Twitter Word of the Day: “Kinder”

From Twitter, July 5-6, 2009.

 

  • chloe_louise13: Is running the kinder room by myself today. My god is it hard work!
  • reportbusiness: The kinder and more thoughtful a person is, the more kindness they can find in other people. (Leo Tolstoy)
  • esachsenmaier: spent a lazy july afternoon wandering the new kinder gentler manhattan – bike lanes, high line, and lawn chairs in times square
  • apmom: Is it bad that I am having panic attacks when I think about sending Alex to kinder? It's over a month away and he's my 3rd kid.
  • HeidiNoelle: Finding out that traveling the kinder road is the sweeter road.
  • melomargarita: Off to Kinder Camp!
  • lisarosepickard: Dear Monday, I really wish we got along better. I wish you were kinder to me. Maybe one day I won't dread spending time with you.
  • jennjenn323: My son's first day of Kinder. So amazing.
  • tjandthesound: New backpack, clean shirt and breakfast. Kinder will never be the same. God save the teachers!
  • wisebody: Good morning everyone! “Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.” Smile and make someone’s day!
  • libertylights: I'm working with a friend on a project that seeks a kinder, more thoughtful conversation on today's sticky issues!
  • MakikiGirl: @eggiepuff Thank YOU! I'm so happy I comforted you. I don't always succeed when I try. I'm working on being kinder in general. I care. :c)
  • Guayakizy: After a three day weekend, going back to work feels like your first day in kinder garden XD

 

 

Twitter Word of the Week: “Giggle”

From Twitter, June 19-26, 2009

 

 

 

  • peerybingle: Beautiful breezes through open windows, kiddie swimming pools with giggling children, and laundry on the line: does it get better than this?
  • wendybear1: Silly children! Boys are running amok giggling in my house. It's all good. I need this more often.
  • BlauBlau66: Hilarious evening with children giggling non-stop throughout the entire meal – complete and utter lunatics!
  • celestialqueen: Auggghhhh! Children are frustrating but its so hard 2 discipline them when ur giggling
  • tifmar: is listening to her children giggle and play… they're supposed to be asleep
  • WFMommy: I just had fun talking to my children (through their stuffed animals). I love how they talk so openly to "toys" and how much they giggle.
  • Nicole_Cam: Spending the day with my nieces! Oh the JOY of 8 giggling children!
  • natpizzle: was awoken by three screaming and giggling children running in my house today :o) and im not even mad…ive missed them.
  • jameelee: Little giggling children running around our office…
  • poisoned_grace: Sitting in my house listening to my children giggle and laugh outside….ah summer
  • LakeviewMom: absolutely love listening to the laughter and giggles of children running through the house playing hide and go seek!
  • windcu: Now I get why children are called bundle of joy. Am in bootcamp of happiness and giggles y'all.
  • hmcsmama: I'm in my sisters backyard eating pizza and drinking apple juice with two of the silliest children EVER! Giggle boxes they are!!!
  • carole_hicks: Accomplishment du jour. I floated on an inner tube and looked up at a blue sky listening to children giggle. Perfect.

First Kindermusik Class

This blog post (http://yu-fei.blogspot.com/2009/06/kindermusik-trial-class.html) got me thinking about that FIRST CLASS EXPERIENCE.

Sometimes I think, as parents, we won't be happy with a new experience unless our children are squealing in delight, impressing everyone with how (brilliant/advanced/coordinated/social/musical) they are, sitting attentively, singing loud and clear, clapping, holding hands with other kids…

Me? I have a clinger. First Kindermusik class, first gymnastics class, first storytime at the library – she does what a friend of mine calls 'the starfish', wrapping all of her limbs around me so tightly that I can walk around with her 'stuck' like that, without even using my arms to hold her on. Singing? Not a chance. Pretending to be a train? You've got to be kidding me.

My friend? She has a runner. When her child transitions to something new, he just starts running and I'm not kidding you – he doesn't stop until you strap him back into the carseat. Then he's asleep before you pull out of the driveway.

What's funny – BOTH of these kids – later in the day – if you ask them, "Did you have a good time?" – will say yes. (???)

Every Kindermusik educator knows that every child is unique, and understands that everyone (grown-ups, too!) deals with transitions and new situations differently. Often, it takes a few weeks for children to settle into the routine, become comfortable with a teacher, the other children, and their parents.

And THAT'S when the magic happens. The first time he claps along, the first time she holds hands with a partner, the first time she contributes an animal idea to "Old MacDonald", the first time she sits on the floor instead of on your lap (this one's mine), or the first time she stops running and actually pretends to be a train instead.

What fun would it be if they did all these things the very first day??

 

3 signs you might be in a great baby-and-toddler music program:

1. Happy grown-ups!

Parents and teachers check their egos at the door. Grown-ups are clapping, wiggling, and bouncing just as much as the children. 

2. No one talks about the children as “musicians” and “non-musicians”:

The best early music programs for kids aren’t in the business of creating little virtuosos. They use music to grow great children instead of using children to make great music. Children who learn to love music are the ones who will end up doing it best, anyway.

