Kindermusik International

5 ways Kindermusik helps preschoolers reach early learning benchmarks

Preschool teachers notice the signs long before the children do. Boxes of sharpened and unused crayons. Full canisters of tempura paints. New bags of sand for the sensory table. The smell of the freshly laminated name tags. Yes, all signs point to a new school year starting soon!
At the beginning of each school year, preschool teachers gather more than new supplies for the classroom. They also gather key information about the children by identifying and describing each child’s development in various domains. This benchmarking helps educators support the growth of each child to his or her fullest potential throughout the year.
Our early childhood curriculum uses music and movement to support the development and learning across and within domains. We use music to reach children of all abilities and in a classroom of children exhibiting a range of skills and competences.
Whether used in a preschool, Head Start or Early Head Start program, public school, or other early learning setting, Kindermusik’s early childhood curriculum delivers proven results. In fact, children participating for just 30 minutes a week experience a 32 percent more literacy gain than other children. Here are just some of the ways we use music, movement, and stories to help children reach standard benchmarks.

5 ways our early childhood curriculum helps children reach benchmarks

Our Storytime gives preschool teachers ways to ask and answer questions about key details such as the plot or the characters. We know that children benefit from hearing the story multiple times, so it’s repeated weekly in each unit for preschoolers to become familiar with plot, characters, settings, and main events.
Our Hosted Teaching CDs provide brief introductions with key information about a story’s topic and setting. In the second half of each unit, lessons pose a range of recall, inferential, compare/contrast, and beyond-the-text questions. At the end of storytime, the lessons give preschoolers opportunities to ask or answer questions about the story that can help deepen their understanding of the story or subject.
Our songs and poems use rhyme to improve phonological awareness. Research shows that lyrics can help young children improve their comprehension and build their vocabulary and listening skills. Plus, the engaging nature of music helps motivate young children to learn. And, of course, building vocabulary, comprehension, and listening skills are all part of the preschool standards.
Our songs, poems, rhymes, and rituals inspire children to acquire vocabulary incidentally by reading and listening to stories. The texts’ illustrations and activities give children tools to learn new vocabulary through both seeing and doing. To ensure comprehension, teachers often pause the Hosted Teaching CD and ask questions to assess learning as well as answer student questions.
Each unit also includes explicit vocabulary instruction. Words essential to songs and poems appear on picture cards and are introduced through direct instruction or by modeling during group discussions. Research supports the use of direct vocabulary instruction, including the effectiveness of having young children learn robust, academic words.

To learn more about using our early childhood curriculum, ABC Music & Me, email us at abcinfo@kindermusik.com.

Babies: Dancing their way to friendship

Before social media, making friends and maintaining relationships involved more than clicking yes to a “Friend Request” or commenting on a status update. (Well, technically it still does.) To be a good friend, regardless of age, we need to share, use our “kind and polite words,” take turns, show empathy, listen, practice conflict resolution—essentially put into practice all those skills that make a good friend.

Dancing with babies form social bonds

Learning how to be a good friend takes practice and guidance. The first seven years of a child’s life present unique and lasting moments for laying the groundwork for healthy social development. Each week in our music classes, we provide many opportunities for children as young as newborns to practice cooperation, turn taking, active listening, paying attention, and other key social development skills that help children grow to be a socially confident and adept people.
Of course, we also dance, bounce to a steady beat, and move around in response to music a lot. Now new research indicates that all of that moving around together with young children positively affects their social behavior.
“Moving in sync with others is an important part of musical activities,” explains Laura Cirelli, lead author of an upcoming article in the journal Developmental Science. “These effects show that movement is a fundamental part of music that affects social behavior from a very young age.”
In the study, the team worked with 68 babies to determine if bouncing to music with another person makes a baby more likely to help the other person following the musical activity. Dancing in pairs, one adult held a baby facing outward toward another adult. Both adults and the baby gently bounced to the music. Some of the babies bounced at the same tempo as the adult across from them while others bounced at a different tempo. Afterwards, the babies who bounced to music at the same tempo as both adults were more likely to pick up an object “accidently” dropped by the other adult when compared to the babies moving at a different tempo.
The research implies that when we sing, clap, bounce or dance to a steady beat to music with babies, these shared experiences of synchronous movement help form social bonds between us and our babies. Or, to put it simple: Babies can literally dance their way to friendship!

Find a local Kindermusik educator and experience for yourself how our music classes for babies, toddlers, preschools, big kids, and families teaches vital life skills, including learning how to be a friend.

