In honor of World Gratitude Day (Sept 21st), we are proud to feature guest blogger Michelle Salcedo, M.Ed., who writes here about how a small shift in mindset can help each of us adopt an attitude of gratitude.
World Gratitude Day, 2018
The Joy of “Bridges”
In honor of Grandparents Day, we’re giving you a sneak peek at an exciting new Kindermusik program that celebrates the special relationship between seniors and young children. For this blog entry, Deanne Kells, VP of Product Development for Kindermusik International, shares why this program has personal resonance for her.
Labor Day: Wait, What Are We Celebrating Again?
For many of us, Labor Day is associated with the bittersweet emotions that accompany the end of summer. It’s the unofficial harbinger of fall, an excuse for retailers to hold massive sales, and traditionally, the rather arbitrary national deadline for wearing white. But Labor Day has far more significance—and a more sobering history—than its present-day observance would imply.
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How Back To School Ready Are You?
We wait all year for summer—our annual celebration of bare feet, beach outings, barbecues, and bathing suits—but no matter what, it always seems like it’s just too short. Making things worse is the fact that the better part of August—which should occupy prime summer real estate on our calendars—is spent preparing for summer to end! City pools are drained and locked. Summer camps shutter their cabins. The long, languorous, lightning-bug-filled days give way to frantic back-to-school preparations and end-of-summer closeouts.
Kindermusik Turns 40…and Celebrates with Educators at Professional Development Conference
From July 25 to July 29, 2018, the city of New Orleans—always up for a party—was brimming with even more music than usual. That’s because more than 250+ Kindermusik educators gathered at Loyola University to sing, dance, and celebrate their shared passion for enriching children’s lives through music. The occasion? The 40th Anniversary Kindermusik Educator Conference—three jam-packed days of bonding and professional development for Kindermusik’s remarkable community of licensed educators.
Sun’s Out, Shoes Off: Why Barefoot Is Best
It’s summer! Time to kick off your shoes, feel the grass beneath your toes, bury your feet in the sand, and do the scorched-foot tiptoe-dance on your way into the pool.
As the weather heats up and boots get shoved to the backs of closets, those pale feet that only a short time ago were in socks and closed shoes suddenly emerge on the scene, sporting new pedicures and refusing to be constrained by more than a flip-flop. For kids, running around with nothing but dirt, rocks, and grass underfoot is a time-honored summer tradition; the extra callouses and scrapes are just a small price to pay.
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“Summer Slide”: What You Should Know
Water slide, playground slide, Slip N Slide…nothing more perfectly conjures the feeling of summer fun and freedom. The smiles, the giggles, the breeze whipping through wild hair…
But for some parents, summer slide invokes less positive feelings. That’s because the term refers to the dreaded loss of school-based learning that occurs from the end of one school year to the beginning of the next. The phenomenon has led to calls for year-round schooling and intensive summer educational programs to combat the effects of this particular (and decidedly less delightful) slide.
But before we get all hot and bothered, let’s take a look at the facts.
Celebrating Independence in Young Children
As July 4th approaches, and Americans prepare to celebrate the red, white, and blue, those of us at Kindermusik are pondering independence—our country’s, certainly, but also our children’s independence. (We can’t really help it; we’re all about die kinder.) Most parents would agree that independence is vitally important to cultivate in children. After all, isn’t the goal of parenting to produce a fully realized human—someone who can function and thrive independently in the world?
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Hoping to Nurture Social-Emotional Wellness in Your Child? Music Helps.
What Is Emotional Intelligence?
Since 1990, Americans have been keenly interested in “emotional intelligence.” That’s the year the term was coined by Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer, who claimed that “the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and action” was vital not only to a person’s wellness but also to his or her ability to succeed in life.
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Fathers Are Important Every Day; Not Just On Father’s Day!
There are two dates on our calendar that celebrate parents, but one seems to get far more attention than the other. While Mother’s Day arrives with flowers, fanfare, and marketing campaigns galore, Father’s Day seems to get short shrift.
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