3. A wonderful teacher.

Have you noticed that the most popular music programs are almost like fan clubs? When there’s a good teacher in town, you’ll hear about it! Definitions will vary, but fans seem to gather around teachers who are described not only as knowledgeable, but also genuine, and as easily able to relate (authentically) to adults as to children.

Did You Know…March is “Music in Our Schools” Month?

 

March is Music In Our Schools Month (MIOSM)!
2009 MIOSM Theme: "Music! Just Imagine…"

1. Use these links to find out how to participate in MIOSM and promote support for school music.

Let’s rock! Even newborns can follow a rhythm

Infant brain responds with error signal when beat is disturbed, study finds

by Robin Nixon Jan 26 09

The finding, published in the Jan. 26 issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, adds to growing evidence that the newborn brain is not the blank slate it was once thought to be.

Rather, scientists have shown, at birth we already have sophisticated methods for interpreting the world. Discrimination may be crude, explained lead researcher István Winkler of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest, but "the basic algorithms are in place already."

This may be particularly true when it comes to sound. Infants as young as 2 days old can process pitch and tell if a series of notes are rising or falling in scale. And it is now known they have rhythm, too. Newborns can't exactly swing their hips to prove they can jive, so Winkler and his colleague Henkjan Honing of the University of Amsterdam monitored the brains of 14 infants listening to variations of a rock rhythm — complete with drum, snare and high hat cymbal.

When "metrically-unimportant portions" of the beat were silenced, nothing much changed among the auditory-related activity in the brain, Honing said. But when the rhythm was disturbed, particularly by omitting the downbeat, the infant brain responded with an error signal: An expectation for a rhythmic pattern was not met.

"A baby's auditory system is working the same way as an adult's, in that it is always making predictions," Winkler said. If the prediction is incorrect, an error signal helps gauge "how much you are off the actual target," he said.

Perceiving emotion While spoken language can take more than a year to develop, "music is one of the earliest things parents have with their children," Honing said.

Click here to read the rest of the article.

© 2009 LiveScience.com. All rights reserved.

Music . . . as Good as Laughing!

Cardiovascular Benefits Of Music Similar To Those Found In Laughter

Link to article in Medical News Today

Listening to your favorite music may be good for your cardiovascular system. Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore have shown for the first time that the emotions aroused by joyful music have a healthy effect on blood vessel function.

Music, selected by study participants because it made them feel good and brought them a sense of joy, caused tissue in the inner lining of blood vessels to dilate (or expand) in order to increase blood flow.

This healthy response matches what the same researchers found in a 2005 study of laughter. On the other hand, when study volunteers listened to music they perceived as stressful, their blood vessels narrowed, producing a potentially unhealthy response that reduces blood flow. The results of the study, conducted at the University of Maryland Medical Center, were presented at the Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association, on November 11, 2008, in New Orleans.

“We had previously demonstrated that positive emotions, such as laughter, were good for vascular health. So, a logical question was whether other emotions, such as those evoked by music, have a similar effect,” says principal investigator Michael Miller, M.D., director of preventive cardiology at the University of Maryland Medical Center and associate professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. “We knew that individual people would react differently to different types of music, so in this study, we enabled participants to select music based upon their likes and dislikes.”

Click here to read the rest of the article

Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release. Dr. Miller’s funding sources include the American Heart Association, Veterans Administration and the National Institutes of Health. “Positive Emotions and the Endothelium: Does Joyful Music Improve Vascular Health?” Miller M, Beach V, Mangano C, Vogel RA. Oral Presentation. American Heart Association Scientific Sessions, 11/11/2008.

Source: Bill Seiler University of Maryland Medical Center

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Stand By Me

Song Around the World
(Kindermusik & Voice of Clayton, Feb 2 09) Go to this Blog

One of the things I love about teaching Kindermusik to preschool and elementary age children is the opportunity to enlighten them about the rich and wonderful “world” of music. This semester our focus in Imagine That class is “Cities~Busy Places, Friendly Faces” where we enjoy music from cities all over the world and explore things like street vendor music, city rhythms, high and low musical concepts that are mirrored in the high buildings and elevators and escalators, the sounds of the city, street musicians, concert halls, ballet dancers, jazz musicians and much more.

When I heard this video version of “Stand by Me” it reminded me of how in Kindermusik class we become a community and support each other teacher to parent, parent to child, family to family, student to teacher, friend to friend. What a wonderful way to explore the thought of standing by each other all over the world. Enjoy this version of a favorite song.

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Kindermusik on the Radio

Buffalo Avenues: Kindermusik
WBFO News Audio Player

Wendy Jones is a Clarence-based early childhood music educator. She's studied, seen and heard just how vital joyful music and movement experiences can be to the developing child. Click here to listen!

© Copyright 2009, WBFO

by Alison Zero; Buffalo, NY; Jan 28, 2009
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