Kids & Parents Love Kindermusik Because…

KIDS SAY:

“Music class is the best part of being a kid.” ~ Marcus
“I love to play my glockenspiel.” ~ Olivia

“I love Ms. Karen and to play all the instruments.” ~ Jake

“It makes my brain bigger.” ~John

“All my friends are there :)” ~ Alicia

“I like all the things we do. I like everything at Kindermusik” ~ Morgan

PARENTS SAY:

“We love Kindermusik because it gives us a chance to bond together while learning. It helps expose my little one to all styles of music and gives him the chance to learn, play and participate in a group setting that is safe and comfortable.” ~ Charity and Schroeder Campbell

“We love Kindermusik because it helps our budding musician to bloom.” ~ Erica V.

“Kindermusik is our favourite quality family time. We do not love it, we adore it!!!!” ~ Catherine’s Mom Continue reading “Kids & Parents Love Kindermusik Because…”

10 ways to instill a love of reading in preschool students

There are many ways preschool teachers can support the early literacy and language development of their students. Whether reading the 2013 Caldecott Medal Winner, This Is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen, making snowmen out of socks after reading about snow, or even celebrating Dr. Seuss’ birthday each March, the list of literacy activities and early childhood books seems endless. But what does the research say?

At ABC Music & Me, we keep tabs on the latest early literacy research and incorporate it into our preschool curriculum. We put together a list of 10 things a teacher can do to instill a love of reading in students while also supporting phonemic awareness and early literacy and language development.

10 ways teachers can support early literacy development (and a love of reading!)

During storytime, include a mixture of books that you choose as well as books that your students choose. Along with the “Line Leader” for the day, why not also pick one child to be the “Story Student” to help you pick one of the books you will read.
Throughout the week, provide opportunities for students to “act out” the stories read in the class.
Add eBooks to your (virtual) bookshelf. Research shows eBooks can be especially motivating to boys and reluctant readers.
Involve parents. Early literacy development begins at home so why not invite parents to be mystery readers in the classroom each week. Be sure all parents know about the importance of not only reading to their children 20 minutes each day but also the value of letting children see them reading for pleasure.
If a new vocabulary word is introduced in a story, tell preschoolers what it means and then re-read the page substituting the new vocabulary word with the definition. This increases comprehension and vocabulary acquisition.
Incorporate sight words into your reading. Ask children to listen for the sight word of the day (or week). Invite children to raise their hands when they hear the word and select a child to find the word on the page.
Listen to audio stories. After preschool, children will spend up to 75 percent of classroom time listening. Listening to favorite audio stories supports emerging literacy and active listening—vital skills needed for early academic success. Kindermusik International offers audio stories available for download here.
Clap or tap to the beat of favorite nursery rhymes. This helps preschoolers tune into the rhythm of spoken words.
Ask open-ended questions during storytime, such as “what will happen next?” or “how do you think the character felt when that happened?”
Participate in a music class. Phonological awareness, vocabulary acquisition, listening skills, and verbal memory can all benefit when children become actively engaged in a music class. Plus, research even shows that children who participate in music classes are more likely to score higher on reading comprehension tests.

Supplemental preschool curriculum uses music to support early literacy

Created by Kindermusik International, ABC Music & Me is a standards-based supplemental daycare curriculum. All three levels of our toddler curriculum and preschool curriculum boost early literacy and language development while also cultivating turn-taking and sharing, improving coordination, enhancing creativity, and more. Plus, ABC Music & Me involves parents by providing materials for families to use together at home where a child learns best.

For more information about ABC Music & Me as a supplemental daycare or preschool curriculum, email us at info@abcmusicandme.com.

Calling all believers and skeptics: Kindermusik

tkm class picture music teacher turned educator news story — “The response to the demonstrations has been wonderful. I have parents who are familiar with Kindermusik from having lived elsewhere or from family members teaching elsewhere and they love the program, " music teacher and newly licensed Kindermusik Educator Linda Pelech

Any musician or music teacher, at some point, gets the “call.” Honestly, why would anybody choose a profession that requires both hours of consistent, disciplined musical practice, and, the ambiguous hours spent soul-searching, composing and creating.

Few musicians choose music: music chooses them.

That’s why new and ongoing research about the scientific benefits of music training is so essential. Skeptics need cold hard facts, and musicians need warm fuzzies. Because not everyone is comfortable simply knowing that a life with music is a good thing. Some people need convincing. The rest of us – the ones making music – need believers.

That said, we delight every time we read about a music teacher, such as Linda Pelech, who decides to teach Kindermusik. That means one more person is out there doing the work they love, making music an essential part of not only her life — but for the life of every child and parent who enters the classroom.

So for the believers, you might like to know there’s one more out there, just like you, running scales and soul searching.

And for the skeptics, we’d like you to know there’s so much more to this “music thing.”

Take a look.

