This book explores the narratives of a group of four-year-old children in a composition project in an Australian early learning centre. The participants, centre staff and a composer, Stephen Leek, contributed a number of music sessions for the children, including five original songs. The book showcases young children's communicative ability and sensitivity to wider issues. The staff in the centre have a strongly voiced philosophy that is enacted through arts-based pedagogy and incorporates significant themes including a respect for Aboriginal culture and custodial responsibility towards a sustainable future for the earth. Examples of adult and children's ideas are illustrated through music making, singing, dancing, words, drawings and paintings, which provide insights into a world where children are viewed as active citizens and the arts have rights. The book describes the context of the centre, the history of projects and details one project as an example of "lifeworthy learning".

Musical Childhoods is a culmination of more than a decade of research driven by the fact that music has been neglected in early childhood programs in favour of literacy and numeracy. Recent research has identified a connection between academic performance and musical programs and this has given music a renewed status in many schools. This book promotes the idea of children's competence in the use of the language of music and argues that all children have a right to participate in musical discovery and celebrates children's engagement with meaningful and disparate experiences in music. Written by leading practitioners and researchers in the field, this book seeks to reaffirm children's communicative competence when exposed to high quality musical experience, provide new perspectives on children's ability to engage with music in many diverse forms and explore and promote the role of the musician as an artist and teacher. The book is structured into three parts: The theoretical overview The children, the musicians and the music The research through the eyes of the protagonist and looking into the future Early childhood students, researchers and academics with a specific interest in music and musicality will find this an insightful read.

Musical Childhoods is a culmination of more than a decade of research driven by the fact that music has been neglected in early childhood programs in favour of literacy and numeracy. Recent research has identified a connection between academic performance and musical programs and this has given music a renewed status in many schools. This book promotes the idea of children's competence in the use of the language of music and argues that all children have a right to participate in musical discovery and celebrates children's engagement with meaningful and disparate experiences in music. Written by leading practitioners and researchers in the field, this book seeks to reaffirm children's communicative competence when exposed to high quality musical experience, provide new perspectives on children's ability to engage with music in many diverse forms and explore and promote the role of the musician as an artist and teacher. The book is structured into three parts: The theoretical overview The children, the musicians and the music The research through the eyes of the protagonist and looking into the future Early childhood students, researchers and academics with a specific interest in music and musicality will find this an insightful read.