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.
From breakfast to playtime to naptime. That’s one routine. Bath time, story time, then bedtime. That’s another. Cartoons or waffles on Saturday morning – that’s a routine, too! As unpredictable as life with young children can sometimes be, routines and rituals are the secret to creating a calmer, saner life, to helping your children feel …
Continue reading “Music and Movement Benefits: Routines and Social-Emotional Health”
At Kindermusik, we’re all about great ideas and helpful tips that make parenting just a little bit easier and a whole lot more musical. And now that Spring is just around the corner, we thought we’d share some music and movement ideas for celebrating spring… and creating some very happy memories! 5 Ways to Celebrate …
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Kindermusik is as much about movement as it is about music. Ask any educator or parent – there’s no need to go to the gym on Kindermusik day! That’s because we know that children learn best by doing – it’s called experiential learning. And now a new study highlighted in Science Daily demonstrates just how …
Continue reading “Music & Movement Benefits: Why We Rock, Bounce, Jump & Dance”
Today is World Poetry Day. And while your child may not be up to appreciating Robert Frost or Elizabeth Barrett Browning just yet, he/she does benefit significantly by learning (and enjoying!) children’s rhymes and poems. Why are rhyming songs and chants so vital to a young child’s development? Reading expert and author Mem Fox explains …
Continue reading “Music & Movement Benefits: Rhymers Will Be Readers”
Today, on National Napping Day, we here at Kindermusik International are celebrating the benefit of learning to relax, one of the best gifts you can give your child. (We wish we could celebrate in true form by taking a nap ourselves, but alas, duty calls… and we digress.) Whether there’s simply a need to unwind …
Continue reading “Music & Movement Benefits: Music, Relaxation, and Nap Time”
In our baby music classes and toddler music classes, we almost always include a circle dance in every class. Together we’re a circle of support, love, and belonging.Those circle dances are great fun, but there’s serious purpose behind them too. A circle is a symbol of community, and in it we all contribute equally. For …
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According to the authors of the book Ladders to Literacy, “…playing with the sounds of words encourages children to practice perception, production, word recognition, and memory for words, phonemes, all important foundations for phonological awareness.” Phonological awareness, the ability to recognize that words are made up of sounds, is an important first step towards success …
Continue reading “Music & Movement Benefits: Playing with Sound”
The term scaffolding evokes the image of a temporary support structure in a construction site. The process of scaffolding in an educational sense is much like the traditional definition of scaffolding as a temporary support system used until a task is complete and a building stands without support. That sounds a lot like our job …
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Most of us have some songs we can recall from our childhood. Start singing and the tune and the words will probably come back to you. And if you’re in a Kindermusik class, you are enjoying a growing repertoire of songs to pull out and sing for almost any occasion! Why Sing Singing to a …
Continue reading “Music & Movement Benefits: Why and How to Sing to Your Child”
The more you expose your child to language, the stronger his verbal skills will be. Language acquisition is a gradual process that involves many facets of development including listening, imitating facial expressions, playing peek-a-boo, and babbling. Your child will learn language naturally by hearing it used in context when you sing, read, talk, and listen …
Continue reading “Music & Movement Benefits: Naturally Speaking, Of Course!”