“Musical training as children makes better listeners later in life,” said Nina Kraus, the Hugh Knowles Professor of Neurobiology, Physiology and Communication Sciences at Northwestern. Source: A Little Music Training Goes a Long Way

One-year-old babies who participate in interactive music classes with their parents smile more, communicate better and show earlier and more sophisticated brain responses to music. The findings were published recently in the scientific journals Developmental Science and Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

“Music and reading are related via common neural and cognitive mechanisms and suggests a mechanism for the improvements in literacy seen with musical training,” according to the team lead researcher, Dr Nina Kraus, at Northwestern University. Researchers from the Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory at Northwestern University tested children on their ability to read and to recognize words. This was compared to the extent of their auditory working memory (remembering a sequence of numbers and then being able to quote them in reverse), and musical aptitude (both melody and rhythm).

Calling all believers and skeptics: Kindermusik has something for everyone. A structured curriculum, online training, and ongoing support to help you along the way. Ask today about becoming a Kindermusik Educator.

Sign-up to become a Kindermusik Educator
Learn more about Teaching Kindermusik
Get info on Starting Your Own Kindermusik Program

Exercising the Brain

“Evidence suggests that long-term musical involvement reaps cognitive rewards–in language skills, reasoning and creativity–and boosts social adjustment.

Music exercises the brain. Playing an instrument, for instance, involves vision, hearing, touch, motor planning, emotion, symbol interpretation–all of which activate different brain systems.”

According to Norman M. Weinberger, Ph.D., professor of neurobiology and behavior at the University of California at Irvine, musical experiences help to shape the brain, and “[depriving] children of [music’s] intellectual, personal and social benefits . . . by failing to foster musicality, our society is wasting its potential.”

It’s an oldie goldie, but you can read the rest of the original interview from September 2000.

Want to get your child more involved in music?
Find a Kindermusik Class today!

Rags to Riches

We’ve all done it—cleaned out our closets; let big bags of old clothes sit by the door for weeks at a time, waiting for the fabled “perfect Saturday morning” to take the bag to Goodwill, shirking our instinct to effortlessly toss the unseemly bags into the backyard

attended-donation-235x135 — Photo Credit: goodwill.org

barrels. Then you decide to host a dinner party, and the company comes and you’re left with no choice but to quickly toss the bulging bags before anyone can see. There’s always next season, right?

Donating clothes seems like such an easy way to recycle – yet Americans throw away 12 million tons of textiles each year. Only 25% of that is recycled as second-hand clothing. This in mind, we challenge you to stick to your guns as spring cleaning (not too far off in the distance!) begins. When you donate clothes, unusable material is often converted into industrial rags or sound-dampening material. Not only are you providing usable clothes for families in need—you’re upcycling ratty material for industrial use. And, in the even bigger picture, you’re fostering a more sustainable economy. Goodwill hires a new employee (at their company and at partner companies) every 38 seconds of every business day.

Call your local Goodwill and make this Saturday the perfect Saturday for a field trip. The whole family can help, and get breakfast afterwards.

What will YOU donate this weekend? Comment below or tell us on Facebook!

Children with autism learn social skills by imitating others

teacher_and_child_autism — (Source: Gloucester County Times. Photo by Lori M. Nichols)

Imitation may be the greatest form of flattery but to a child with autism it might be so much more. Early childhood special education research indicates that teaching young children with autism to imitate others might help develop other social skills, too.

“It’s pretty exciting,” said Brooke Ingersoll, PhD in a press release. “I think we, as a field, are getting a much better idea of what autism looks like in infants and toddlers than we did even five years ago.”

Research highlights importance of early childhood special education

Ingersoll analyzed children with autism between the ages of 27 months and 47 months. As published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, Ingersoll found that young children with autism who were taught imitation skills made more attempts to draw the teacher’s attention to an object through gestures and eye contact, both social skills in which children with autism often struggle.

Special education curriculum uses music’s proven methods

ABC Music & Me, our early childhood special education curriculum, uses music to teach children of all abilities, including autism, early literacy and language, social and emotional skills, and to strengthen fine and gross motor skills, and more. Special education teachers who use ABC Music & Me see firsthand how music can help non-verbal children make noises for the first time or help children interact together in the classroom. Plus, activities in class often include opportunities for children to imitate the teacher.

Our special education curriculum includes a supplemental strategies guide, Meeting Special Needs, which suggests activity adaptations for children with particular needs or impairments. Plus, we include IEP objective descriptors for easy cut-and-paste and IEP skills booster index.

For more information about using ABC Music & Me as an early childhood special education curriculum, email us at info@abcmusicandme.com.

FOL Fridays: The Power of Imagination

Imaginative play in childhood prepares the child to think creatively in later adult settings.

Using the imagination helps a child develop the ability to think abstractly, to use language to describe things others cannot see, and to empathize with other people.

Comment below on ways your child loves to experience imaginative play!