In the meantime, enjoy this free music and movement activity from Kindermusik@Home. It will get you and your little one dancing in various ways together—supporting social skills and parent-child bonding.
Contributed by Lisa Camino Rowell, a freelance writer living in the Atlanta, Georgia area.

Music & Movement Benefits: Language Development

Lifting. Squatting. Twirling. Bending. Whew! Sometimes Kindermusik class feels more like a workout than, well, a workout. Okay, maybe not P90x, but still! While a parent works out muscles each week, young children build early language skills through music and movement activities.

2 benefits of music and movement on language development

Pairing the word with the movement helps babies and young children understand the concept. Pre-readers rely almost exclusively on what they hear in order to acquire language. Children’s brains make a connection based on what they experience (being lifted high or twirling around) and hear (“up” or “twirl”). So, when a parent of caregiver lifts a child high “up, up in the sky” or “twirls around like a leaf” while singing the songs in Kindermusik class, young children learn the word and understand the concept. Later, children will discover those words correspond to marks on a page which eventually leads to letter recognition and reading.
Signing with hearing children boosts their communication skills. We use sign language throughout our music classes for babies. Using signs for words such as HELLO, GOODBYE, MORE, and STOP throughout class—and then later at home—supports communication and language development and even improves confidence and self-esteem. Plus, new research shows encouraging babies and toddlers to use gestures, such as sign language, helps in speech and cognitive development.

Parenting Tip: Play that fun-key music! Listen and move to music that combines key vocabulary with a movement or activity. Try favorite Kindermusik songs from class. Also use sign language for key words throughout the day. For example, sign MORE to ask if your child wants MORE fruit or HELLO when your little one wakes up from a nap.

Come experience for yourself the benefits of music! Contact a local Kindermusik educator and visit a class.

Contributed by Lisa Camino Rowell, a freelance writer living in the Atlanta area.

3,600+ ways to build a healthy parent-child bond in a baby's first year

3,600. That’s the approximate number of times a baby needs a diaper change in the first year alone. (Yowser! That’s a lot of diapers.) Of course, every diaper change satisfies the physical needs of a baby, but it also meets a baby’s developing social and emotional needs. Every time a baby cries and a parent responds to the need, it strengthens the vital parent-child connection. Building an attachment and a sense of trust not only lays a solid foundation of social and emotional development but also primes a baby’s brain for learning.

Strong healthy parent-child bonds as infants help children make friends

Researchers from the University of Illinois recently published a study in the journal of Developmental Psychology that showed young children with strong parent-child bonds tend to be more responsive and adaptable when meeting—and playing with—other children. They also tend to be more sympathetic to the needs and moods of other children.
In the study, the team measured the security of child-mother bonds for 114 children who were 33 months old. As part of the study, the parents reported on their child’s temperament, such as propensity towards anger or social fearfulness. Then when the children reached 39 months old, the researchers paired same-gender children and observed them playing together over three laboratory visits in the course of a month.
“Securely attached kids were more responsive to a new peer partner the first time they met,” explained Dr. Nancy McElwain in a press release. “A more securely attached child was also likely to use suggestions and requests rather than commands and intrusive behavior (such as grabbing toys away) during play with an anger-prone peer during the first two visits.”
The researchers believe that toddlers and preschoolers who develop strong bonds with their parents learn early on that their needs matter and confidently express themselves.

Kindermusik supports strong parent-child bonds from birth

Building healthy parent-child bonds starts in infancy. In our music classes for babies (for all ages actually!), we create many moments to strengthen and celebrate this vital parent-child connection. Every time a parent sings lovingly to a wee one, the bond grows stronger. With each intentional and gentle touch, rock, or lap bounce, the bond grows stronger. And every time a caregiver gazes into a child’s eyes and smiles during tummy time, the bond grows stronger. As babies grow, this sense of security—and trust—gives little ones the confidence to explore new environments, try new things, and make new friends.

Enjoy this free activity from Kindermusik@Home that supports parent-child bonds.

Contact your local Kindermusik educator to experience for yourself how music creates healthy parent-child bonds.

Contributed by Lisa Camino Rowell, a freelance writer living in the Atlanta area.

4 Benefits of Musical Play for Babies

Mom sings to and sways her baby during one of Kindermusik's baby music classes.

