Fun little game!

SnowCraft

Turkey In The Straw

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Birds & Boats in Imagine That class this week... :-)

Piano stairs

Importance of repetition

How many times has your child said "again, again, again"? Do they bring you the same book several times a day? Do they want to listen to the same song over & over? Repetition is reassuring to a child. There is security in sameness. Even adults appreciate knowing what to expect. You go to the same restaurant, store, or vacation spot because you are comfortable there. You know what to expect.

This week begins our 6th week of Kindermusik classes, and you have probably noticed that we have done the same activities for several weeks in a row. Adults may tire of the same activity, but by repeating the activities the children become comfortable, and begin to participate. In the January 2004 Parents magazine Susan Brody had the following things to say about repetition:

Repetition fuels your toddler's memory, confidence, motor skills and understanding of the world.

Repetition helps a child feel good about herself because it reminds her of what she can do.

Repetition is one way the toddler can exert some control over his environment. This sense of power is extremely gratifying for someone with such limited control over the big world around her. We will play the sticks, the sandblocks and sing the same song again, but it is good for your child's brain.

Repetition helps prevent brain overload. It's as though the time your child spends repeating familiar tasks allow his brain to take a mini-vacation. Once he's done relaxing, his brain is ready to focus on new learning.

World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale

Can't decide whether to enroll in Kindermusik?

This is so true ~ I get these questions all the time!

Getting ready for you ~ Fall, 2009

All the materials have been sorted, collated, and re-packed. :-) Here are a few pictures of our afternoon...

Young Child I materials
Matthew and I worked so hard! Here we are working on Our Time materials.

Imagine That materials ready to go! Young Child III dulcimer fret boards.

Imagine That prep.

Here is the worker behind the scenes!

All 8 boxes when they arrived!

Music Notation Concentration

Click on the picture for a fun game! What's your time?

The Piano Cat

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeoT66v4EHg

Evian Roller Babies international version

It's like Kindermusik for your child!

Kindermusik with Heidi adds new location for fall!

Kindermusik with Heidi's studio will be expanding this fall to a third location! I will be teaching Village (birth to 20 mo.) and Our Time (18 mo. to 3 1/2 yrs.) classes at Montessori Country Day School on Tuesdays! Bill and Lisa Vesterman, current owners and directors of the school, asked me last spring to consider teaching and after taking a tour, and talking with them, was convinced I needed to accept. It's a wonderful, positive place, overlooking west Flower Mound countryside. I'm sure it will be a good experience and I can't wait to share the love of music, movement and sound with all those who chose to take Kindermusik classes at this location. I think it's going to be a perfect arrangement for my Kindermusuik families and me! Check my website for more information about fall classes in all three locations!

Creative Children and Technology ~ Raising Your Kids In This Age

Musical Instruments - Whether your musical instruments are home-made with a comb and wax paper or store bought, making music is a wonderful way to spend the day together. Teach your child that music can be made from anything, from an old oatmeal container, to scratching two pieces of sandpaper together. You may want to listen to music together and try to pick out the instruments that are making the sounds... Read more at Yes Parenting.

Ennio Morricone - Monaco - Gabriel's Oboe

I like this quote from a listener: " ...If this song was to play at my eventual demise, I would die a very happy man. This piece is just so amazing." I so agree. Just close your eyes and listen to this.

Playing for Change - do you have 5 minutes? Happy, happy.

Four years ago while walking down the street in Santa Monica, CA the voice of Roger Ridley singing Stand By me was heard from a block away. His voice, soul and passion set us on a course around the world to add other musicians to his performance. This song transformed Playing For Change from a small group of individuals to a global movement for peace and understanding. This track features over 35 musicians collaborating from all over the world. They may have never met in person, but in this case, the music does the talking.

"If children are not introduced to music at an early age, I believe something fundamental is actually being taken from them." ~Pavarotti

Music and rhythmic activity appeal to children with ADHD child, and also seem to facilitate learning.

Interesting and encouraging article...Read more here.

Kindermusik is good for your heart.

For years, Miller, a research cardiologist, has been studying the effects of happiness -- or things that make people happy -- on our hearts. He began his research with laughter, and found watching funny movies and laughing at them could actually open up blood vessels, allowing blood to circulate more freely.

Miller thought, if laughter can do that, why not music? So, he tested the effects of music on the cardiovascular system. "Turns out music may be one of the best de-stressors -- either by playing or even listening to music," said Miller.

Read more HERE

Thanks, Helen.

A Musically Illiterate Nation

An Article in this months West Music email newsletter immediately caught my eye! “A Musically Illiterate Nation” by Ann C. Cay, reveals an astonishing fact, and the reasons that it has occurred. Following is an excerpt from her article and a link to read the entire article. It is very compelling.

