Friday, July 11, 2008

Bright Idea: Freeze Dancing

I know most of you have done Freeze Dancing with your kids--dance when the music is on, don't move when it stops. This week I have been trying out a new variation designed to improve impulse control that I heard on NPR a while back. Let me share.

Preparations: Make several (3-8) drawings of stick figures in different positions or poses. Get some music ready that can be stopped and started easily.

Instructions: While the music is playing show one of the drawings. The dancers need to remember it and wait until the music stops to make that pose--not when they see it.

As you may have guessed, this simple twist makes the game more interesting while giving children an opportunity to practice processing instructions and delaying impulse until the appropriate time. This was a game I couldn't introduce when it was just me and the little guy; we had to wait until we had some family visiting to increase the numbers of dancers and provide more examples of how to play. The first time around it was fun, but maybe not completely effective. After a few more tries he has improved greatly.

1 comment:

Erin said...

I'm so glad you said stick figures, because that is all I know how to draw! I'm interested to see how my 5 year does with this right away...