Dancing is MATH

Kindermusik Village has a lot of dances in it. The babies love when the adults carry them facing in towards the circle. Oh, my! How they wriggle with delight when the circle takes four steps in and flies baby high then four steps out and down.....And they are working on the math of it all. Depth perception judgments for the eyes, figuring out the time it took to go in and out, to how the size of the person changed from large circle to stepping in to make the circle smaller....

In Our Time we dance:
Oh, Lukey's Boat is painted green. Aha! Me boys!
Oh, Lukey's boat is painted green the finest boat you've ever seen. Aha me riddle aye day!
These are auditory patterns that are stipes for the ears! a narrow stipe and a wide stripe (short phrase then long phrase). We repeat this over and over again.

In Imagine That! we are singing more stripes:
La la la la laa laa la la la la laa.
La la la la laa laa la la la la laa.
La la la la laa laa la la la la laa.
La la laa la la laa la la la la laa.
Step in, turn yourself around.
Step out, turn your self about.
La.......repeat.

The stipes look like this in my head: 4 similar red stripes then 2 matching blue stripes. Do it again!

In Young Child 1 we play a singing game called Rig a Jig. We are walking to the musical meter (the musical measuring stick for measuring time) that counts in 2's and we skip for the refrain's meter which counts in 6's.

In Young Child3 we dance to the folksy music of David Holt singing "Old Lady No Nose"
We're learning steps like do si do, peel the orange, swing your partner. We are measuring time and distance with musical phrases.

The children don't have to know the theory of it at this age but later they will find their brain has created places for understanding steady beat, time, distance, measuring, counting, estimating, predicting, patterns, repetition, momentum, and lots of other physics concepts.

This is good brain stuff. I'm glad you're in Kindermusik. For your kids sake. It makes them smart.

Some good dancing to be had at the Overisel Township Hall this Friday Sept. 21st at 7:30. It's my favorite: Contra Dancing. Great music. Great friendships. Great dancing. Do come. It's open to the public and beginners are VERY welcome. The callers will walk you through the dances and ....yes, you will have to think! And then you will say "Oh, Yes! Kindermusik is great brain work for our children!"

Everybody swing your partner!
Yvette