Perfect Pitch

One area that right brainers focus on is perfect pitch.  Linguists have found that children copy tone and pitch before they ever produce words.  Restak (2003) discovered that perfect pitch can be acquired by average children between three and five years of age when given appropriate training. Structural brain changes occur along with the development of perfect pitch and continue as musical talent matures (Restak 2003).

Rightbrainkids.com recommends the following activities with your children:

1. Introduce your child to the musical notes on the scale.
2. Use a perfectly tuned instrument (tuning forks work best).
3. Expose your child to many forms of classical music.

The Eguchi Method is used in Japan to teach perfect pitch to children.  Information about this method is taken from the geneveith here:

1. Play the three-note C major chord on a piano, and the child is instructed to raise a red flag. Do a few times daily.

2. After a couple of weeks, a second chord and flag are added.

3. Keep adding until all white cords have a color associated with them. 

4. Later, the child calls out the individual notes that make up the chord like red, do-mi-so. 

There are many different music learning programs out there.  Soon, I plan to present some information about the Suzuki method. 

Having “perfect pitch” isn’t really the point, for myself.  Otherwise it would just be a neat little trick.  I’m more concerned with helping her to develop relative pitch in the process.  She naturally matches pitches quite well and I just want to encourage it a bit in her.  So what I do is (and plan to add)…

1. Listening to a lot of classical music.  We already do this.

2. Suzuki CD’s to listen to.

3. Games that use rhythm using this online metronome-

4. Play this music game

5. We sing the scale-Do, re, mi….

6. Plan to purchase Piano for Preschoolers

If this topic interests you, you might find this link interesting. I think it explains the importance of music and the link to learning better than most websites. 

I would adore comments on this post.  In the past, I read quite a bit about the Suzuki and Yahama methods, but since my daughter was younger filed it away mentally as something to look at as she got older.  Preschool is a time, many start using these methods. I’d love some good links and additional information about this subject.  There aren’t Suzuki instructors close by and even if there was, we can’t afford it at this time.  I’d like to try and teach her at home.  Again, would LOVE comments. 

Here are some Great Files

Today I'm busy unpacking so instead of a writing out a post I have some files available for your upload. These are different files I've collected over the past two years from different groups I belong to. Unfortunately, I've made so many myself and have been sent so many that I'm not sure which ones I made and am unable to give credit to where it belongs. They are all public domain however. If you see a file that you've made, I'd love to give credit where it belongs.



Glenn Doman parents

The first named various words is a powerpoint of different words to show your child to teach them how to read. This file is for moms who follow the "Teach Your Baby To Read" Glenn Doman style. The link is http://www.ziddu.com/download/2277509/variouswords.ppt.html



The following are Glenn Doman Encyclopedia bits. I haven't really looked them over. These were done a long time ago. I suppose these files could probably used in ways other than as Doman Encyclopedia Bits as well.

Animal bits:http://www.ziddu.com/download/2277603/AnimalsBits.ppt.html

Brass Instruments:http://www.ziddu.com/download/2277605/Brass.ppt.html

Famous Bridges:http://www.ziddu.com/download/2277604/Bridges.ppt.html

Edward Hopper:http://www.ziddu.com/download/2277606/EdwardHopper.ppt.html

Emily Carr:http://www.ziddu.com/download/2277602/EmilyCarr02.ppt.html

Farm Animals:http://www.ziddu.com/download/2277618/FarmAnimals.ppt.html

Fruit Trees:http://www.ziddu.com/download/2277620/FruitTrees.ppt.html

Kitchen Tools 1:http://www.ziddu.com/download/2277619/KitchenToolsI.ppt.html

Kitchen Tools 2:http://www.ziddu.com/download/2277621/KitchenToolsII.ppt.html

Organs of the Body:http://www.ziddu.com/download/2277617/Organsofthebody.ppt.html

United States set 1 of 5: http://www.ziddu.com/download/2277624/UnitedStatesSet1of5.ppt.html



Schichida Parents

This file is a good daily schedule and introduction to activities in Schichida.

http://www.ziddu.com/download/2277556/shi1.ppt.html



Mixture

I try to write up a curriculum to use with my daughter each week. Here's a link one of mine in the past. http://www.ziddu.com/download/2277573/LittleCalf.doc.html



If anyone has questions about Glenn Doman method or Schichida method, just ask!

