Creative Exercises in Music
Music makes the world go round, right? Well, it also develops the brain by developing language and reasoning skills. The area of your brain that deals with language and reason also deals with music, so thinking creatively with active play and creative exercises is a major brain development booster. As music is being eliminated in schools around the country, Angie Ritchter decided she would make music a part of developmental play and created creative exercises to do just that. You can find Angie @the_wonderstudio, and on Facebook @thewonderstudiokindermusik.
Angie Richter is owner and licensed educator with The Wonder Studio a Kindermusik studio. She is a woman on a mission to make music and learning through music fun! She loves teaching young children, watching their development through the platform of music and witnessing the parent-child bond strengthen. Angie is passionate about giving children the best start at life and supporting parents through their journey.
In her personal life, Angie is a wife to Brody and a mom to Finley and Harlow. They have a dog named Moose and a fish named Rose. Angie finds joy in reading alone or with her kids, cooking and baking, listening to podcasts, watching her girls and husband play hockey and skate and in being physically active. The Richter family loves to travel, and having a relative in Switzerland makes it a little more convenient!
Angie worked as an Assistant Director in Annual Giving for the UW Foundation right after college and then as a high school English teacher in Watertown. She is excited that her life has led her to Kindermusik and working with Musical Pathways.
If our focus of learning for one class is about steady beat, the eight month olds might feel steady, beat in a joyful way by rocking side to side with their grownup. While the older child who's maybe a four year old might experience study beat by playing their homemade instrument and marching around to music in a parade. (10:02)
When we think of creativity, I think we also need to think of growth mindset and resiliency skills. Because what you hear there when you're saying open ended questions is you're actually also promoting that growth mindset thinking skills too that kids need and oftentimes aren't given enough opportunity to have that open ended thinking time.(12:42)
I've kind of rebelled against that a little bit in that I really use my child's opportunity and time at home to have a lot of creative, free play and unstructured time. (14:16)
A lot of times when our kids are playing in their homes, what they're doing is processing their day and processing conflicts they may have had with other people. It's kind of a time for them to come down and process through, play what they've experienced. And sometimes that doesn't always look like a great thing as a parent because it might be a conflict with the sibling that they're playing with, but it might be something that they're trying to work out, how do I solve this situation? But if we're not giving them the experience of having that creative free play time, they can't come up with the solutions to how they want to deal with things like that. (16:07)
We know that having that strong relationship down the road, you will likely have fewer behavioral struggles with your child if you have a strong bond with them. So that can start really early. And, and not only does it create a ritual for the child, but it creates a good pattern of a ritual for the adult too.(24:49)
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This Episode's Question:
After listening to this podcast, where do you find musical inspiration to change a mood or behavior? What creative exercises do you enjoy doing? Do you have a pick me up playlist ready to roll?
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