Music Quote

Music is the hardest kind of art. It doesn’t hang up on a wall and wait to be stared at and enjoyed by passersby. It’s communication. It’s hours and hours being put into a work of art that may only last, in reality, for a few moments…but if done well, and truly appreciated, it lasts in our hearts forever. That’s art. Speaking with your heart to the hearts of others.”– Dan Romano

Hearing Patterns

When children drum along to the rhythms in a song or to their own name, they practice careful listening and pattern recognition. This is one way children hear sounds in words – a skill necessary for word recognition, speaking, reading, and writing. Each time a child is exposed to a new object or experience, new neural connections are made in his brain. So, even babies can learn from banging against a homemade drum.




Ideas for parents: Turn a plastic bowl or empty oatmeal container into a simple homemade drum. Let babies learn the cause and effect by just banging on the drum. Allow your toddler to drum away – to a favorite recording or just to the song in his heart. You can also play an easy “Echo Me” game where you chant a short, simple rhythm and they tap it back to you on their drum. You can up the challenge for your preschooler or big kid by asking them to tap back the rhythms in a favorite song or the rhythms of some fun words.

Singing

A baby’s first singing experience is really one of rapt listening. A baby’s vocal chords may be limited by lack of muscular development, but interestingly enough, her ears can differentiate one pitch from another. Joyfully nurturing a child’s developing ability to produce sound, combined with keeping her world full of a wide range of sounds, gives the foundation that assures the development of speaking, singing, and the ability to engage in conversation.


Tips for parents: The more exposure to music that you can give your child, the better. And it can be as simple as turning the music on so that your child can be listening to music throughout the day. Try out some fun new music from play.kindermusik.com or buy the Kindermusik radio mobile app so that music is only a touch away.

Kindermusik Christmas

Sign up for next semester by December 10th, receive $10 off AND I'll wrap up your Home Materials and have them ready to go under the Christmas tree. If you are like me we do not need one more game, or toy, or movie. Give your child the gift of music for weeks, even months into the new year.

Classes start January 10th. Click on the Enroll Now button for the schedule!

Learning Through Movement

A primary need of young children is the ability to express themselves through movement. Fundamental movement development occurs in children between the ages of two and seven, which means our Kindermusik kids! During this time, locomotor (e.g., creeping, running, or leaping), non-locomotor (e.g., stretching, twisting, or shaking), and stability and balance skills are able to flourish when children are provided with sufficient practice opportunities. (Gallahue, 1982)

Ideas for parents: Children are naturally on the move most all of the time. You can help focus their movement “practice” by encouraging them to dance along with some favorite music and suggesting that they try different ways to move. Or play a game where you call out a movement word (like creep, run, tiptoe, or slide). Your child gets to move (creep, run, tiptoe, slide, etc.) until you say “Now let’s stop!” Not only will their movement development be enhanced, but you’ll also help contribute to their creative self-expression, language development, and self-control

Rain Rain Stay Stay Stay!!

One of those rainy days?


Puddle Jumping:
Scatter several hula hoops on the ground or floor. One person is the “drummer leader”—drumming on a box, trash can, bucket, or hand drum. As long as the drummer is just playing a beat, the other players walk between and around the hoops. On a loud bang, everyone find a hula hoop and quickly jumps in it. Take turns being the drummer leader. Try running, leaping, skipping, hopping, twirling and other ways to move between and around the hoops. This activity combines sound, movement, cues, and social interaction, helping preschoolers develop their attention skills.

Musicians have better hearing?

“If you spend a lot of your life interacting with sound in an active manner, then your nervous system has made lots of sound-to-meaning connections” that can strengthen your auditory system, says Nina Kraus, director of the Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory at Northwestern University. Musicians focus extraordinary attention on deciphering low notes from high notes and detecting different tonal qualities. Kraus has studied younger musicians and found that their hearing is far superior to that of their non-musician counterparts.


To find out, she assembled a small group of middle-aged musicians and non musicians, aged 45-65. She put both groups through a series of tests measuring their ability to make out and repeat a variety of sentences spoken in noisy background environments. Turns out, the musicians were 40 percent better than non-musicians at tuning out background noise and hearing the sentences, as Kraus reported in PloS ONE. The musicians were also better able to remember the sentences than the non-musicians — and that made it easier for them to follow a line of conversation.

Timing is Everything

Too true right? Timing has so much to do with life, at any age! Our little kiddos gain a huge advantage in being able to feel, hear, see and then repeat rhythm in our Kindermusik classes. This week we invited moms to join us and we had some great ensemble opportunities. First we would sing a song so we were all comfortable with it. Then we would divide into groups and each student/parent partnership had a different instrument. Each one was instructed for their very own special word to play their instrument on. We began by singing and taking turns righ on beat playing our instruments together. It takes a lot of body control and patience or a little 5 year old by to wait, wait, wait for thier beat!

Then we would switch instruments and therefore beats and do it again. So their memories were being stretched to know which one they had now and just where in the song was their special part. After singing and playing instruments we would then stop singing and just play the song with the beat and instruments. Being able to hear the song in your head is pretty advanced and I was so impressed by these kids! They were looking around following the song and waiting for just the right time for it to come to them!

This sense of timing, and practicing patience and body control is so crucial in their lives. Being able to swing the bat and connect with the ball, being able to line up in class, being able to read with a constant even beat are all ways that they will benefit.