Nothing really prepares you for parenting. It feels a bit like playing a game where the rules change constantly. For example, shortly after mastering the perfect origami-like swaddle, your child no longer needs it to sleep through the night. Or maybe you finally figured out how the straps on the stroller work but now your little one insists on crawling or walking everywhere. Sometimes, just when you think you got it figured out, it changes again. So how can baby music classes help?

Effective grownup and me classes should abide by one constant rule:

A parent is a child’s first and best teacher.

That might sound overwhelming, but here’s the thing: you shouldn’t have to navigate how to be the best teacher alone. In Kindermusik, we support parent and parent figures by introducing them to powerful music and movement strategies that help with everything from making tummy time successful to sleeping—and that goes waaaaaay beyond lullabies.

One study showed that babies who participate in interactive baby music classes with their parents smile more, communicate better, are easier to soothe, and show earlier and more sophisticated brain responses to music.

How is that possible? Let’s break it down.

4 Ways Baby Music Classes Support Development

1. Music supports the early stages of language development.

Does your baby sound like a pterodactyl? Totally normal. When we hear babies exploring the wide range of noises they can make with their mouths and tongues, they are actually engaging in play—vocal play to be specific. Cooing, babbling, blowing raspberries and, well, screeching like a pterodactyl are all part of it.

Vocal play is one of the early stages of language development and parents play a pivotal role. In class, a baby and caregiver engage in vocal play by touching, gazing, observing, listening, and imitating. All of this vocal play support’s a child’s vocal development by encouraging breath control, the use of the vocal cords, and the coordination of the small muscles in the face and mouth. Plus, the pausing and waiting during vocal play teaches a baby conversational turn-taking.

2. Music helps babies experience patterns.

During the first several months of life, babies follow a predictable pattern. Eat. Sleep. Diaper change. Eat. Sleep. Diaper change. Patterns help babies connect to and learn about the world. From recognizing the facial pattern of two eyes, a nose, and a mouth to responding to the daily routine pattern and eventually sleeping longer at night (really)!

Babies and young children who learn to identify patterns strengthen their sense of safety and even future academic success because they can better predict what happens next. Each week in class, babies experience patterns through rhythm and meter, tempo contrasts, dances, language and vocal play and the routine of the lesson flow.

3. Music and movement provide opportunities for fine- and gross-motor skills development.

Babies grow by leaps and bounds their first year—or more accurately by grasps and scoots. One minute, you hold a newborn who reflexively grasps your finger. The next minute, your baby intentionally reaches up to touch your nose. Whether reaching for a nose, lifting a head during tummy time, clapping, rolling over, sitting up, crawling, or walking, a baby spends tireless hours learning how to intentionally move.

Each week in class, we provide many opportunities for a baby to engage in fun, musical activities that support and strengthen each stage of a child’s movement development. From tummy time to playing with baby-safe instruments to gently bouncing a baby in a caregiver’s lap, class activities will support the development of the small and large muscles as well as coordination for more complex movements like eventually kicking a ball, jumping, and even writing.

4. Music helps babies gain active listening skills.

Do you ever just stop and really listen to your surroundings? It’s kind of noisy. You might hear the humming of the refrigerator, birds singing, cars driving by, wind blowing…

As an adult, you know how to tune in to the sounds that matter most. Babies do not. In fact, young babies hear most of it—including the more than 300 different phonemes, tones, and clicks used to express every single language in the world!

At Kindermusik, we know babies need to learn how to tune in to the sounds and language most needed in their daily lives. In fact, a baby can already distinguish the sound of a parent’s voice from everyone else’s voice. In class each week, we enhance a baby’s growing discriminatory listening skills when we listen to and imitate different animal noises, the various sounds of instruments, and the voices of adults singing and humming. This ability to detect and attend to sounds, and to distinguish between them, sets a baby on the path to fine-tuned listening and receptive language.

Baby music classes are for parents, too!

Becoming a parent turns a person’s world (and social calendar) upside down and inside out. A person moves from lengthy conversations over dinner to brief chats scheduled around naptimes.

A grownup-and-me class should help children develop social and emotional skills, but we also connect grownups with other parents and caregivers who understand the unique joys and challenges of raising a child. One of the most rewarding things educators witness is how the adults make lasting connections of their own.

Search for a Kindermusik class near you or check out our early learning kits to learn more about how to sing to babies in a way that supercharges development.

Contributed by Lisa Camino Rowell, a freelance writer living in the Atlanta area.

