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September 2005
Math... in the Nursery?
Mrs. Donna - North Canton
 Stacking-cups are one of my favorite baby toys. Hiding smaller cups inside the larger ones...“Where did they go?” Building a tower, with vocal inflection to match....“Up, up... Down!” When our children were little, my husband and I were caught up in the JOY of playing with our beloved babies! We must have known that these activities were educational, but we didn’t consciously think about it.
Howard Gardner said that “the roots of the highest regions of logical, mathematical, and scientific thought can be found in the simple actions of young children upon the physical objects in their worlds.”1 Manipulating stacking cups, for example, helps babies to understand cause - effect relationships, categorizing, reasoning, and problem-solving. By the age of 4-6 months, an infant can understand the concept of object permanence – that objects continue to exist even when they’ve been removed from his eyesight.
No wonder Gardner felt that “the study of thought should (indeed must) begin in the nursery.”2 “It is in confronting objects [i.e. toys, balls, Cheerios, musical instruments], in ordering and reordering them... that the young child gains his... most fundamental knowledge about the logical-mathematical realm.”3
Piaget [related] an anecdote about a child who grew up to be an accomplished mathematician. [The child saw] a set of objects lying before him and decided to count them. He determined that there were ten objects. He then pointed to each of the objects, but in a different order, and found that– lo and behold!– there were again ten...
Through many repetitions, the boy came to understand “that the number 10 was far from an arbitrary outcome...” 4 It was an aggregate of elements.
At WeJoySing, the “Five Little Monkeys” are a perennial favorite. I’ll never forget the first time the importance of this activity really struck me.
I had just finished teaching a 2-3's HeartStrings class, and the children were “playing” with the monkey finger puppets. Kim, an elementary school teacher who was there with her infant for the next class, stood watching, amazed. I was unaware of her interest until she pulled me aside and said, “Wow! She has excellent one-to-one correspondence! Some of my first graders can’t do that!” (referring to the child's ability to touch one finger and say "one", the second and say "two", etc.) It was a profound moment for me as a teacher and as a parent, because the two-year-old she was referring to was my daughter (smiles!).
“Simple” concepts are actually developmental cornerstones. Parents can help little ones build upon this understanding, and over time, as Gardner reminds us, children will progress from the realm of sensori-motor to the realm of pure abstraction, to the heights of logic and science.
Since MUSIC has an important role in this development, here are some WeJoySing Logical/Mathematical Favorites:
Birth-12 months: Where Is Baby? Using a scarf, sing “Where Oh Where is Dear Little (Your Child’s Name)? Playing Peek-a-boo!” (tune= “Paw-Paw Patch”/ object permanence)
13-24 months: Sing your routine! Help your child prepare for the next step in his day by putting your words to a familiar tune. Transition to lunch or nap time by singing. Parents testify to the effectiveness of WeJoySing’s “instruments away” song. It works for socks and toys and dishes too! (order/grouping)
2-3's: Explore Finger Plays! Count fingers and other objects as a story is sung. (Counting forward, foundations for addition; backward, subtraction).
4-5's: Explore various rhythms (long/short-short/long/long). Put rhythms in hands (clapping), in feet (stomping), or onto a drum.
A Note from Mrs. Jo
The WeJoySing curriculum surrounds your little one with a myriad of musical activities designed to enhance his logical-mathematical development. Your child thinks he is “just playing,” but we know that many important skills and developmental milestones are being enhanced. Learning has never been such FUN!!
"Sing"cerely,
Mrs. Jo
Resources and Recommended Reading:
1. 1) Gardner, Howard, Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, Basic Books, 1993, p129.
2.1) Gardner, Howard, Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, Basic Books, 1993, p129.
3. 1) Gardner, Howard, Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, Basic Books, 1993, p128.
4. 1) Gardner, Howard, Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, Basic Books, 1993, p128.
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