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!
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
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
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
Saturday, November 12, 2011
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.
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.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
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.
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.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
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.
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.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Musicians are Smarter?
As the Huffington Post reports:
Researchers tested the mental abilities of senior citizens and discovered that musicians performed better at a number of tests. In particular, musicians excelled at visual memory tasks. While musicians had similar verbal capabilities to non-musicians, the musicians’ ability to memorize new words was markedly better, too. Perhaps most importantly, the musicians’ IQ scores were higher overall than those who spent their lives listening to music rather than performing it.
Kindermusik just posted on this blog about how 6 year olds taking music lessons were shown to have enhanced IQs. This study shows that the benefit to intelligence and IQ lasts throughout life, well into the senior years. That leads to another very important point that I read. The research proved that the younger the musician was when he or she started playing an instrument, the sharper the mind in old age. Now, that doesn’t mean starting your toddler at piano lessons at age 2 is right either (there is an appropriate age for proper music instruction to start). But, it does mean that doing age-appropriate musical activities with your children from a very young age may actually help raise your child’s IQ and intelligence.
Researchers tested the mental abilities of senior citizens and discovered that musicians performed better at a number of tests. In particular, musicians excelled at visual memory tasks. While musicians had similar verbal capabilities to non-musicians, the musicians’ ability to memorize new words was markedly better, too. Perhaps most importantly, the musicians’ IQ scores were higher overall than those who spent their lives listening to music rather than performing it.
Kindermusik just posted on this blog about how 6 year olds taking music lessons were shown to have enhanced IQs. This study shows that the benefit to intelligence and IQ lasts throughout life, well into the senior years. That leads to another very important point that I read. The research proved that the younger the musician was when he or she started playing an instrument, the sharper the mind in old age. Now, that doesn’t mean starting your toddler at piano lessons at age 2 is right either (there is an appropriate age for proper music instruction to start). But, it does mean that doing age-appropriate musical activities with your children from a very young age may actually help raise your child’s IQ and intelligence.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Learning by Contrast
Children enjoy learning within the context of contrast, as it is one of the primary tasks of their preschool years. Understanding contrasting concepts (i.e., loud and soft, fast and slow, high and low) is a significant aspect of cognitive development. The capacity to learn relationships between ideas and then apply the learned information in other situations is highly related to a child’s success in school. (Johnson-Martin, Attermeier, and Hacker, 1990)
Tips for parents: Play the Contrast Game. Sing a line from a song or say a line from a favorite little rhyme or chant in a high voice. Ask your child what she heard. Was it high or low? Then invite her to copy you in her low voice. Repeat this with other musical contrasts like fast and slow, loud and soft, or long and short. You can also switch and let your child be the leader. (This is a great game for the car, while you’re getting supper ready, or while you’re waiting in line at the store!)
Tips for parents: Play the Contrast Game. Sing a line from a song or say a line from a favorite little rhyme or chant in a high voice. Ask your child what she heard. Was it high or low? Then invite her to copy you in her low voice. Repeat this with other musical contrasts like fast and slow, loud and soft, or long and short. You can also switch and let your child be the leader. (This is a great game for the car, while you’re getting supper ready, or while you’re waiting in line at the store!)
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