Early Childhood Brain Development - Importance Of Early Learning & Brainsmith Quantum Cards Review

Do you want to raise a genius child?
Do you want your child to be smart?
Do you want your child to be equipped with knowledge?
Do you want your child to have a great sense of self-esteem?
Do you want your child to be a problem solver?

If your answer to even one of these questions is yes, then read on!

First things first, few things you should know about early childhood brain development - 

• A child's brain produces around 700 new neural connections every second from birth to three years
• By the age three, there would be more than 1000 trillion connections between different neurons.
• The period up to three years is considered to be the peak time for brain development.
• A child's brain development is influenced by heredity, environment, experiences, parental responses & relationships
• More than sixty percent of the energy consumed by the baby is spent towards brain development.
• The brain builds itself based on repetitive sensory experiences.

It is easier and less costly to form strong brain circuits during the early years than it is to intervene or “fix” them later.

Source HERE

So how do we best help children to achieve their maximum potential of brain development?

There are many ways - good diet, enriching environment, appropriate stimulation of senses, exposure of various kinds, travel, outdoors, reading aloud, bonding with parents, going social etc etc. Being a Montessori follower, I feel as much as it is important to teach life skills to my child, as much as it is important to enhance motor skills in my child, it is also important to give him a lot of exposure to facts & knowledge so that he builds a good base of encyclopedic knowledge. This is also one of the ways to boost his confidence & self-esteem. 

How Can We Give Encyclopedic Knowledge To Our Children?

I cannot miss mentioning Glenn Doman when it comes to giving encyclopedic knowledge to children. 

Doman was one of the first to specialize in child brain development. He travelled to many places around the world where he observed children of different nationalities. His goal was to discover how the brain develops and what role their immediate environment played in brain development. His years of research eventually led to the discovery of breakthrough learning methods. He believes that newborn children have a genius potential that, if developed, can exceed that of Leonardo da Vinci and Albert Einstein. To access this genius, children should start being stimulated from the birth.

Glenn Doman has a complete book on "How To Give Your Baby Encyclopedic Knowledge".

Showing Encyclopedic Knowledge cards are a fun & interesting way to look at interesting bits of information. I got a chance to use these awesome cards called Quantum Cards from Brainsmith for this purpose. Brainsmith was founded by a new mom in her relentless pursuit to find novel ways and different materials to stimulate her little son’s mind. Her exploration in finding age-appropriate products that would provide the stimuli to teach her child about a diverse range of topics lead her to research about Early child literacy and development.

That journey led to the establishment of Brainsmith where they enable parents, teachers, and educationists to empower children using the best learning tools and methods.

Our little ones have the ability to learn like no other, without much effort. With Quantum Cards, we can help them visualize new vocabulary and they can be an excellent source of activities and game.

Flashing cards on different topics & concepts is a great way to stimulate the sense of vision & hearing, it is a great bonding time & it serves a way to introduce encyclopedic knowledge to kids.

More About Brainsmith Quantum Cards

• Quantum Cards are learning tools aimed at a child’s early brain development. 
• Quantum Cards are scientifically designed to meet the sensitive needs of early learners. 
• Each Quantum Card shows engaging photographs or hand-drawn illustrations isolated on a white background that aid visual perception among children, allowing them to process and respond to visual impulses faster.
• As they state, Quantum Cards are designed for children between the ages of 8 months and 6 years. For maximum effect, they should be used as early as possible, even in infancy stage, just as a means of stimulation.
• They help in visual sensory development
• They enhance the encyclopedic knowledge
• Each packet includes a total of ten 11 inch x 11 inch encyclopedic cards.
• On the front side, each Quantum Card has an accurate hand-drawn painting or high-quality photograph isolated on a white background. On the back, the card has the name of the object at the top and ten points of encyclopedic information about the object. In addition, there are definitions of key vocabulary words at the bottom of the page.

Being a musician myself, I became biased & got Indian Musical Instruments cards for my 2 years old son. The Indian Musical Instruments set has the following ten encyclopedic cards:

• Sitar
• Tabla
• Santoor
• Sarangi
• Shehnai
• Veena
• Murali
• Mrudangam
• Kanjira (Khanjari)
• Harmonium

Each card has hand-drawn illustration on the front and encyclopedic facts about it on the back.

Love the big size of the cards!

Sarangi - One of the 10 cards - Front

Back of the card with encyclopedic knowledge

A video review of Brainsmith Quantum Cards & the cards in action is in the pipeline, if you prefer watching instead of reading through the text. So please go ahead & subscribe my YouTube channel HERE for this & much more!

