This has been a hectic week for me. Between work, studies and my dad being admitted in hospital I certainly feel the grace of God. What restrained my learning this week was taking my dad to hospital and dealing with my emotions of feeling sad and worried. 

I do have confidence in my current knowledge of music and skills to teach music through movement because I have done my diploma in Grade R teaching at Unisa and after that I worked at a nursery school where I apply what I have learned.

The new things I become aware of is how the different learning theories apply to music teaching and development. The different abilities that develop with children at the different ages. The concept of rhythm is standing out for me because we not only use it in music but we use it when we learn new words and read sentences. 

I will choose music education to meet the holistic development needs of learners because you can incorporate physical education into your music education, but not the other way around. When a child engage in authentic, play-based music activities it can support the holistic development of the child. Physical development when moving to music and then fine and gross motor development takes place, cognitive development enhances attentiveness, multitasking, and promotes numeracy and literacy skills while playing on music instruments, Social development when they make music with their peers they engage in social interaction, Personal development is when they experience success when singing or making music and then they gain confidence and believe in their abilities, they learn more about what they like and don't like, emotional development when they move freely according to the music they can express their feelings and doing it with other teach them to be sensitive to others emotions.

I think music education is very important in the foundation phase especially to holistically develop the child. Though music lessons must be thoroughly planned and worked out so that all of the developmental concepts are included.

Erikson's theory suggests that foundation phase learners at at the fourth stage of industry vs inferiority (age 5-11). During this stage the child develop a sense of pride in their accomplishments and it is therefore the foundation phase teacher's role to provide them with sufficient motivation and encouragement to promote their self-esteem. During this phase the learner learns skills to cope with challenges.

According to Piaget's Cognitive development theory foundation phase children are between the Pre-Operational Stage (2-6 years) and Concrete Operational Stage (7-11 years).  During Pre-Operational Stage the children are able to represent objects and knowledge through play, drawing, imitation, speech and images. They struggle with reverse reasoning and  reasoning about transformation. During the Concrete Operational Stage the child develop the ability to thing logically about concrete events. They must engage in teaching and learning which relate to real life. Vygotsky's  ZPD and socio-cultural view of cognitive development emphasize interaction between individuals and their environment. Adults and peers is important in the child's learning. The ZDP focus on the children's ability to develop their thinking abilities during challenging situations through carefully guided and planned  support.  During this the teaching uses the scaffolding approach. 

Selective listening to music happens before entering school and then direct listening and duration of listening increases. Music skills that develop is sense of tonality increase and the ability to more accurately match pitch. Increased fine and gross motor coordination leads to the ability to play simple melodic instruments. During this years singing abilities improve and rhythmic abilities are noted. They show ability to clap, tap, move and chant.  Two of the most important developments is first the ability to accurately coordinate various musical concepts and second ability to associate sound with symbols. They can start note reading at the age of 6. From the age 10 fast tempos is important and interest in pop music begin.