Trainingforbabies.com lists some great Shichida lessons at http://trainingforbabies.blogspot.com/search/label/Lesson%20Plan. Here are how I do some of the lessons with my daughter.


1. Start all lessons by hugging your child
2. Next you are supposed to gather an energy ball and throw it high over their heads, brush away the bad, compress it and eat it. We haven't quite got this down and I welcome any advice on how to teach this to a 2 year old.
3. Breathing training: There are a lot of neat ways to do this and little projects to make but I just have her blow bubbles.
4. Flash Memory: Show your child a series of 5 flashcards.Give them 6 flashcards and ask them to point the odd one out.
5. Build the bage of blocks. Give your child a bag. Ask them to open it and take out the three square blocks inside. Show them two pictures and ask them to place the blocks accordingly to the pictures. (We haven't done this because I don't have any pictures of blocks. Maybe this will be my project for the week?)
6. Language Training:Let him hear a story being told in the past in another language.
Language Training- The Birds:Show pictures of animals and name them in Spanish. Now show the same animals and name them in French.
7.Sing a song/Tell a story: Sing at normal speed .Sing at half the speed (to help them remember)
8. Musical Theatre: Learn The Colours:Sing a song and help your children learn about colours.
9.Simon Says...Show your child flashcards and say, "Simon says..."
Flash a card of the action and then do the action and get your child to follow
Eg of actions are "clap, hop, run, skip...etc
10. Memory- Which picture did we see?:Show a picture for 30 seconds.
Show the child two similar pictures and ask them to pick, which picture did we see.
11. Memory- Where is the ball:Show a picture of three balls in diff positions.
Now give them a picture with three boxes and ask your child to put the balls in the right box.
12: Intuition- Find the ice cream :Use two cards of the same size. One is has a picture of a ice cream and the other one is empty.Tell your child to use their hand to touch and feel the difference..Turn the cards over and ask your child to feel it and the ice cream
Repeat 2-3 times
13.Jigsaw Puzzle:Give your child an 8 piece puzzle with the right answer and ask them to fix it.
14. Linking memory game:The purpose of this game is to help your child improve their memory by linking things up. You can tell a story and link the things up in order. It does not have to be a logical story. Repeat this story and ask your child to place the pictures in this order.
Now turn the cards around so that the back (which is blank) is facing you and ask your child to pick out the hotel or the crab and see if they can remember where it should be.
15. Writing :Prepare a practice sheet for your child. Laminate the practice sheet
Give your child a whiteboard marker (non toxic) and hold their hands to help them write out the numbers on the practice sheet.
One number at a time please.
16. C is for Cat. Draw a picture of a cat and cut 2 lines in the cat so you can slip in a long slip of paper. On the long slip write 6 words that start with C. You can do this with any letters.
17Artwork Homework: Cut and paste.

More to come soon...this is what we'll be working on for the next week.

A forum for shichida parents

This forum is where I have received most of my information about shichida http://www.shichidaparents.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=123

Shichida videos

Here is a link to videos about Shichida. Many of them are in Chinese but they can give you a few ideas. If anyone has more Shichida videos, I'd love to see them! Here is the link http://0km.jp/?tag=shichida.

One of my favorite sites for Schichida is the following: http://www.sgparenting.com/forums/search.php?search_id=newposts. Really, there are not that many sites that address this type of curriculum in English. I think it is very interesting. However, they address other styles as well such as Suzuki and Doman. I highly recommend checking out this group.