“The majority of our nation’s eighth-grade students can’t sing in tune, play instruments or read music, according to the last National Assessment of Educational Progress. If you take them to a ball game, they can’t sing the national anthem in tune, even if they know the words. Most can’t play “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” on an instrument. If you locked the refrigerator door with a combination that required simple rhythmic drumming to open it, most would starve to death. Let’s be serious now. What difference does it make if they can’t sing? They get all the music they want on the radio and through CDs. Are they going to be any smarter, richer, or happier if they can belt out a tune or beat out a rhythm?

Yes! Studies indicate that musical ability is as related to intelligence as is math or language. Music is an intelligence, says Dr. Howard Gardner, a cognitive psychologist at Harvard University. In fact, making music may affect the very organization of the brain which positively impacts achievement in math, reading, and other disciplines…” (read more)

So…A majority of our educational administrators were schooled in a time that did not focus on the arts as a mainstream part of educational curriculum, but instead as an extra-curricular, or elective class. When coupled with this fact, it is no wonder the experience factor is not a part of the decision making when examining the importance of music education in core curricula offerings. Music substantially impacts mathematical reasoning, language cognition, reading ability, and more. Consistent and frequent musical experiences are what is missing in the current generation of students and the test scores prove it.

Parents are the responsible party in providing a musical rich education. What better way to establish musical benefits than to enroll your child in Kindermusik when they are infants, toddlers, preschoolers and early elementary age. When the impact is greatest and those windows of opportunity for learning are fully open and available. Kindermusik grows with your child and provides much to prepare them for success in school later on. Loving your child is what it’s all about!

Seriously good idea.

Click here for a great idea called Family Draw. I love this blog and I hope you'll frequent it.

Life's for sharing

On January 15, 2009 at 11am in Liverpool train station, T-mobile filmed this commercial using 400 dancers and 10 hidden cameras. It just makes you smile and remember that life IS for sharing! Who have you shared life with today?

Musical Raindrops

April showers bring more than flowers with this amazing composition tool "Not only is it fun but it is almost impossible to make something that doesn't sound lovely." Try out the Lullatone here. Thanks for the tip, Helen!

Pie Jesu

Watch this video of a 13 year old boy, Andrew, who also wowed the British audience in the same audition format as Susan Boyle. He states how he had been bullied for years by peers about his taste in music. Tears will spring to your eyes as you watch and hear this young man bare his soul via his angelic voice. The power of music to move us all is so compelling! Stay true to your heart in the face of ridicule for being gloriously unique. Encourage every "ugly duckling" you know!

Musicians set the tone for healing

The many applications of music for healing: hospice settings, coma, stroke and rehab of all kinds. Enjoy this fabulous story:

Anna Jenkins wears a solemn expression while she gracefully plucks the strings on her harp. The notes fill the room and coat it with an aura of peace. Next to her, in a hospital bed, a patient is dying. Jenkins is one of a handful of music therapists who volunteer at St. Francis Hospital in Federal Way. “I usually am serious because I’m playing for people that are very sick,” Jenkins said. The notes are dream-like and seem to float from the harp, following no recognizable melody. To play a song a person recognized would hold them in reality, Jenkins said. An unfamiliar song helps people let go. “They can just listen to that and drift off,” she said. “Music helps people to let go and if they’re actively dying, their hearing is the last thing that stays with them.” Jenkins doesn’t only play for those who are dying. She also plays to relax those who are critically or chronically ill. She plays for children and the elderly as well as patients just coming out of a difficult surgery. Music helps heal, Jenkins said. She recalled a story from two years ago. She was playing the harp at a comatose patient’s bedside while the family gathered around singing hymns. The man suddenly awoke from a coma. It could have coincidentally been his time to wake up, but Jenkins likes to think otherwise. “I couldn’t help but wonder if the love from all his family there somehow reached him,” she said. For those who are dying, Jenkins spends a considerable amount of the afternoon playing her harp at their bedside. A story in the Bible mentions angels playing the harp at a person’s death. “There are rare occasions where it’s a little scary for people,” Jenkins said. “They say ‘Oh no, I’m not ready for that.’”Although Jenkins insists she is not an angel, she said there is often a spiritual presence in the room when she plays. “I’ve had people comment that they’ve been touched by the spirit. I don’t want to imply that it’s me, but it’s something that happens in the room at the time,” she said. Soothing music reduces a patient’s blood pressure, relieves anxiety and affects the heart rate, said Renee Krisko, a chaplain at St. Francis. Krisco assigns Jenkins and other music therapists to patients who would most benefit from the music. “I believe there are medical healing effects to this,” she said. Jenkins said she’s watched a person’s heart rate go down on the monitor while she’s playing. She was trained in music therapy as part of the Music for Healing and Transition program. Although most people will never have the opportunity to hear Jenkins play the harp, all visitors to St. Francis could meet Bonnie Knight-Graves.Graves volunteers to play the piano in the lobby and in the mental health ward at St. Francis several days each week. “It’s serving the public, actually,” Graves said of her work. “It’s setting the tone for people coming into the hospital.” Music is healing because it relieves a patient’s anxiety, Graves said. “It frees the mind of stress and gives them a more relaxed approach to life so they can heal themselves,” she said. “The body can heal itself if it’s not loaded down with stress.”

