Parenting Tip:  Notice and explore patterns, with baby   Why? Moving directionally & changing directions in dance helps children understand that their bodies can move in one direction, then another. Doing this in a predictable pattern prevents them from getting frustrated or disoriented. Repeating the pattern enough time to internalize it helps them grasp the concepts of pattern and directionality and understanding their bodies in space.   How? Learn some MATH MOVES! Discover the connection between MATH & MUSIC! Gather your child in your lap, and enjoy a lap bounce (like ‘It Rained a Mist,’ from Kindermusik’s ‘Rain or Shine’ CD).  Can you create a pattern as you bounce?  What if you rock for a segment, then bounce?  Or can you bounce slow for one part, then fast for another?   Want to Learn More? On our blog – Read the BENEFITS OF MUSIC TO YOUR CHILD’S FUTURE MATH SUCCESS!   Kindermusik 7-year Continuum: As a baby, your child can experience patterns in music, movement, and in the world with your help.  Moving in a different way, during different sections of a song, can help baby notice and internalize that musical pattern.  Toddlers begin to notice patterns in music and movement by copying the grown-ups in their class.  In preschool Kindermusik classes, students brainstorm their own ideas for how to move or play instruments during different sections of a song.  Big kids in Young Child classes notice patterns in rhythm and melody, as we begin to read traditional musical notation (like quarter notes, and discovering where notes live on the treble clef staff).