For three generations, Kindermusik has helped millions of children around the world build a strong foundation for a lifetime of learning.
Watching and listening to a baby babble is a pretty solid form of entertainment, but did you know that babbling is the first step to forming words, and babbling back what you hear is packed with developmental benefits? Here are 5 tips to encourage babbling and maximize communication with babies.
Continue reading “Baby babble is more than cute. It’s brainpower.”
Anticipation is an incredibly powerful emotion. If you have doubts about that, consider how much of our economy relies on it. Movies are teased months before they hit theaters. Stores set out Christmas displays even before Thanksgiving rolls around. And the release of every new iPhone is accompanied by so much fanfare that people literally camp out in front of stores just to be among the first to get their hands on one. Building anticipation as a marketing technique isn’t something unique to the age of iPhones. In the 1970s, Heinz released a series of commercials that brilliantly turned an annoyance (why does it take so long for ketchup to come out of the bottle?!) into a feeling of excitement. The song featured in the commercials? Carly Simon’s “Anticipation.”
Continue reading “Bridges Study Findings To Be Revealed… And You’re Invited!”
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.
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.
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.
Continue reading “Labor Day: Wait, What Are We Celebrating Again?”
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.
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.
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.
Continue reading “Sun’s Out, Shoes Off: Why Barefoot Is Best”
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.
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?
Continue reading “Celebrating Independence in Young Children”