How I Used Brainsmith Indian Musical Instrument Quantum Cards

• Flashing them one by one to help my son memorize the instruments
• Recall - I showed him the cards & asked the names of the instruments
• Memory game - I placed the cards on the floor & we remembered where is which instrument. Then I turned them upside down & asked where is Tabla & he had to remember the position & take a guess if he is right.
• Sorting wind, string & percussion instruments
• Creating a story around the instruments to enhance creativity

HERE is what guys at Brainsmith suggest how one can use their quantum cards.

What I LOVED About Quantum Cards

• Big size cards make it perfect for the little beings
• Cards are very sturdy 
• Cards have a glossy finish & a slightly slippery feel that makes them perfect for flashing before the child really quickly. There is almost no friction when you flash the cards fast.
• The illustrations are very realistic & the fact that they are hand painted makes them even more enriching
• Each card consists of crystal clear picture of just one instrument - no distraction & noises - a great way to isolate the concept & teach to your child
• The back side of the card is full of great details about that particular instrument. 

What Could Be Improved In Quantum Cards

• Adding a blank card in the collection would be great. So when I am about to start flashing the cards to my son, there is already one instrument facing the child, when I am telling him, "hey now we are going to see some music instruments". Ideally, I would have wanted a blank card which can be used as a starting card or rather a cover for all other cards when I start flashing the picture cards.
• It would be great if the guys at Brainsmith can introduce something like a library facility where parents can get a set of cards of a particular category for say 15 days or a month & then return it & get another set of cards of a different category. I personally would love to use almost all the categories cards in their quantum cards series but if I end up buying all, I might go broke ;) I am not sure how feasible this model is but this might help many parents & children.

At the end, I would say, I am very happy to have used these quantum cards. This set of Indian music instruments has opened up some new avenues following my child's interest & I am going to pursue them closely! As I always say, you never know when & how something can strike your mind & takes you in a new direction deep inside the topic.

Hope you found this review useful. Do check out more review of toys & books HERE, early learning & Montessori inspired activities here on the blog & my YouTube channel. Do not forget to subscribe to my blog & YouTube channel to be the first one to know what I posted new!

Happy Parenting :)

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Caution - What Books Can Do To Your Toddlers - Book Recommendation

Effects of vigorous book reading sessions as per my son's demands!

My 2 year old son 'A', playing with his local train miniature and telling me -

A : mumma jab delhi jaayenge to local train me baithenge (when we go to delhi, we will go in local train)

Me : mumbai has local train like this you have in your hand, delhi has metro train. We will go in metro train when we go to delhi

A : ok...mumma bangalore me kaunsi train hai? (Which train is there in Bangalore?)

:O

PS - He is a big fan, rather an addict of mumbai book, absolutely adores delhi book and we just started reading bangalore book day before yesterday. This book series from Funokplease publishers is a must have for kids!

Geography has a new meaning in our house ;)

Happy reading aloud & happy parenting :)

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5 Ways To Introduce Music To Your Kids At Home (VLOG)

My parents tell me that I started to sing at the age of 5.

That's Me At Around 5 or 6 YearsOf Age :)

They tell me I used to rewind & play cassettes in the tape recorder again all by myself till I learnt a particular song. And that is how my journey as a singer started. My father is a good singer, though he calls himself a bathroom singer, but I think I got those musical genes from him because my mother is still as lost when it comes to music as she was years back when my younger brother tried to teach her simple tunes & she would mess them up gloriously :) I do not know if she used to just make it up for us to have some fun or otherwise!

Nevertheless, I got my dose of music in some or the other way right from the childhood. I am sure my father had sung to me and also played music on a tape recorder or a radio when I was in the womb. You know, the film music back then in 1980s was much more melodious & meaningful. So even if an individual who had no sense of music, played anything to a child, there would be very less noisy music going into the ears. These days, film music ranges from absolute disasters to decent tracks to some awesome tunes to some glorious evergreens. So it is for us, the parents, to filter out such stuff & let good music reach to our kids' ears, well, as much as possible.

Being a singer, a mother and now an early childhood education enthusiast, I have got this question umpteen number of times from fellow moms, that how to introduce music to their kids. And these kids are infants, toddlers, preschoolers & older kids too. The answer is not too short. Before reading on, please find time to understand why music is beneficial to a child in my article HERE.

Now coming to how you can introduce music to your child -

• Listen To Music During Pregnancy - Read my article (HERE) about my experience & effects on my son, of listening to music when I was pregnant

• Singing To Your Child & Dance Your Heart Out - Do not hesitate even you are one of the most besura persons in the world :) Your child loves your voice the most! And dancing funnily & merrily is a great bonding exercise plus it teaches a sense of beat to your child. For me, I sing to him sa re ga ma alankars randomly when I feel like, be it while getting him ready or while feeding him or any time. I also sing to him songs, mantras, bhajans, rhymes when I feel like. Basically, I try to make it a fun, non-routine, open-ended practice.