Someday soon I dream of doing the beautiful work Anna is doing!

A Child's Prayer

God make my life a little light,
Within the world to glow;
A tiny flame that burneth bright
Wherever I may go.

God make my life a little flower,
That giveth joy to all,
Content to bloom in native bower,
Although its place be small.

God make my life a little song,
That comforteth the sad;
That helpeth others to be strong,
And makes the singer glad.

God make my life a little staff,
Whereon the weak may rest,
That so what health and strength I have
May serve my neighbors best.

M. Bentham-Edwards

Mormon Tabernacle Choir - Hallelujah Chorus

Noticing

Becky Bailey, founder of Conscious Discpline, was a speaker at two of our national Kindermusik conventions, and she has so much valuable teaching to share. Her book, I Love You Rituals, is a must-have for parents, in my opinion.

Next Time (Beautiful, beautiful poem)

Next Time by Mary Oliver

Next time what I'd do is look at the earth

before saying anything.

I'd stop just before going into a house

and be an emperor for a minute

and listen better to the wind

or to the air being still.

When anyone talked to me,

whether blame or praise or just passing time,

I'd watch the face,

how the mouth has to work,

and see any strain, any sign of what lifted the voice.

And for all, I'd know more -- the earth bracing itself and soaring,

the air finding every leaf and feather over forest and water,

and for every person

the body glowing inside the clothes

like a light.

For parents with toddlers or grandparents of them...

...here's something that might help you deal with them a little better! Click here for a great article.

How to paint the MONA LISA with MS PAINT

Laugh

"Laughter increases white blood cell activity and changes the chemical balance of the blood. This is believed to boost the body's production of chemicals needed for alertness and memory. Laughter reduces stress, and low stress enhances the brains' receptivity to learning. According to researchers, laughing (having fun) also boosts the body's immune system for three days - the day of the fun and the next two." (from Start Smart!: Building Brain Power in the Early Years by Pam Schiller).

Personally, I just love a good belly laugh, don't you? And now I know it does me good!

What is your treasure right now?

Before I left for Kindermusik this morning, I paused to reflect on my blessings...faith, health, my children, a loving husband...there are so many things.

We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures. --Thornton Wilder

What's an everyday treasure in your life right now? Say it outloud. Write it down. Draw it. Photograph it - even if only in your mind. Live it.

Thanks for the idea Amanda Soule.

Do you have upcoming surgery?

I read a blog called The Brain and Music. Here is the latest blog post which I found very interesting:

You may have heard that music enters the brain through the 8th cranial nerve. I believe that music also enters the whole body, as well as the brain through every pore of the body. Dr. Alfred Tomatis, with whom I studied in 1991, stated that rather than the ear being differentiated skin, actually the skin of the entire body is also like an ear, receiving sonic vibrations and relaying them to the brain. Makes sense to me. Therefore when I started hearing and reading about the value of music during surgery I thought "it would be so beneficial if the ideal music for surgery could come directly into the brain through headphones...through the 8th cranial nerve." Different people have promoted ambient music in the operating room, but the fact is, the patient needs the opposite music from the surgeon! The surgeon needs upbeat, active music to focus his energy. The patient needs slow, steady, soothing music.

For that reason, I now have patented and begun to sell my wireless, pre-programmed headphones for surgery. You can also simply buy the music in download format and put it on your own iPod! http://www.healingmusicenterprises.com/.

What's on your child's playlist?

It is believed that children begin to form their earliest musical preferences while still in the womb. This will continue through the early childhood years and will form a foundation for their later musical interests and experiences. The greater their exposure to a variety of musical styles and cultures, the greater their love and appreciation for music as a whole. You should think of it as laying a broad musical foundation for them to build on in the future. My concern is that so many parents buy only the Wiggles or other children's CD for their children. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with any of these CDs, but if that is all that you are exposing your children to musically, then their musical foundation will be very narrow. I would encourage you to listen to a wide variety of styles and rhythms with your children, such as classical, world music, and even R&B, country or rock songs. (with appropriate lyrics of course). The variety of rhythms and pitch contrast will also promote cognitive development in your child. The greater the variety, the broader the musical foundation and development your child will be able to build on throughout their life.

Schweppes Balloons Ad

We've been focusing on fast and slow in Our Time. Fun video about slooooooowwww!

Kindermusik Outreach

As long as they are loved and nurtured....

