Kindermusik International

Minds on Music Quote

"Music is the

universal language of mankind." ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

FOL Fridays: Sign Language for Hearing Children

Sign language for children and babies at Kindermusik

Children are born trying to decipher the mystery of language from the moment they are born. It takes children 12 to 24 months to begin speaking, yet while they are preparing for this huge leap forward, they already have some of the pieces in place. Signing with hearing children takes advantage of their motor abilities, which develop months earlier than the equivalent skills required for speech. Using signing in everyday interactions will help open the door to early communication, facilitated speech, increased intimacy, and long-term learning (adapted from Kindermusik Sign & Sing).

Ideas for parents:

Start by incorporating just a few basic signs in your daily routines – signs such as “please,” “more,” and “all done.” Be consistent and patient in using the signs. Your child will likely catch on more quickly than you think! You can both have fun adding more signs, including “thank you” and of course, “music!” Visit SigningSavvy.com to find a wonderful video-based sign language resource. It’s quick and easy to look up – and learn! – a few signs.

You can also visit Kindermusik International’s Class Locator to find a Kindermusik educator near you offering Kindermusik Sign & Sing.

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

Kindermusik and Your Child: The Connection between Language and Singing Development

“Singing ability is related to the ability to control speech fluctuations, and speech activities appear to help develop tuneful singing skills.” (McDonald, Dorothy and Gene M. Simons.)

The ability to sing and the ability to converse with expressive speech are closely related. Kindermusik classes will nurture your child’s speaking and singing voice by playing with rhythmic speech (poems and rhymes) as well as introducing and modeling simple tonal melodies with a limited range, and when you continue your play with both words and timbre sounds in your home during the week, these skills will be strengthened in your child and retained!

Many toddlers will first attempt to say a word, phrase, rhythms pattern or vocal inflections while alone or at play. These imitations are called “approximation of singing” It is by “playing with sounds” that the children master the muscular feel of producing a singing sound and come to realize that they can produce these kinds of sounds which are different from speech. We model and encourage children to explore the upper or head voice and to employ their voice for singing tasks as much as possible. Playing with vocal glissandos, singing tasks like “Toys Away”, and pitching songs in the best range for young children helps your child learn to become a successful singer.

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

The Retired Boombox in the Shed

The below article is from Miss Analiisa, of Studio3Music, the largest Kindermusik studio in the greater Seattle area. You can visit Studio3′s Web site here.

In our backyard, we have a shed. In it are the garden tools, the suitcases, the outdoor toys, a bag of Natalie’s outgrown clothes I’m saving for her cousin, and, I noticed, as I went to put a box of Playmobil away, the kids’ old portable CD player.

From the time we brought them home from the hospital, I played music at bedtime and naptime. Lullabies, classical music, Farmer Jason, and Kindermusik CDs. As they got older, we transitioned to books on CD (or books on tape on the Fisher Price tape recorder!) and then radio dramas. Of course, keeping their favorite music as well.

What I loved about that CD player was that I could take my children’s CDs and the player anywhere they had to stay overnight that wasn’t at home. I’d put in the CD and their new surroundings immediately got a little less unfamiliar and scary. They eased into slumber smoothly.

Transitioning from CDs to Music Downloads

My children are 13, 10 and 6 now, and belong to the generation that is transitioning from CDs to music downloads on iPods and iPads. They are making many of their own music choices, but they still love audio books and those radio dramas.

So, as I stared at this lonely, worn out CD player in my shed, I wondered what I would be doing if I had very young children now. I’m assuming that electronic devices require some sort of reading ability to be able to find the tracks you want. When they were pre-readers, my kids could visually find the CD they wanted and put in the player.

I’m really curious. Are you a parent with pre-readers?

What do you do for music players in your house?

Are today’s kids so electronically adept that they use the visual cues to find the tracks they want, without technically “reading” the titles?

Please, leave a comment and let us know.

-posted by Miss Analiisa, who is loves her iPad, but can’t believe that her

6 year old has filled it to capacity 3 times with her video productions.

FOL Fridays: Movement with Instrument Play

The developing brain is wired to learn as the body moves. To achieve the precision of the mature brain, stimulation in the form of movement and sensory experiences during the early developing years is necessary. Providing children with sensory-motor experiences, including activities that integrate visual information, sound, and find-motor movements, stimulate and strengthen the brain’s wiring patterns. When children play instruments, movement and sound come together to create a rich, multisensory experience.

(adapted

from http://earlychildhood.com/Articles?index.cfm?FuseAction=Article&A=360)

Tips for parents:

Who knew that playing instruments could have such significant impact on brain development and learning?! To inspire this kind of learning (and fun!) at home, it takes nothing more than a few favorite instruments and a few favorite recordings on the iPod or CD. For ideas for child-safe instruments, go to the Kindermusik Store and shop by age.

