Multi-Sensory is the way to Go!

Big idea: Multi-Sensory Learning

Think about something that you experienced with your child that you hope to hold in your heart forever. What do you remember? The sound of her laughter, the smell of his head, the sight of her sleeping in those footed pajamas, the warmness of his skin right after a bath, the taste of bananas when she tried to feed you her snack? Whatever the memory, you probably recall it through more than one of your five senses. There is a reason for that!

Experiences that integrate several senses simultaneously are responsible for lasting impressions. Each of our five senses (sight, smell, sound, touch, taste) activates specific neurons in the brain. For your child, multi-sensory activities provide more learning opportunities than single-sensory activities. In Kindermusik, we encourage multi-sensory learning. So, while your child listens to and imitates animal sounds vocally or with an instrument, sees the animals in the story, and moves around like them, he is learning....and making musical memories that he will hold in his heart forever.
Everyday connection: Multi-vitamins for the senses. Turn your child's favorite book into a multi-sensory literacy experience. Hold her in your lap while you read together. Let her feel the pages. If the book features an animal, include a stuffed animal in your time together. Is it a bedtime book? Bundle her up and say good night to the real moon, not just the one in the story

Elevator Ride

Lie on your back, bring your knees toward your chest, and place your baby tummy-down on your lower legs. Raise your lower legs up and down, letting your baby take an “elevator ride.” Be careful not to arch your back while doing this movement. During the ride, let your voice rise as you chant “up, up, up” and let your voice go lower as you chant “down, down, down.” Your baby will begin to learn the concepts of up and down through this multi-sensory activity. Make sure and add your lovely voice going up and down and they will love it!

Fast or Slow?

Have you ever asked your child to move faster, slow down, walk, run, or hurry up? By doing so, you are giving your child experience with tempo. Just as music has tempo (or speed), we experience tempo in just about everything we do. We play a lot with tempo in our Kindermusik classroom, not only because tiptoeing, running, walking, crawling, and creeping are fun, but also because it helps young children feel varying tempi through movement, long before they can express an understanding of tempo verbally.



Music has a variety of terms to describe tempo, or the speed of the music…accelerando (going faster), presto (very fast), adagio (quite slow), moderato (moderate). Your Our Time toddler music class student won’t be learning these terms per se; however he will be experiencing them in every class! Because our little ones are instinctively interested in fast and slow (mostly fast!), Kindermusik capitalizes on that interest and provides a multi-sensory experience that looks something like this: The child moves himself both fast and slow to the music, sees others moving fast and slow, hears music that is both fast and slow, and has opportunity to experience playing an instrument both fast and slow. In other words, he is fully engaged.



Your child will do many activities in the years to come that involve tempo. Did you know there is a tempo to running, swinging a golf club, a tennis racket, a baseball bat? There is a tempo in moving up and down the basketball court, the soccer field, the football field. There is tempo to speech, and of course, music. Your child’s Kindermusik classroom experiences with tempo translate later into valuable skills that cross into every area of your child’s life – music, sports, dance, gymnastics, art, drama, and more!

Sequence Development

Sequencing is the ability to remember an order of events or instructions. If you’re wondering how long of a list your child should be able to remember or follow, a good rule of thumb is that young children are able to remember a sequence with approximately as many steps as their age. For example, a two-year-old can likely complete a two-step direction, three-year-olds can often sequence three steps, and so on.

Tips for parents: Like most skills, learning to sequence is a skill that can be practiced. Look for ways throughout your day to help your child practice following steps or remembering a sequence. This “practice” can come in the form of giving instruction (i.e., Pick up your socks and then take them to Daddy.), giving a sequence of events (First, we’ll eat breakfast, then we’ll get dressed, and then we’ll go to Kindermusik!), or discovering the sequence in a story book.

We Love Kindermusik!!

Happy Month of Love!

We love Kindermusik and what a better month to share the love than February! I will be having a one time Playdate on Thursday Feb 9th at 10am AND 1pm. Each will be 1 hour and is $15 per family. You will receive an instrument and CD of your choice to take home and keep, as well as the best fun filled music packed hour you could ask for! Kids of all ages are welcome. If you bring a friend that hasn't heard of Kindermusik before it's only $10!

I hope to share my love of music with you and your family, give you a little taste of the power and benefits of the Kindermusik program, as well as have fun singing, dancing, and playing with you and your kiddos. Classes will fill up fast so RSVP asap!

Kindermusik International is getting the love started by giving away a free download of “Love Somebody” from the Peekaboo, I Love You! album at play.Kindermusik.com. To download, click the link and then select the orange download button. If you’re new to the site, you may need to register to receive the free song, as all our song downloads do require a login. (Don’t worry, we don’t use your information on anything. This login feature is designed for those enrolled in Kindermusik classes to access their digital materials). Upon login, you should be able to quickly download the song to your computer