Some family-friendly sites to explore

Posted by Guest Contributor | Filed under , , ,
Posted November 17, 2009

Looking for some family-friendly sites to visit to find interactive and non-interactive activies and ideas? Here are a few suggestions:

PBS Kids
Interact with all of your favorite PBS characters; kids tend to adore this site
www.pbskids.org

Crayola
The classic brand has a website with all kinds of craft ideas and activity pages
www.crayola.com

Author Jan Brett
Experience your favorite Jan Brett books through fun online games and activities
www.janbrett.com

Boowakwala
Very appealing site with musical activities, cooking fun, coloring pages, coordination games, races, classic children’s games and much more
www.boowakwala.com

Busy Bee Kids Crafts
Delightful craft ideas - go to the site or sign up for their eNewsletter
www.busybeekidscrafts.com

Kaboose
Something for the whole family on this site makes this a terrific resource
www.kaboose.com

San Francisco Orchestra for Kids
An energetic home-page featuring a quirky variety of musical games and activities for children to explore
www.sfskids.org

What are some of your favorite sites for children or families?

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Music education and "a Kindermusik child"

Posted by Kindermusik International | Filed under , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted November 11, 2009

Over the thirteen years I have been attending Kindermusik classes, I have come to be able to spot a Kindermusik child a mile a way.

A Kindermusik child:
  • is curious
  • smiles a lot, even when alone
  • is confident in his or her own voice
  • enjoys hearing other children sing and play
  • can be calmed, excited, or centered by music
  • has the emerging patience to try and figure things out
  • enjoys – and is proud of – belonging to a group
Now imagine if EVERY child shared these qualities. Might the news headlines look a bit different every morning...?

So to those who think arts education is not important enough to make a priority in our world, I say, “How would we know? We’ve never tried.”

-by Michael Dougherty, CEO of Kindermusik International.
 

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What is success?

Posted by Kindermusik International | Filed under , , , , , ,
Posted November 5, 2009

To laugh often and much;
 To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
 To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;
 To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;
 To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition;
 To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
 This is to have succeeded.
 
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

 (reprinted in Kindermusik's Wiggles & Giggles Teacher Guide, Our Time curriculum, p. 182)
 

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The Younger, the Better

Posted by Admin | Filed under , , , ,
Posted October 6, 2009

Some people are quite surprised to find out that Kindermusik is for children as young as newborns. Really, what can such a young child gain from starting in a music and movement program like Kindermusik as an infant or toddler?

The following statement, jointly issued by The National Association for Music Education (MENC), the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), and the US Department of Education, helps explain just how important music education can be for even the youngest musicians...

The Value of Music for the Very Young
The idea that very early education provides great long-term benefits has been rendered incontestable by studies in cognition and early learning. Research in developmental psychology and commonsense observation underscore both the importance and the wisdom of making music an integral and overt part of the earliest education of young children:
  • [M]usic is among the first and most important modes of communication experienced by infants.
  • As young children grow and develop, music continues as a basic medium not only of communication, but of self-expression as well.
  • As preschool children not only listen to and respond to music, but also learn to make music by singing and playing instruments together, they create important contexts for the early learning of vital life skills.
  • Guided music experiences also begin to teach young children to make judgments about what constitutes “good” music, thereby developing in them the rudiments of an aesthetic sense.
  • Music contributes strongly to “school readiness...”
- excerpted from a report issued by the Early Childhood Music Summit, June 2000.  Read the article in its entirety HERE

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