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Introduction I took the instant parent pill in 2001 and immediately became step father to three boys aged 2, 4 and 12; it continues to be an amazing experience! Music was a huge part of my own childhood: music in the car on the way to school, music on the way home, background music for homework, instrumental music for bedtime so it just seemed natural to introduce the same approach with my own family. I have found children to be capable of giving the most honest feedback, if not verbally, then by their unprejudiced behavior. As chief guinea pigs, the kids were instrumental in developing many of the ideas behind Music 2 Work 2. To Robbie, Jeremy & Jake - Thank You Bedtime Getting two energetic children calmed down for bedtime is a challenge that I'm sure a lot of parents face. Like many things that work, we stumbled upon the music effect by accident, although we had introduced the kids to many different styles of music, we hadn't thought of using the music sessions that I was beginning to develop. At the time I was working on a music session that came to be known as "Boys bedtime music ," it was playing in the background while we were reading a bedtime story. When the story finished and we were kissing the boys goodnight, we heard a little voice asking us to keep the music on because "...the music helps me sleep".
So we did, and not only did it help them sleep, it also helped them recognize when it was time to sleep. We ended up putting a small CD player in their room and when it came close to bedtime, we would play the music in the background and it would have an instant calming effect. With the volume down low, it actually became quite fun to read a story with the background music; it made it sound like a film score! Sometimes the kids would be asleep by the end of the story, sometimes they'd be still awake, so long as the music continued to play, they wouldn't ask for another story, they'd just drift off listening to it. I ended up making a number of CD's with about 45 minutes of music. If we put them on say 5 minutes before bedtime, the kids were generally asleep before the CD stopped. We didn't follow this routine every night, in fact more often than not, we wouldn't have music playing, but on certain nights, it was the perfect thing. We played music to the kids at bedtime from the ages of 2 up to about 8 and we still do occasionally, although they are choosing their own books and music to read and listen to now. A bit of online research reveals several articles that discuss the benefits to children of having music in their lives, so much so that we have created a page where we list a number of websites that discuss music and children. Homework There is a huge amount of information being developed in the media about what seems to be the ever increasing pace of modern day life. The constant stream of input from radios, televisions, games, cell phones, the Internet, iPods, etc., can make it difficult to focus on just one thing. Having learned from our early success with bedtime, we started introducing music as a cue to help the kids get into study mode. Again, we listened to what the kids told us and they said that having the music on helps them. We found that when music is playing quietly in the background they are less inclined to be distracted and on the whole, homework takes a lot less time to do. We found many references to how music affects Children with ADD or ADHD, and although we're grateful we didn't have that experience, we can certainly relate to it. Again, just as with bedtime, we are finding that by playing the homework music it reinforces the idea that it is now homework time, without requiring the verbal encouragement (which I'm sure sounds like nagging to a child's ears!) of a parent. As with bedtime, we don't use the homework every night, but on certain days, the music helps the kids immensely. Summary We know from speaking to plenty of friends and family that our experiences are not unique; parents have been using music to help the development of their children since music was first invented, (was there a time without music?). Everybody has a favorite piece of music or composer that they swear by, over time we will be adding discussion forums for registered users and we look forward to hearing what works for everyone else. |
