Parenting Articles | Does Music Make Children Smarter?

During Music In Our Schools Month, musicians raise awareness of impact of music education on lives of students.

Can playing the piano strengthen a child’s reading and math skills? Can joining a school band be a catalyst for building self-confidence? Does one develop strong analytical abilities by taking violin lessons? Some music experts say yes.

"Every minute that you’re engaged in music, you’re applying more than one concept or one knowledge," said Dr. Kevin Strogher, Head of Music at The Heights School in Potomac, Md. "Music develops analytical thinking because it requires students to be creative. They don't just regurgitate memorized facts. They have to apply those facts."

March is Music in Our Schools Month and some music aficionados are trying to raise awareness about impact of music education on the lives of students. The National Association of Music Education in Reston cites a strong body of evidence which shows that participation in musical activities can enhance a student's education. "For today's students to succeed tomorrow, they need a comprehensive education that includes music taught by exemplary music educators," said Elizabeth Lasko, assistant executive director. "Music In Our Schools Month gives music teachers the chance to … let everyone know how learning music benefits kids, and how it contributes to their growth and development both as students and as future adult citizens."

Instructors say playing music can boost brain power. "Music helps build and develop cognitive skills because you have to do three or four things at the same time to perform music," said Holly Vesilind, music instructor at Westgate Elementary School in Falls Church and a private flute instructor in Fairfax. "It builds math skills because it involves counting and fractions.

Experts say music activities can affect social development. "Music ensembles work much like team sports, students learn the necessity of teamwork and collaboration," said Dr. James Criswell, director of the Middle School advanced band and Upper School wind ensemble and orchestra at St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes School in Alexandria.

Strogher dispels the notion that the discipline attracts social misfits. "It is not just the choir geeks or the band nerds," he said. "When [The Heights Men’s Chorus] was performing in Austria recently, we had the [school’s] best lacrosse player with us, we had baseball players, basketball players. In fact, most of our top athletes are also in the music program. It is actually a cool thing to be in music." read more

For more parenting articles, visit the ChildUp Blog.

Parenting Articles - America’s Students Must Improve their Math Skills

If one manages to graduate from high school without the rudiments of algebra, geometry and trigonometry, there are certain relatively high-paying careers probably off-limits for life — such as careers in architecture, chemistry, computer programming, engineering, medicine and certain technical fields.

For example, one might meet all of the physical requirements to be a fighter pilot, but he's grounded if he doesn't have enough math to understand physics, aerodynamics and navigation.

Mathematical ability helps provide the read more...

For more parenting articles, visit the ChildUp blog.

Parenting Articles - Are Math Skills Genetic?

are they really genetic?

Base on a new research by the Johns Hopkins University, it suggests that a person's abilities at math might entirely be handed down by one's ancestors. They made a concept called "number sense" for kids who have not yet taken any math lessons. Number sense is the thing people employ when they are sitting at a Florida Marlins home game and wondering if there are 4,320 or 4,750 people in the ballpark.

Accoring to Melissa Libertus, one of the heads of the research, "The relationship between 'number sense' and math ability is important and intriguing because we believe that 'number sense' is universal, whereas math ability has been thought to be highly dependent on culture and language and takes many years to learn."

For more of this parenting article, click http://goo.gl/X9K2I

Visit the blog at  ChildUp - Online Parenting Class for more informative articles