Using Music to Help Young Children Get into Lasting Routines and Adjust to Transitions

We all want what is best for our children. We want to help them cope with everyday struggles in life and learn to take life head on. To do this we need to form routines that give our children a sense of security and allow them to balance life’s changes.  When children are sent off to preschool and kindergarten they get introduced to these routines but things are a bit more of a challenge for us because we have to provide that. One tool we have is MUSIC.

Young children respond well to musical cues. Just like early childhood centers, preschools, and kindergartens we can use music in our homes to help our children fall into concrete routines and seamlessly transition through out the day. Besides music is great for lifting the mood.

Starting your school day off with welcoming up beat music that gets kids moving and blood pumping. This sets a good tone for the day that if you are lucky will hang around for most of the day.

Playing music during transitions from one task to another can make transitions stress free and even entertaining. This is a great way to move young children from one activity to another through out the day.

Ending the day with winding down music similar to the way schools do is a great way to separate the school day from the rest of family time helping young children understand the changes. Music integration is one of the things we love about Mother Goose Time.

How we mix music into our day.

We love the circle time CD from Mother Goose Time is perfect for starting our day out and getting the kids into routines. The kids learn to associate the songs with our morning and after noon routines and respond accordingly.

To help the children learn to move between activities we sing silly songs about nearly everything as me move from task to task making it fun and exciting and helping the children switch gears.