Minds On Music – The Kindermusik Blog
For three generations, Kindermusik has helped millions of children around the world build a strong foundation for a lifetime of learning.
Research shows there’s a strong correlation between early handwriting skills and better grades in school. Musical play—specifically fingerplays and instrument manipulation—is an engaging way to build those hand muscles and pincer grasps necessary for good penmanship.
Pediatricians will often recommend music classes for children with language delays. Speech therapists regularly incorporate music and rhymes in their therapy sessions with young children. Researchers have identified talking and singing with a small child as one of the most effective tools for closing the word gap with under-served populations. Here are six music activities …
Continue reading “Early Language Development Flourishes through Music”
Hang around babies long enough and you start hearing things. From soft sweet coos to long monologues of “dadadadadada,” babies talk a lot—even though we have no idea what they are really saying! That’s okay. We don’t need to understand all the words (or non-words!) to join in the conversation. How Parents Respond to All …
Continue reading “Answer that Baby Babble to Speed Up Language Development”
What better way to celebrate Universal Music Day than with some homemade DIY instrument crafts that don’t cost a lot of money, but will mean lots of together time, happy smiles, special memories, and joyful music-making! Instrument crafts are the perfect way to get young children engaged in hands-on learning, exploring their creative side, and …
A recent article in the Washington Post highlighted a growing concern for parents and educators: more and more kids are having trouble sitting still in school. The root of the problem is that kids are being expected to sit still for longer periods of time. Recesses are shorter, and often kids aren’t running, jumping, and …
Continue reading “Get the wiggles out and keep the learning in”
We like to tell parents that they are their child’s first and best teacher because it’s true! Sure, parents may not always know all the answers—like that initial night home from the hospital (now what?!) or when a baby experiences a growth spurt and wakes up every two hours (why?!). But, thankfully parenting is not …
Continue reading “10 Reasons to Give Babies a Daily Dose of Music”
Everyone speaks music – young, old, all nationalities – through lyrics and through movement. Music truly is the universal language. As such, music is the one thing that parents all around the world can use to help them get through their day. 5 Ways You Can Hokey-Pokey Your Way through Everyday Parenting In the car …
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New National Core Music Standards The arts have always served as the distinctive vehicle for discovering who we are. Providing methods of thinking as disciplined as science or math, and as disparate as philosophy or literature, the arts are used by and have shaped every culture and individual on earth. The arts continue to infuse …
Continue reading “New Music Standards – Focus on Preparing Children for Success”
Patterns surround us and recognizing and understanding patterns is a foundational math skill. Music gives children the opportunity to experience patterns through movement, listening, and playing instruments. When children step, step, step, stop responding to the music or ta, ta, ta, rest with rhythm sticks, children are learning rhythm patterns (quarter note, quarter note, quarter …
Continue reading “Give It a Rest. Kids Will Love these 2 Musical Math Games.”
So why DO kids blur the line between work and play? Because play IS their work! Play is the most important activity of early childhood. So even when it looks like a child is “just” playing, there’s really some serious learning and developing happening as a result of the play. Music and movement …
Continue reading “Why Kids Blur the Line between Work and Play”