Music and Breakfast, The Teachable Moments
Foundations of Learning

There is a commercial out right now for a popular children's cereal that "talks" to you. Mom and child are bent over the bowl, intent on the message for the morning. The voiceover says something about teaching your child to listen. I must confess, though I heard the commercial, I didn't "hear" it well enough to remember it 2 hours later, after my children have all been sent to bed. And breakfast is too far away to go and get it straight from the cereal bowl's mouth. :) The point of the spot, though, was that listening is something that we have to teach our children to do. Different from hearing, listening takes a lot more concentration.
"Active listening is a process that goes beyond the physical act of hearing. It is an intellectual and emotional process that integrates a full range of inputs in a search for the meaning of and an understanding of a sender's message. It involves listening 'between the lines' to hear what is not said as well as what is said." Early Childhood Education, Blending Theory, Blending Practice by Lawrence J. Johnson, M.J. LaMontagne, Peggy M. Elgas, Anne M. Bauer
Listening is even hard for Mommies and Daddies to do sometimes. What did your 4 year old tell you he ate with the dog while you were busy trying to feed the baby? We live in a world where tuning things out is sometimes the only way to make it through our days... was the elevator music on or was the elderly gentleman next to you whistling? And sometimes we use music to tame the beasties before naptime or bedtime. Heck, I can remember leaving the tv on while going to sleep in my college dorm where there were a lot of sounds you didn't necessarily want to hear.
In our music classes, children as young as 18 monthes are asked to listen... "what do you hear? can you hear the train whistle? can you hear the conductor yelling 'All aboard!" And actually cupping their tiny little hands around their ears or rubbing them so they can hear better. But we don't stop there! Pull the whistle chain... shout All Aboard! We really get into our listening.
Which is the key to the whole thing, isn't it? The next time you and your child are listening to something - music, a tv show, the rain storming down on the roof or that train that's barreling by- get into it! Put a little action and a little imagination into it. Your child will get a lot more out of the next storytime at the library, guaranteed! :)