h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Are you still looking for info? I can help, but I don't wanna be a jerk and not see if you have all your research together already.

Hi Yankee-shoes,

thanks, info would be great. My daughter is only 2 1/2 but I don't think you can start to early if you don't push too hard.

Sorry to take so long to get back to you but I've been having trouble getting online. I think it's the *** - too many people logging on looking for info.
Waiting to hear back from you,

Ythika

Even before I was homeschooled my folks taught us kids at home... their methods seem to have worked in situations I've been in.

I can't remember them changing their tone of voice to talk to me, it gave me confidence I think, because I never felt they were talking down to me... even little kids pick up on stuff like that. No baby talk either. Just gentle tones, firm.

Nap time everyday they read to us. Dad used to read me classic poetry, even when I was "too young" to understand it... sometimes he'd stop and explain things to me, but usually he'd read through it, even after I fell asleep. My sister and I developed vocabulary really quickly, and my kindergarten teacher attributed it to that. I wanted to read so badly because Dad made books sound magical, and there were all sorts of new ideas in them... I think I was four when I started reading little books, so they'd been doing that for a few years.

Music... clapping our hands together on the back beat, patting our backs with the rythm. We always had instruments around, and there were ones to "play" with, and we were shown how to tambourine along with records, or someone playing guitar.We went to all the free music in the parks and danced around too.

Our toys and activities were geared toward imagination. Clay, fingerpaint (with supervision... 3 year olds and fingerpaint, what was Mom thinking?!?!?) When I was a little older, they put a little recorder with a mic in my room, and my 2 1/2 year old sister probably had more fun with it than I did. We made songs, and did "radio shows" and learned a lot just by trial and error.

Toddlers are really emotional, if you get excited about something, they are thrilled and get excited too. It's good to keep in mind when teaching, even if they don't understand the words, they can feel dissappointed voice, happy voice, sad voice... slight exageration does wonders for how they respond.

I guess whatever you can safely expose them to at a young age makes all the differences, they're like little sponges and will emulate just about anything. New people, new music, getting used to doing stuff instead of watching stuff is really a big one.

Hope that helped at all! If you have any questions or whatever, feel free! I look forward to your piece!

Even before I was homeschooled my folks taught us kids at home... their methods seem to have worked in situations I've been in.

I can't remember them changing their tone of voice to talk to me, it gave me confidence I think, because I never felt they were talking down to me... even little kids pick up on stuff like that. No baby talk either. Just gentle tones, firm.

Nap time everyday they read to us. Dad used to read me classic poetry, even when I was "too young" to understand it... sometimes he'd stop and explain things to me, but usually he'd read through it, even after I fell asleep. My sister and I developed vocabulary really quickly, and my kindergarten teacher attributed it to that. I wanted to read so badly because Dad made books sound magical, and there were all sorts of new ideas in them... I think I was four when I started reading little books, so they'd been doing that for a few years.

Music... clapping our hands together on the back beat, patting our backs with the rythm. We always had instruments around, and there were ones to "play" with, and we were shown how to tambourine along with records, or someone playing guitar.We went to all the free music in the parks and danced around too.

Our toys and activities were geared toward imagination. Clay, fingerpaint (with supervision... 3 year olds and fingerpaint, what was Mom thinking?!?!?) When I was a little older, they put a little recorder with a mic in my room, and my 2 1/2 year old sister probably had more fun with it than I did. We made songs, and did "radio shows" and learned a lot just by trial and error.

Toddlers are really emotional, if you get excited about something, they are thrilled and get excited too. It's good to keep in mind when teaching, even if they don't understand the words, they can feel dissappointed voice, happy voice, sad voice... slight exageration does wonders for how they respond.

I guess whatever you can safely expose them to at a young age makes all the differences, they're like little sponges and will emulate just about anything. New people, new music, getting used to doing stuff instead of watching stuff is really a big one.

Hope that helped at all! If you have any questions or whatever, feel free! I look forward to your piece!

Thanks for all of that info. I wasn't actually thinking of doing a piece, I have a toddler of my own and want to teach her music. Playing music has always been a big part of me and I want it to be important to her. I don't want to do the wrong thing because my cousin freaked when I suggested a toddler music class for his son. He came out with "I'm not forcing my son to play music." I think this results from parents who went overboard. Thankfully one of his brothers still loves music. It's sad when you see teenagers who hate playing their instruments because their parents have forced them. That's why I wanted advice - it has to be fun or there's no point doing it.

Thanks again,
Ythika

That's sooo awesome! I wish I'd had more formal classes from a young age... if a kid loves music, then they'll keep it up after you stop "making" them practice, and a little discipline taught at an early age is healthy.

I started playing guitar at 14ish, but I'm teaching this kid who's 8... he LOVES it, his parents didn't even have a clue he'd be so talented, but he's been playing like 3 weeks and is already performing in front of the church and I'm starting him on lead guitar arpeggios... he had never played an instrument before! My friend Josh started at 5, and it gave him a headstart on his craft and performing... his parents didn't wanna push him because they were a musical family, so they wouldn't even buy him a kiddie guitar, so he started jamming on a full size when he discovered it and begged his folks to let him learn from his uncle.

I think it's really important to surround a little toddler with all different kinds of music, so that they can decide what their passionate about, then it becomes their choice and you can only encourage that. My opinion.

Hope it all works out and you figure what you wanna do!

I never wanted to learn guitar when I was younger - I'm not sure why anymore - but now I regret it. It would have been handy to be able to put chords to my lyrics and probably would have help me with my aural skills. I was a strange kid!
You must be proud of the boy you are teaching. It's amazing how quickly you can learn if you are keen. Don't be surprised if he hits a plateau and just sits at one level for a while. It will probably happen and then he will start to soar again.

Good luck teaching,
Ythika

Thanks for the reminder about the learning plateau... I hit one for about two years! I always called it "spurt learning"... nice to know I'm not just a weirdo!