After school curriculum for children with special needs

With a large number of dual-income families, the school day often extends to after school programs. However, for children with special needs, such as Autism Spectrum Disorder, the options for a quality after school program curriculum are limited. As published in the Journal of Child and Family Studies, Michelle Haney, PhD, highlighted the growing need for after school curriculum inclusive of children with special needs.
Haney surveyed parents of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder between the ages of four and 11 in Georgia. She uncovered not only an educational need for quality after school special education curriculum but also a high interest level of parents for enrolling their child with autism in an inclusive after school program curriculum.

Special education after school curriculum needs assessment

In the survey, 59 percent of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder participate or have participated in an after-school program at a public school or preschool or through a private caregiver or community organization.
Only 33 percent of parents indicated that this was a positive experience for their child. Parents noted that limited expertise of after school caregivers in the behavioral and social needs of children with autism, too much stimulation, and crowded settings contributed to the poor experiences.
Parents noted that their child needs support services and opportunities to improve speech-language skills (89 percent), motor skills (74 percent), and sensory integration (82 percent).
69 percent of all parents were interested in attending an after school program at their child’s public school, especially if the teachers were trained, activities were structured and developmentally appropriate, and included predictable routines

After school curriculum uses music to teach young children with special needs

In observing the effect of music on so many children with so many unique learning profiles, it is clear that music truly is universal. The research is catching up with what teachers have known for ages: music’s impact on cognition and skills development is indisputable.

Created by Kindermusik International, ABC Music & Me uses music and movement in structured, developmentally appropriate ways to teach children of all abilities early literacy and language, self-regulation, listening, and social skills. ABC Music & Me can be used as an after school curriculum to help children also practice turn taking, fine and gross motor skills, and following directions. Plus, students with special needs, including Autism Spectrum Disorder, who participate in ABC Music & Me as a special education curriculum show gains in literacy and language skills.
A supplemental strategies guide, Meeting Special Needs, organized unit-by-unit and lesson-by-lesson, suggests activity adaptations for children with particular needs or impairments. Plus, ABC Music & Me includes materials for families to use together at home to connect the classroom learning with the home environment and increase parent involvement in early childhood education.

To learn more about using ABC Music & Me as part of an after school program for children, including children with special needs, download our Special Needs Flyer or email us at abcinfo@kindermusik.com.

Professional Development for all "Seasons" of Your Music Teaching Career

One of the things that sets Kindermusik educators apart is the requirement to not only be trained to teach our world-class curricula, but also the requirement to maintain and improve through professional development. No matter what “season” you are in with your current or potential Kindermusik career, Kindermusik International offers professional development that’s just what you need when you need it.

When you’re just starting out as a new Kindermusik educator

After a vocal review, the professional development for new Kindermusik educators begins with a rich, in-depth online training course that helps prepare the new educator for everything from learning about each Kindermusik curriculum level to positive classroom management techniques to successful business processes. Under the care and guidance of an experienced Kindermusik mentor, new educators are rewarded with their official Kindermusik license upon completing all of the training requirements.

Once you’ve been teaching Kindermusik for awhile

Just like the good beginning that Kindermusik gives to young children never ends, Kindermusik educators recognize that the journey towards masterful teaching never really ends. Kindermusik International works to provide that additional professional development through Virtual Conferences, recorded webinars, and suggestions for other related training opportunities outside of the Kindermusik community.

When you need a shot in the arm

It happens to the best of us. Because educators give so much of themselves in their classrooms and in the businesses, burnout can start to set in. And when it does, Kindermusik is right there to support and encourage through face-to-face local meetings sponsored by the Partnership of Kindermusik Educators (PKE), recorded webinars, and other regular training and connection opportunities.

If you’re teaching for someone else

Best of all, Kindermusik training is not just for the Kindermusik business owner – it’s for those teachers who are the backbone of that Kindermusik business owner’s program. For Kindermusik educators who teach for someone else, there are training topics about classroom management, pedagogy techniques, child development, relationship-building, and more.

When you’re ready for a change

Teaching Kindermusik is a wonderful choice for teachers, music educators, music therapists, or moms who are looking for something different – and a way to make a difference through music in the lives of children and their families. Kindermusik International provides plenty of helpful tools and lots of friendly guidance to help you make the best choice.
So, whether you are a prospective, newly licensed, or experienced Kindermusik educator, Kindermusik International is right there with you to support and encourage your professional development and personal growth – no matter what “season” you’re in.

