructional products for purchasing.<\/p>\n

As a mom of three children who each possess bilingual skills at varying \t\tdegrees along with an educator of thousands of children ages 6 months \t\tthrough ten years, I feel the sense of urgency to quicken the pace of \t\tthe learning. What better way to do that than with music? Research has \t\tshown that if you take a concept, add a little music, some rhythm and \t\tmovement, you will have a sure fire way of introducing and engaging the \t\tyoung child to long term retention of that concept.<\/p>\n

Think back to your younger years. Do you still have that one song that \t\tsticks in your head no matter how many years go by? That one that taught \t\tyou your days of the week in French, or how to multiply by two, or \t\tsimply the catchy ABC song we now share with our own children? This \t\tconcept of using music to enhance learning situations is nothing new and \t\tis one we should embrace as we go back to the basics of early childhood \t\tlearning experiences.<\/p>\n

There is the cry to return to the nursery rhymes of long ago. To drop \t\tthe Leap Pad and the computer games and simply share your lap with a \t\tchild who will listen to and real along with those rhyming gems of long \t\tago. A strong connection between learning and rhythm was discovered and \t\tbuilt upon years ago, and now we can bring global learning to our \t\tchildren through this same theory.<\/p>\n

Take a song, best if it is one you and your child both know the melody \t\tof, make up some new words that introduce the new language right next to \t\tyour native language. This type of made up song is called a Piggyback \t\tSong. Need an example? Okay, here is a simple one. Take the tune Mary \t\tHad a Little Lamb<\/strong><\/em> and sing about shapes by injecting words like these:<\/p>\n

A circle is rolling by, rolling by, rolling by,
\nA circle is rolling by, a circle is a circulo.
\nA circle is a circulo, a circulo, a circulo,
\nA circle is a circulo. I know my shapes.<\/p>\n

It is so easy to then bring in the words for square, rectangle, \t\ttriangle, heart and so on. In this example, we did English and Spanish. \t\tUse your imagination and use any new target language you would like to \t\tintroduce right along with the native language of your children.<\/p>\n

Learning a second language has never been so easy! A child learning this \t\tway, in what is called a bilingual format where his native language is \t\tsung right alongside his native language, will actually read sooner than \t\tmonolingual children who are not receiving this type of musical, \t\tbilingual instruction according to Dr. Ellen Bialystok and her team of \t\texperts at York University. The study conducted by this team also showed \t\tthat children receiving instruction in two languages will experience \t\tadvanced cognitive development and problem solving skills and higher \t\ttest scores on certain sections of standardized tests.<\/p>\n

As a mom and as a teacher that is important to me as I know it is to \t\tyou. Not only can we prepare our young children for a very global \t\teconomy, one that will require the command of more than one language in \t\torder to excel, we can also provide them a fun and engaging manner in \t\twhich to gain knowledge in a second language, skills in math and the \t\tability to read early in life.<\/p>\n

You cannot carry a tune? You have not even the slightest inclination as \t\tto where to start? You have not one creative bone in your body to begin \t\twriting your own Piggyback Song that might introduce French to your \t\tnewborn? No worries amigas, amigos, friends. Remember the internet? \t\tRemember those search engines? They will help drive you to a plethora of \t\tweb sites meant solely for giving you some affordable, sometimes free \t\tand most often very practical tools and tips on how to jump start your \t\tmotivation and creation of these bilingual songs.<\/p>\n

Feel the beat! Think creatively! Have fun, and before you know if you \t\tand Junior will be on a journey where the only required things in your \t\tbackpack will be water to quench your thirst after all of your singing \t\tand some musical shakers to keep the beat as you sing, dance and play \t\tyour way to a second language.
\nAbout the Author: \t\tBeth Butler is the creator of the BOCA BETH Language Learning Series for \t\tyoung children. Find out how fun and easy it can be to raise a bilingual \t\tchild. Sample the BOCA BETH bilingual music and movies for free at BocaBeth.com<\/a>
\nCall toll free 1.877.825.2622 or 1.813.244.1432<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My friend Beth runs the fabulous site called Boca Beth.\u00a0 It’s perfect for your preschoolers.\u00a0 Here’s a great article about teaching your kids using music […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spanish-fun"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/parentingzoo.com\/members\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/parentingzoo.com\/members\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/parentingzoo.com\/members\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parentingzoo.com\/members\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parentingzoo.com\/members\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/parentingzoo.com\/members\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parentingzoo.com\/members\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parentingzoo.com\/members\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parentingzoo.com\/members\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}