Freeze games are so much fun - the anticipation of when the music will stop, the giggling as you try to stay in one spot 'til it's time to move again, the springing back into life as the music starts up...
Not only are 'stop-start' games like this fantastically fun, they're also developing our all important inhibitory control. When our little ones are just getting used to this whole moving around business, their body takes a wee while to respond to the messages being sent by their brains. This is why you'll often experience a few crashes in the initial stages of walking and running - even though their brain is saying 'Stop!!', their legs often don't get the message 'til it's too late!
As with so many things, the more we practice, the better we get! The more opportunities our children have to practice their stopping and starting, the stronger the connections between their brain & their feet will grow and the easier stopping on demand will become :) And being able to stop in a hurry is a useful skill to have - think about crossing the road, or having another person unexpectedly cross your path when you're running!
Playing 'freeze' with some favourite music is a wonderful way to work on inhibitory control, as is taking a story for a walk (as we did in class with the story 'Little Feather' - which you can download here! If you register with play.kindermusik.com you automatically get three credits - use one to download this lovely story!).
Have a lovely weekend - try and find an opportunity to bring some stop-start action into your day ;)
:) Kath
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