Tips for parents:

Give your child plenty of time for unstructured, undistracted play every day. You can fuel your child’s imagination with music, good books, simple toys, or box for dressing up like a favorite princess or storybook hero. For fun, you might enjoy making one of these simple no-sew capes to inspire a little more imaginative play.

– Contributed by Theresa Case, whose Greenville, SC program, Kindermusik at Piano Central Studios, is proudly among the top 1% of Kindermusik programs worldwide.

Energy Star and EPA Kids Teaching Resources

Have we mentioned that kids environmental resources are often way more fun (and comprehensive) than those made for adults? Crazy cold temperatures have, as usual, piqued our interest in global climate change… hence the refresher:

Today we find ourselves especially impressed by Energy Star Kids — Energy Star Appliances’ interactive resource for children’s environmental learning, and EPA Kids, the Environmental Protection Agency’s site for global climate change. With a special emphasis on green technology, you may want to consider giving kids ages eight and up a 20 minute “play time” on these sites before dinner. Catchy visuals and easy-to-read descriptions make understanding leading green technologies easier, and the interactive bedroom map shows the quick fixes to energy saving. And we like their ways to get involved for extracurricular school or KI class activities!

Kids plugged in to eBooks

Walt Disney understood the magic and wonder of childhood and also the importance of early literacy and reading. After all, he confessed: “there is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.” We couldn’t agree more!

Early literacy experts know that parents can best support their children’s early literacy and language development by reading together. Today parents can choose from a wide variety of books: Board books, bath books, lift-the-flap books, chapter books, comic books, and picture books. Now, thanks to emerging technology, such as smart phones, e-readers, and tablet computers, parents can even carry an entire library of eBooks in their pocket (or diaper bag!).

eBooks for kids gaining in popularity with families

A new report, Kids and Family Reading, published by Scholastic shows that the number of children reading eBooks has more than doubled since 2010.

“We are seeing that kids today are drawn to both print books and eBooks, yet e-reading seems to offer an exciting opportunity to attract and motivate boys and reluctant readers to read more books,” explained Francie Alexander, Chief Academic Officer, Scholastic in a press release. “While many parents express concern over the amount of time their child spends with technology, nearly half do not have a preference of format for their child’s books. The message is clear—parents want to encourage more reading, no matter the medium.”

Kids and Family Reading study highlights

Twice as many children are reading eBooks today than two years ago
Half of children age 9-17 say they would read more books for fun if they had greater access to eBooks
Seventy-two percent of parents show an interest in having their child read eBooks
Eighty percent of children who read eBooks still read books for fun primarily in print.
Fifty-eight percent of kids age 9-17 say they will always want to read books printed on paper even though there are eBooks available (a slight decline from 66% in 2010), revealing the digital shift in children’s reading that has begun.

Kindermusik now includes eBooks (and more!) through Kindermusik@Home

Our music classes for toddlers, babies, big kids, and families include fun, age-appropriate music and movement activities that help children develop social, pre-literacy, and language skills and practice a wide variety of abilities. An integral part of the Kindermusik experience includes providing parents with the tools they need to tap into the power of music to not only help make parenting easier but also support their role as a child’s first and most important teacher.

Now, with Kindermusik@Home, parents can easily access favorite Kindermusik songs and activities, music, eBooks, and lyrics—as well as recipes, learning games for kids, crafts, and more in a green-friendly digital format any time from any smart phone, iPad, tablet, laptop, or computer.

To learn more about enrolling in Kindermusik classes and receiving access to Kindermusik@Home, contact a local Kindermusik educator via our Class Locator.

Your Brain on Music

They say a picture is worth a 1000 words, but in this case, it’s an infographic that’s worth 1000 words, so we’ll keep this post brief and to the point.

At FinerMinds.com, the team explored the many effects of music on the brain, specifically those effects caused by playing and listening to music – things our Kindermusik families do every week in Kindermusik class and in their daily routines at home.

Music Stimulates 9 Parts of the Brain

Music is such an important part of every culture around the world that no one can argue with the impact or benefits of music. But what this infographic illustrates so vividly are those specific parts of the brain that are affected. According to these authors, there are nine parts of the brain (nine – count them!) that are stimulated while playing and listening to music. Astounding!

There’s no doubt that music makes a difference cognitively, physically, and emotionally. And experts tell us that the younger a child is exposed to music and music-making, the better.
That’s one of the reasons why the Kindermusik curricula are specifically designed to capitalize on those effects through a developmentally appropriate, whole-child based approach. With that in mind, we leave you with this statement from psychologist Richard Davidson when he was a professor at the University of Wisconsin:

“The brain is the only organ designed to change in response to experience. Musical training changes the structure of the brain and when it begins earlier in life the greater the influence.”

Want to get your child involved in music to help their brain development? Find a Kindermusik Class today!

Written by Theresa Case, whose Kindermusik program at Piano Central Studios in Greenville, SC, is proudly among the top 1% of Kindermusik programs worldwide.