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

Thank you, Kindermusik!

Here’s a great story from a Kindermusik Parent – we had to share!

Thank you to Fiona & Fiona’s Mommy for posting on the
Family Gathering Forum.

“Remember when I posted about when to start cleanup time with a toddler? I mentioned how in Kindermusik they have a “toys away” song that we sing each time we put materials away. Well, Fiona has recently made the connection and started applying the concept to cleaning up her own toys. She will sing, “put ’em away, put ’em away” and put her toys in the basket. She is still kind of playing at it, because then she will pour them back out and yell, “oh no, Max!” or “Dragon!” – in other words, Max from Max and Ruby is dumping the toys all over the floor, and she has to clean them up all over again. But she is definitely starting to really get the concept of it, which is great!

Also, tonight she used the same strategy when she was done with her dinner. In the past, I have had to really watch for when she was finished, because she would dump it in the floor. But tonight, she started singing that song, put the uneaten food on her plate, handed it to me, and said “tank you!”

I am so proud of her – the first night of Kindermusik when she threw a fit each time we had to put toys away, I had a hard time believing she would get to this point before turning two!”

We would love to hear your great experiences with Kindermusik, please share!

FOL Fridays: Why Make Music Together?

When creating music together in an ensemble, or group setting, each participant has the opportunity to experience music with “greater harmonic color, musical depth, variety of sound, and rhythmic complexities” than when participating alone. Ensemble opportunities also “stimulate and challenge” self-confidence, imagination, and musical understanding (Leung 2006).

Ideas for parents:

Create a little “ensemble” of your own. You can use homemade or purchased instruments and play-along to a favorite song on the iPod or radio, or even a song you sing. You might also have fun making an instrument out of something that isn’t usually an instrument – a bowl and a spoon make a great drum, a slightly inflated paper bag makes a nice rhythm instrument, and even two spoons tapped together add a nice sound.

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

Babies Develop Fine Motor Skills Through Baby-Safe Instruments

Baby-Safe Instruments - Tips from Kindermusik

Next to playing with mom, playing music is one of your baby’s favorite activities—and one of the most natural things your baby can do. Making sounds with easy-to-grasp instruments gives your baby an “I can do this” sense of accomplishment. Shaking a chime, her curiosity is instantly gratified and she’s inspired to make things happen again and again, encouraging independence and perseverance, twoimportant developmental skills.

Keep lots of baby-safe instruments within reach for free-play and exploration time.

For their light, high sounds, and special fit for tiny hands, some of your baby’sfavorite instruments will be:

Baby bells
Chime bells
Egg shakers

Kindermusik tip:

Beyond the musical benefits, playing instruments like these gives your baby theopportunity to use his fine motor skills.

Grasping instruments between the thumband index finger or with a fisted grasp pattern encourages the development of these important skills, which will eventually be necessary to turn a page in a favorite book, pinch cereal or peas, grasp a cup, and even hold a crayon.

Tap here to find a Kindermusik class near you!

Kindermusik and Your Child: Multisensory Equals More Memory and More Skills!

Your child needs more than exposure to music. Your child needs participation in music! He/she thrives on emotionally engaging music activities which integrate sight, sound, touch, and movement. Through these joyful music experiences your child is learning to love music for all of her life, plus a whole lot more!

Multisensory Activities

Activities that incorporate learning through several senses are known as multisensory activities. In the Kindermusik classroom, every activity is a multisensory activity because we know that:

Children learn through their senses. Each sense activates specific neurons in the brain; therefore, multi-sensory activities generally provide more lasting learning opportunities than single-sensory activities.

Each child is unique and brings to class his or her own learning style which determines how he or she understands and organizes information. Read here for more information about three main learning styles and a description of how children with these learning styles may behave in the classroom:

Our best advice? Think of your child as a string. If you push it, it bunches up. If you guide it along, it moves beautifully. So joyfully accept your child as he is, and work with him to make the most of his abilities as they relate to his learning style. We think it is worth restating the following quote this week in the context of our multi-sensory focus.

"Short-term memory has the ability to hold about seven bits of information. But when patterns and related groupings of information are bound together as a unit (as in our multisensory play) the volume of material stored increases. "

– Rhythms of Learning by Chris Brewer and Don G. Campbell

Multisensory Learning

At Kindermusik, we support the wonder and uniqueness of each child, and we’re really proud of the way that the Kindermusik curricula embrace all learning styles by providing multisensory activities to appeal to as many of your child’s senses as possible. But we also recognize that it us up to the teacher and the parent to identify – and celebrate – the wonderful variety of learning styles that are in each class!

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