Learning Lessons: Supporting Your Child’s Music Development

By Tanisha Turner

Young children love music. It’s easy to see how they clap their hands or move around when an upbeat tune comes on. While children are likely to be exposed to music naturally, being intentional about their music development has a lot of benefits and can be fun for the whole family.

Research shows that early exposure to music enhances children’s ability to create and to enjoy it and fosters brain development. Specifically, engaging young children in music can:

• Boost cognitive development. Songs help young children build memory skills, learn new vocabulary, and practice sequencing words and phrases in a fun and meaningful way. Learning to distinguish sounds in music also helps children discern sounds of language. And, music instruction improves verbal memory, which is the key to reading comprehension.

• Cultivate social-emotional skills and self-confidence. In group settings, musical activities nurture children’s social-emotional development and motivate them to cooperate with one another. Music can draw out the shyest child and make him eager to participate in group activities like singing and dancing while building self-confidence along the way.

• Encourage movement and motor skills. Moving to music, learning rhythm, and playing musical instruments help children enhance their gross and fine motor skills. Songs, poems, and rhymes with accompanying movements also keep children active while helping them develop coordination.

Encouraging Music Development at Home

To make the most of music as a learning opportunity for your child at home, try these simple games and activities:

• Sing the first line of a familiar song. Have your child sing the next line. Continue taking turns. This activity not only builds verbal

Thanksgiving Tips

Continued from page 10 of anger, it’s refreshing to encounter someone with a gracious spirit. memory, but also develops listening skills and concentration.

5. Make it a goal to send at least one thank you note or thank you email a week. Perhaps a coworker helped you with a big project or there’s a family member you haven’t spoken to in a while. Not only will they feel good about receiving the note, but you will feel good about making someone else’s day a bit brighter.

6. Volunteer and help others any way you can. As people, we have a tendency to feel better about ourselves and other things when we’re helping others. And perhaps during the holidays is a great time to start. Volunteer in your church or your community. Help out a friend in need. Any small act could make a big impact.

7. Spend some time reflecting, praying, or meditating on and for an attitude of gratitude. It takes time and focus to develop a habit, even good ones. We often have to constantly remind ourselves as we pursue new endeavors and being thankful is no different. Keep it up.

Hopefully, as you see and feel the positive power of gratitude, you’ll be motivated to keep practicing, even if it’s just for one more day.

• Start with a familiar song like “Wheels on the Bus,” and take turns inserting new words to replace the original ones. Together, you can invent a gesture for each word and enjoy the giggles that follow.

• Start dancing to one of your child’s favorite songs, and then stop the song at random. When the music stops, freeze! When the music starts, begin dancing again. This gets you both moving and teaches careful listening.

• Have an old-fashioned jam session! Grab some instruments, cue up some music, and play, play, play.

Children benefit from consistency, so engaging in music at home to complement your child care provider’s music program is ideal for their development.

Tanisha Turner is Owner of Primrose School at Sugarloaf Parkway. More information at www.PrimroseSugarloafParkway. com or call 770-513-0066

“Because I Said So”: The Importance of Your Relationship with Your Attorney

By Dave McDonald, Esq.

I routinely tell my clients, both new and old, the same things: “You are not powerless,” “I completely understand,” and “I know you didn’t call to make a new friend or to sing kumbaya, but because something’s wrong.” If you’re still with me, I want you to know that what follows is not only directed at the uninitiated – those poor souls embroiled in the often-frenetic search for competent legal representation – but also to those of you who already “have a guy” or a “gal” or, sadly, a legal zoom. This is for you, too.

There is a prevailing “wisdom” in law – particularly big, namebrand law – that the colder, stale, stuffy, and robotic an attorney is, the more competent he or she is likely to be. You want the unfeeling machine. Indeed, I was told in law school that the more Latin I used in my work, the more I could charge. Wrong. Our firm proves every single day that you can have unbridled success as a business, and as a lawyer, without being a pretentious jerk. Most of our clients would agree.

You see, most attorneys won’t just come out and say it: your attorney can only be as good as you let them. What does that mean? It means speaking comfortably to the person in whose hands you are placing your faith and trust to help you out. If you could do it yourself, you would, but you can’t, so you don’t. Smart move.

In contrast, a less smart move is choosing an attorney you can’t speak with. One who is unavailable. One who evidently doesn’t listen. The watch checkers. The perpetually distracted and busy. The dismissive, arrogant ones. And there are plenty of them out there. Poor communication and bad relationships with representation is responsible for far more legal mishaps and failures than lack of competency.

Even the State Bar of Georgia has provisions about how a lawyer can take a case and become competent in that area. It has no discernible provisions on the exponential increase in the likelihood of success in your case by making the smart decision to hire someone you can access and speak comfortably with.

Dave McDonald is an Associate Attorney with Weinstein & Black, LLC, More at WBLegal.net