Chess Makes the Grade

Click on the chess piece to go to the Class Club Descriptions

Why would you want to register your child for our upcoming after-school Chess Class?  Read the following article to get a sense of the proven short-term and long-term benefits that playing chess provides to children...AND wouldn't it be fun to be able to play this old fashioned board game with your kids???

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Schools that encourage chess are reacting to studies like that of New York City-based educational psychologist Stuart Margulies, Ph.D., who in 1996 found that elementary school students in Los Angeles and New York who played chess scored approximately 10 percentage points higher on reading tests than their peers who didn't play. James M. Liptrap, a teacher and chess sponsor at Klein High School in Spring, TX, conducted a similar study in 1997. He found that fifth-graders who played chess scored 4.3 points higher on state reading assessments and 6.4 points higher on math tests than their non-chess-playing peers.

Further proof comes from the doctoral dissertation of Robert Ferguson, executive director of the American Chess School in Bradford, PA. He studied junior-high students, each of whom was enrolled in an activity -- either working with computers, playing chess, taking a creative writing workshop, or playing Dungeons and Dragons -- that was designed to develop critical and creative thinking skills. By the time the students had spent about 60 hours on their chosen activities, the chess players were well ahead of the others in several psychological tests, scoring almost 13 percentage points higher in critical thinking and 35 percentage points higher in creative thinking.

Experts attribute chess players' higher scores to the rigorous workout chess gives the brain:  chess improves a child's visual memory, attention span, and spatial-reasoning ability. And because it requires players to make a series of decisions, each move helps kids learn to plan ahead, evaluate alternatives, and use logic to make sound choices.

Excerpted from Parents Magazine, Article by Beth Weinhouse

The first After-School class of the year has now been added!

Learn Guitar and Make the World a Better Place

Taught by Joey Howell & Debbit Hoodiman

For students in Grades 4 - 6

Click on Joey's Picture for more information & to register

 

We are very excited to announe that we will be offering an after-school Beginning Guitar class for Grades 4 - 6 starting in late August.

Here are some reasons why having your child learn to play guitar is good for your child!

Learn to Play the Guitar and Make the World a Better Place!

10 Benefits of Learning to Play the Guitar 

1. Improves Memory

A government-commissioned study has found that learning to play the guitar at school improves children's behaviour, memory and intelligence. Researchers have found that it enlarges the left side of the brain, which helps students to remember a fifth more information when compared with non-musical pupils (article).

In this article, Lutz Jäncke, a psychologist at the University of Zurich, found that the parts of the brain that control hearing, memory, and the part that controls the hands, all become more active. This leads to growth and a positive change in the architecture of the brain. These changes were also apparent in people over the age of 65.

2. Enhances Creativity

Creating your own music through improvisation or songwriting makes great use of your creativity. It's so much fun and incredibly rewarding to create your own melodies. I see it with my students all the time whenever we explore improvisation; they often surprise themselves with what they've just played!

3. Teaches Discipline

Regular practice can take discipline, especially with areas that students find challenging. With persistence comes success and the development of discipline, which can then also be applied to other areas of your life.  According to Aristotle, "Through discipline comes freedom." 

4. Develops Social Skills & Teamwork

With a developed sense of hearing, musicians are able to pinpoint what others are feeling, just by the tone of their voice. Also, working and playing with other musicians teaches people to appreciate the value of teamwork.

5. Improves Math Performance...!

There is a definite relationship between music and maths (I studied music with maths for my degree at university). Research suggests that musicians process music in the same cortical regions that adolescents process algebra.

6. Enhances Coordination

Playing an instrument requires a certain level of hand-eye coordination, which is of course developed with practice. Reading guitar tablature and/or music involves your brain converting that information into specific motor patterns.

7. Increases Confidence & Self Esteem

It's easy to set small goals in music, for example finishing a piece or just playing through to the end of a line of music, which when accomplished will give you a great sense of achievement.

Once you reach the stage of performing music in front of an audience, which takes a certain level of confidence to do so anyway, you reap rewards that can affect many other areas of your life.

8. Sharpens Concentration

Playing the guitar requires you to focus on a lot of aspects simultaneously, ie. pitch, timing, rhythm, fingering, etc. The more you practice your mental muscle of concentration, the easier it becomes.

9. Acts as Music Therapy & form of Self Expression

Playing the guitar can help you to relax and release the stresses of the day. As you progress with learning to play the guitar, you will develop your ability to accurately express and release your emotions through playing, which can be very therapeutic.

10. Playing Guitar Is Fun!

Integrating all of these benefits into something that you want to do because it's fun and makes you feel great, gives your life that something special that can't really be found anywhere else.

Article excerpted from MJP Guitar Instruction Online 

 

We've increased the cost of our programs by about 3% to account for the increased costs involved in operating them, and inflation. 

This increase mirrors the most recent annual Consumer Price Index increase.