Play with Wordle

There is a neat website called Wordle. It will take any words you write and turn them into a work of art, like this:



Or this:



Or this:

One hundred billion

I never cease to be amazed when I study about how our bodies work. I recently read that our brains contain one hundred billion neurons. What captured my imagination was the perspective the writer put on this. "Suppose each neuron was one dollar, and you stood on a street corner trying to give dollars away to people as they passed by, as fast as you could hand them out- let's say one dollar per second. If you did this twenty four hours a day, 365 days a year, without stopping, and if you had started on the day that Jesus was born, you would by the present day only have gone through about two thirds of your money." When you consider that each of these neurons can then connect to other neurons in an extreme variety of ways, well that's an impressive amount of potential. What's even more amazing to me is that our children have a greater amount of connections that we do, because they are still gleaning so much new information. So don't miss out on those early opportunities to increase their cognitive skills by offering a broad variety of activities and stimuli.

Improving Test Scores With Music

One simple way students can improve test scores is by listening to certain types of music such as Mozart's Sonata for Two Piano's in D Major before taking a test. This type of music releases neurons in the brain which help the body to relax. The effectiveness of Mozart's sonatas can be seen by the results from an IQ test performed on three groups of college students. The first group listened to a Mozart sonata before taking the test. The second group listened to a relaxation tape before their test. The third group did not listen to anything before the test. The first group had the highest score with an average of 119. The second group ended up with an average of 111, and the third group had the lowest score with an average of 110. William Balach, Kelly Bowman, and Lauri Mohler, all from Pennsylvania State University, studied the effects of music genre and tempo on memory retention. They had four groups learn vocabulary words using one of four instrumental pieces - slow classical, slow jazz, fast classical, and fast jazz. Each of the four groups was divided into smaller groups for the recall test. These sub groups used either the same (i.e. slow classical, slow classical) or different (i.e. slow jazz, fast classical) pieces when taking the recall test. The results did show a dependency on the music. Recall was better when the music was the same during learning and testing. These same researchers did another test which restricted the changes in the music to just tempo (i.e. slow to fast jazz) or just genre (i.e. slow jazz to slow classical). Surprisingly, the results showed that changing the genre had no effect on recall but changing the tempo decreased recall. For more info, click here! Very interesting stuff.

Getting ready for the new semester!

Fiddle Dee Dee and away we go!

Under the piano is a great place to put them for now... Kinda messy!

Getting Young Child II class sorted...

Can't wait to see you all soon!

Music and Movement Research

Look at this great article about the role music and movement play in a child's life. This speaks directly to Kindermusik as it talks about parents and children enjoying music together! It makes me feel proud to know that I am helping children and parents experience the power of music!

What are some benefits of music education?

You might wonder what long-term benefits your children gain from Kindermusik. Here are some proven benefits of music education:

1. Early musical training helps develop brain areas involved in language and reasoning. Recent studies have clearly indicated that musical training physically develops the part of the left side of the brain known to be involved with processing language, and can actually wire the brain's circuits in specific ways. Linking familiar songs to new information can also help imprint information on young minds.

2. There is also a link between music and spatial intelligence (the ability to perceive the world accurately and to form mental pictures of things). This kind of intelligence, by which one can visualize various elements that should go together, is critical to the sort of thinking necessary for everything from solving advanced mathematics problems to being able to pack a book-bag with everything that will be needed for the day.

3. Students of the arts learn to think creatively and to solve problems by imagining various solutions. Questions about the arts do not have only one right answer.

4. A study of the arts provides children with an internal glimpse of other cultures and teaches them to be empathetic towards the people of these cultures. This development of compassion and empathy provides a bridge across cultures that leads to a respect of other races at an early age.

5. Music provides children a means of self-expression which enhances a child's self-esteem.

6. Music study develops skills that are necessary in the workplace. In the music classroom, students learn to better communicate and cooperate with one another.

Article from School Music Today.

The Magic Flute/Papageno-Papagena Duet

This is just delightful! We have enjoyed studying this opera in Kindermusik/Young Child Semester I.

On raising children...

I just really love this blog and how real it is.

Why did you choose Kindermusik?

Why Choose Kindermusik?

Parents today have many choices for children's activities. Why do parents choose Kindermusik?

*quality time with your child
*connect with other parents
*singing, dancing & playing instruments is fun
*encourages creativity and exploration
*fosters development in all areas: social, physical, emotional & cognitive
*experienced & nurturing teachers
*small classes with lots of individual attention

Kindermusik believes that parents are a child's first teacher. We also believe that our program should focus on the process vs. performance. Children naturally love music and Kindermusik allows children to be creative and learn by doing. I would love to hear from our KINDERMUSIK with HEIDI parents in the studio and others who have experienced Kindermusik. Why do you choose Kindermusik?

Why Kindermusik? For the educational benefits

Why Kindermusik? For the musical foundation