Extraordinary benefit of music on the cognitive development of children

Take a peek inside any Kindermusik classroom around the world and you will see much of the same thing. We sing. We dance. We play instruments. We listen to music. We move our bodies in response to music. We create music.
In all of our musical activities for kids, we engage children and families in learning both in the early childhood classroom and in the daily routines and rituals of family life. While this peek represents an ordinary (and fun!) day in a Kindermusik classroom, the benefits of music on the cognitive development of children is so much more than ordinary. For a young child’s brain development, the benefits of music are actually extra-ordinary.

A peek at the cognitive development of children who participate in music classes

While any parent can contact a local Kindermusik educator and take a free peek at a class, we need the help of scientists to look inside a child’s brain. Researchers from Boston’s Children’s Hospital recently took a closer look at what happens when children participate in music classes. The team studied 30 adults between the ages of 18 and 35 (15 working musicians and 15 non-musicians), and 27 children between the ages of 9 and 12 (over half of whom had at least two years of musical training).
As published in the online journal PLOSONE, they discovered that children with early musical training experience advanced executive function skills during cognitive testing. So, in other words, the benefits of music enables a child’s brain to more quickly process and retain information, regulate behaviors, make good choices, solve problems, plan, and adjust to changing mental demands. Sounds pretty extraordinary to us!
“Since executive functioning is a strong predictor of academic achievement, even more than IQ, we think our findings have strong educational implications,” explained study senior investigator Nadine Gaab, PhD, of the Laboratories of Cognitive Neuroscience at Boston Children’s in a press release. “While many schools are cutting music programs and spending more and more time on test preparation, our findings suggest that musical training may actually help to set up children for a better academic future.”

A child’s brain on Kindermusik

Incorporating music and movement into a child’s learning routine stimulates all areas of the brain and that is why music is the best vehicle of learning for early childhood education. Independent research studies show that Kindermusik—specifically—impacts the cognitive development of children. Children participating in our music classes show a 32 percent literacy gain and show marked improvement in inhibitory control.
So, whether you are looking to enroll your child in a Kindermusik class, bring Kindermusik to your childcare center or Head Start program, or even to your language school, the cognitive benefits of music will be evident.

For more information about bringing the benefits of music to your school or to find a local Kindermusik educator, visit the Class Locator.

24 Favorite Kindermusik Activities for the 24 Hours of International Music Day

Download PDF: 24 Musical Activities

Every day is international music day in our Kindermusik classes because our music, our activities, and our educators are from all around the world.
But in honor of the day especially set aside for a worldwide celebration, we are delighted to share 24 favorite Kindermusik activities to help you sing, sway, dance, and play your way through all 24 hours of International Music Day.

4 ways after-school programs help students who may be at risk

For students who may be at risk, school can be a place to eat a warm meal, access and read books, and play safely outside with friends. When the bell rings at the end of the day, many underserved students leave the safety and structure of school for an environment less than ideal. However, quality after-school programs can provide many benefits for children, especially those students who may be most at risk.
The Afterschool Alliance reviewed dozens of studies on after school programs in the United States. The Summary of Formal Evaluations of  the Academic Impact of Afterschool Programs found four reoccurring themes that showed how an after-school curriculum impacts underserved students.

4 key ways quality after-school program curriculum impacts students who may be at risk

At-risk students who participate in after-school programs show improved school attendance and measurable increases in learning engagement during regular school hours.
At-risk students enrolled in an after-school curriculum improve test scores and grades, including in the areas of literacy and math.
The frequency and duration that students who may be at risk participate in after-school programs is directly correlated to the positive benefits of attendance.
Students at the greatest risk show the greatest gains from participating in an after school program curriculum.

After-school curriculum uses music to teach early language and literacy

Created by Kindermusik International, ABC Music & Me uses the proven cognitive benefits of music to boost the school readiness skills of young learners, including students who may be at risk. ABC Music & Me can be used as an after school curriculum to help all students experience gains in phonological and phonemic awareness, boost vocabulary acquisition, increase self-control abilities, and grow gross motor skills through whole body movement. In fact, participation in just 30 minutes a week delivers a 32 percent literacy gain!
Here’s what one Executive Director of an early learning center (and one of the first schools to use ABC Music & Me) said about how music, and ABC Music & Me, reaches at-risk children in her community.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhYRlQz5W2s[/youtube]

Learn more about using ABC Music & Me as an after school program curriculum for young learners, including students who may be at risk. Email us at info@abcmusicandme.com and request a demonstration to experience firsthand our customizable options for after-school programs.