• Playing Music In Your House At Waking & Sleeping Hours - . Yes, I play music for some time, even when my child is sleeping. Children spend most of their time in Alpha and Theta brainwave cycles, which corresponds to a meditative or hypnotic state. That is the time, that little brain is in the most receptive state! So it makes all the more sense to play good music while they are asleep. Read more about brain waves & the receptivity HERE

• Exposing Kids To Different Music Instruments - Music is best learnt by kids when it is fun, engaging & a non-routine thing. Kids are curious by nature, so let them explore music instruments & understand how sounds are made. There are so many musical toys available in the market today but most of them are fancy & super expensive because of the baby tag. You can hunt temple shops or actual music instrument shops or local haats or streetside vendors for some good music instruments. Many facebook groups these days also stock wooden child-size music instruments. This is what we have & use : keyboard, maracas, ghungru rattles, drums, xylophone, flute, trumpet, mouth organ, manjeera, dumru, mini dholak, chimes, ektara and my real music instruments - tabla & harmonium. I have not had the courage to give him my real string instruments yet : tanpura & guitar ;) 

My Son At 6 Months Playing A Keyboard Using His Head ;)

• Attend Parent Toddler Classes That Are Focussed On Music - There are many such classes running in various cities under the names like Musical Bonding, Music Together etc [I am in no way endorsing them]. You can search any in your location & attend a trial class to see if it works for you & your child. I am also trying to come up with a curriculum for one such series of classes where I can expose infants/toddlers/preschoolers to this beautiful world of music. Once it is finalized, I will roll it out as a set of classes in Pune first. I am also working on a Taal Appreciation project, targetted for infants, toddlers & preschoolers specifically & this will be an online program, available for anyone round the globe. My son is doing the testing & QA job for the same! So, does that mean, you should be in touch with The K Junction or subscribe to our updates? ;) You can either subscribe to this blog or join our Facebook Community HERE. I share lot more things on facebook related to our early learning journey & much more because it is easier to share there. Blogging is a little more time consuming, hehe. You can watch my almost 2 year old son reciting Indian classical beats in this video below

And now if you are stuck over baby rhymes or Bollywood & wondering what music to listen or play to your child, here are some pointers you can build upon - 

• Mantras & Chants - Search for Gayatri Mantra, Shanti Mantra, Mahamrityunjay Mantra, Buddhist Chants and the likes on YouTube & pick up the version/artist you like the most. There are tons of versions of mantras & chants on the net.
• Bhajans 
• Indian Classical Music - Search for music by the maestros like Kishori Amonkar, Pandit Jasraj, Sanjeev Abhyankar, Shobha Gurtu, Bheemsen Joshi and the likes
• Instrumentals - Search for music by the maestros like Pandit Zakir Hussain, Pandit Shivkumar Sharma, Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia and the likes
• Old Bollywood Classics - Songs by Lata, Rafi, Kishor Kumar, Asha, Manna Dey and the likes.
• Sufi & Gazal Music - Search for music by singers like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Abida Parveen, Wadali Brothers, Ghulam Ali and the likes.
• Music From Different Cultures - A simple YouTube search will give you loads of music from various cultures. For example, this Christmas, I searched up Carols from different languages & cultures, see the post HERE for links & examples.

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Positive Effects of Music on the Unborn Foetus – My Experience

Pregnancy is a beautiful phase & it needs to be enjoyed to the fullest. We need to nurture ourselves as well as the foetus. It can be done in many ways, a very important tool being music. It is scientifically proven how music helps to heal & soothe an individual. Music is a therapy in itself. It achieves miraculous results for hormonal health. The foetus is no different. By third or fourth month of pregnancy, the foetus is able to hear the outside sounds. It is the right time to start exposing it to beautiful sounds & music.

Being a singer myself, I heard a lot of music during my pregnancy. It varied from Indian classical to Western classical to instrumentals to spiritual to Bollywood classics. And I cannot tell you enough about the positive effects it has had on my son.

My experience has been featured on BabyChakra. Click HERE to read more on this & to get links & pointers for good music that you can play to your foetus as well as to your baby after birth.

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Play Is The Work Of Child - Montessori - Free Play Moments - 18 Months (VLOG)

Maria Montessori said - "Play is The Work Of The Child". Free play is very important for a child. It yields a lot, more than what meets our eye.

Here are some moments of free play of my 18 months old son. Joyful & eureka moments that I could film!

