Whatever happened to spur-of-the-moment weekend getaways where you grabbed your overnight bag, a couple of outfits, and a great beach read before hitting the highway? Well, kids happened that’s what. Now, spur-of-the-moment getaways are more like “plan-months-ahead-to-locate-clean-diaper-changing-rest-stops-and-book-a-UHaul-to-lug-around-all-that-baby-stuff getaways.” Anyone else feel exhausted just thinking about it? And, let’s not even talk about planning a trip to Disney World with kids. Parents write entire dissertations about that family vacation—and then Pin it on Pinterest for us all to identify where we fail as parents.
Traveling with kids can be an adventure—and I don’t just mean an adventure in patience. Of course, we all know that every good adventure deserves an even better soundtrack! It appears as if the majority of parents agree! In fact, a recent study by Alamo Rent A Car found that more parents (80 percent) use music to keep children happy than iPads (19 percent).
In our years of travel, we learned how to maximize the music in our car in order to minimize the “Are We There Yet?” traveling dilemma. Let’s be honest. Children communicate that question long before they can even speak: by crying, kicking seats, and general get-me-out-of-my-car-seat grumpiness.
Here are four ways to use music in the car that worked for our family and we think they will work for you, too!
1. Make a traveling playlist. Take requests from everyone and include songs your child loves and songs that you do, too. For our family of four, I am responsible for putting the song requests in order on the playlist. I make sure to equally rotate the order. I learned really quickly that our oldest daughter would count to make sure life the song rotation was fair. During the car ride, our kids love trying to guess which song is next and when their favorite ones will play.
Sing-along songs can create memories as your family bursts out in “Let it Go” (again!) or even the theme song from a favorite TV show, such as Jake and the Never Land Pirates! The car can be an ideal place to connect together as a family through music, just like this mom and daughter:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTpmzpKrsz8[/youtube]
2. Listen to books or nursery rhymes on CD. Under the age of 5, our girls loved listening to the rhymes of Dr. Seuss, especially. Now, listening to books on CDs is a traveling tradition. Favorites for 5 to 7 years old include the Ramona, Junie B. Jones, and The Magic Treehouse series. (Yes, technically this is not music, but music builds early literacy skills!)
3. Engage children’s imagination through the soundtrack from a favorite movie. We found—by accident—that our children enjoy listening to the musical arrangements from their favorite movies. They love envisioning what is happening based on what they hear. For example, they can identify the part in the composition when Lightening McQueen and Sally are racing on the back roads or when Cinderella meets the prince in the woods and tells him to stop chasing the deer. This was a fun way to listen to a movie and not watch the movie.
4. Create a “Quiet Time” playlist. For longer road trips, we select this music to encourage our reluctant car sleepers to rest. Occasionally, the music will lull one or both of our children to sleep, however it nearly always relaxes them enough to stop fidgeting. We most often play this list after lunch when many children naturally benefit from a little quiet time. Tip: Make sure you fill your car with gas BEFORE you tap into the power of music. After all, you DO NOT want to stop when your little one finally falls under the spell of music and falls asleep like this sweet little nugget!
Enjoy your next family road trip with this free gift of five free song downloads and more tips on using music in the family car!
Contributed by Lisa Camino Rowell, a freelance writer in the Atlanta area who loves using music to make traveling a whole lot easier!
Making music, enjoying music, and learning through music all have a profound impact on a child, even before he or she is born. Mothers have known this instinctively. Teachers have always drawn on the benefits of music. Research and new technology continues to confirm it over and over again.
home. We believe so strongly in the importance of creating a musical home that we provide the music, instruments, or other resources—like our 
This experiential environment where the learning process is shared by everyone in the group—including children, parents, and the teacher—is called “social constructivism.” For example, in each class a Kindermusik educator guides the class towards a learning objective, such as steady beat, timbre, or vocal play, with children as active participants in the learning process. Providing children with ample time to reflect, compare, make choices, express opinions and preferences, and engage in problem-solving activities together teaches children not only the lesson focus but it teaches them how to learn.
Want to “play music” in a classroom with other families? 
For parents with young children, Life Balance is a mythical beast! A hammock gently swaying in a warm ocean breeze as you watch ships leave the harbor or the quiet creaking of a porch swing in the dappled afternoon sunlight can bring thoughts of a little Life Balance in an increasingly complex world. For parents of children under 2, however, the nursery glider moving back and forth at 10:16pm, 2:01am, and 5:34am might be the closest you can get to that beach or front porch. It can work in a pinch though!
Want a child to speak more than one language fluently? Start early! Research shows that when children learn another language at a young age the more likely they are to understand it and speak like a native speaker. It’s never too early to begin learning another language. In fact, evidence indicates that babies have the ability to learn all the languages of the world but self-select to their native language as early as 9 months.
Freeze Game Activity for the Classroom: Have the children spread around the room. Tell them that they can run around the room freely once you clap your hands, but when you shout, “Freeze,” they must stop in their current position. To begin, let the children run around for 30 seconds and then shout “Freeze!” Make sure children hold the position for at least 10-15 seconds before you let them run around again. When focusing on language learning, use simple linguistic phrases to describe what you see: “Andrea is standing up like a tree”or “Olivia is a stone.” Repeat several times.
It’s coming, one day soon (if it hasn’t already). Your child will want to learn how to ride a bike—the big kid kind. There will be spills and thrills for both of you as your helmeted child learns how to balance and maintain the right rhythm and tempo for pedaling and braking. Shouts of “Don’t let go!” “I need a push!” and “Arggg!” will be commonplace until that moment when it all comes together and your child successfully rides down the street.
It was bound to happen.
Emerson with experiences that would equip her to grow into that person. Through those classes, we encountered music teachers devoted to their calling and to the power of music to unlock a child’s potential. Yes. Those are lofty goals reached far off into the future and so seldom seen by those early childhood music teachers in their own students. After all in early childhood, we can only catch glimpses of the long-term impact of our choices and experiences. It’s all about trusting the process.
a song from a country different from your own you teach children more about our world. Every time you encourage children to move their bodies in new ways you give them confidence in their abilities. Every time you bring out that basket of instruments you teach children the importance of sharing with others. Every time you lead children to sing, dance, or play instruments you give them an outlet for creativity, imagination, self-expression, and joy!