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8 Reasons To Introduce Music To Babies And Toddlers

Music is undoubtedly one of the best gifts we can give to our children. Music helps children learn. It helps in social, emotional, physical, cognitive and language areas. This article is first in the three part series dedicated to music, that I am writing for BabyChakra. Make sure to catch up with the other two which will follow soon – “What Exactly Is Good Music For Babies & Toddlers” & “Ways To Introduce Music To Babies & Toddlers”.

Click HERE to read this article I wrote for BabyChakra! 

Have you introduced any kind of music to your child? I would love to know what music is it, how your child responds to it, what benefits have you seen through this exposure. Please do share in the comments :)

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5 Reasons To Introduce Indian Classical Music To Your Baby

There are lots of articles out there saying listening to Mozart music will make your baby smarter. I too bought Mozart music CD during pregnancy & listened to it everyday. The aim was not to make my baby smarter though, but to expose him to soothing calm music & inculcate love for good music. Whenever I listened to it during pregnancy, I could feel rhythmic baby movements inside & I somehow felt he enjoyed. After delivery, when we first came back to the hospital room, he was crying & as soon as I switched on Mozart music, he calmed down instantly! Looking back now, I realize it was not just the magic of Mozart, it was more of a routine that was set for little A & listening to the same music outside the womb, he felt secured & at ease.

So coming to the point, it isn't just Mozart music. After broadening my parenting horizons through various workshops & books, I realized how Indian classical music can be a boon for babies, for that matter adults too.

Here are 5 reasons you should introduce Indian classical music to babies, be it inside or outside the womb -

1. More Interesting Neural Connections - Indian classical music has a beautiful quality of having a structure within any composition. Any raaga has a set of rules & structure to be followed. Any composition in a raaga adheres to its structure. And the taal has a steady rhythm in it. In deeper spiritual sense, our life has rhythm & sequence in it everywhere. Be it making a cup of tea on a gas stove - every person follows a particular sequence & rhythm to make the same tea but still the taste comes out different, it is because every person's rhythm is different. Indian classical music inculcates a sense of structure & rhythm in one's brain, facilitating such interesting new neural connections. Zero to three is the age where tons of neural connections are being made, why should we miss out on these unique ones which this music can help us with.

2. Stimulates Right Brain - Art & music centers are located in the right brain. In the initial years, the child's right brain is more active by nature's design. It makes all the more sense to give more stimulation to the right brain through many ways, one being good music. There is pop music that's playing on TV & then there is Indian classical music, no second thoughts about making a choice for our little one, right?

3. Calms The Mind - Music therapies are not new to the world. Music calms the mind, provided it is music & not noise ;) Good music does exactly the same thing to the child as it does to an adult. A calmer & happier baby is not unwanted by anyone! And hey you yourself can benefit from the music while it is being played for your little one.

4. Sets Up A Routine - Toddlers love a sense of routine. It makes their otherwise unpredictable life predictable. For example, if you play a certain music every morning, they know what is coming next as an everyday routine & will be mentally ready for that & will be calmer. Many tantrums are because of disruptive routines. At the end of this post, I will share how I use Indian classical music to set a routine for my toddler.

5. Good Things In, Good Things Out -  A child's mind is so so absorbent! We can imagine 'garbage in garbage out & good things in good things out'. Indian classical music is not just good, it is one of the best things to go inside those tender developing brains!

And after all these good things, if your baby's IQ gets enhanced, throw a party for this bonus ;)

Now after all that gyaan, this is how I include music in our routine. If you haven't introduced your child to music, do not start today, start right away! Youtube has tons of Indian classical music by maestros, stream them away. Did I tell you, even instrumental music is awesome as are the vocals? Play some instruments like Sitar, Santoor, Jal Tarang etc & introduce that beautiful resonance to your child.

As a part of my routine, I play a set of tracks in the morning everyday, they are a mix of classical compositions, mantra chants & instrumentals in raagas that are relevant to morning hours. Indian classical music describes different preferred times of the day to sing/listen different raagas, it certainly has a science behind it, let's make use of it! Even if you do not know those details, just randomly playing raagas is perfect too. I make sure to start the music when A is still sleeping in the morning. Reason is, brain waves are in delta state while sleeping & it is the most receptive state of the brain. The good effects go directly into the subconscious, which is awesome! So make a habit to play some good music when your baby is asleep (day or night). Then at night, again I play a set of tracks relevant to that time of the day. These tracks go on for about an hour, so they continue playing even after A has slept off.

All this helps me to set a routine in the mind of my toddler. I have seen him getting up in the morning in a better mood when the morning tracks are playing. At night, he knows it is time to sleep when he listens to night tracks. It makes my life easier ;)

Hope this post pushes you to introduce Indian classical music to your baby & in turn to your family, if you haven't till now.

Do share your experiences in the comments below. I would love to listen to your stories & routines how you use music with your child :)

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