Friday, December 18, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Friday, November 6, 2009
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Importance of 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.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Can't decide whether to enroll in Kindermusik?
This is so true ~ I get these questions all the time!
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Getting ready for you ~ Fall, 2009
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Monday, July 20, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
Friday, July 10, 2009
Kindermusik with Heidi adds new location for fall!
Friday, June 19, 2009
Creative Children and Technology ~ Raising Your Kids In This Age
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
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.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
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.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Music and rhythmic activity appeal to children with ADHD child, and also seem to facilitate learning.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Kindermusik is good for your heart.
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
Friday, May 8, 2009
A Musically Illiterate Nation
“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!
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Sunday, May 3, 2009
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?
Monday, April 27, 2009
Musical Raindrops
Thursday, April 23, 2009
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!
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Musicians set the tone for healing
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!
Friday, April 17, 2009
A Child's Prayer
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
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Monday, April 6, 2009
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.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Next Time (Beautiful, beautiful poem)
Next time what I'd do is look at the earth
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
For parents with toddlers or grandparents of them...
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
Laugh
Personally, I just love a good belly laugh, don't you? And now I know it does me good!
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
What is your treasure right now?
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.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Do you have upcoming surgery?
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/.
Friday, March 6, 2009
What's on your child's playlist?
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Schweppes Balloons Ad
We've been focusing on fast and slow in Our Time. Fun video about slooooooowwww!
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Play with Wordle
Or this:
Or this:
Friday, February 13, 2009
One hundred billion
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Improving Test Scores With Music
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Music and Movement Research
Monday, January 19, 2009
What are some 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.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
The Magic Flute/Papageno-Papagena Duet
This is just delightful! We have enjoyed studying this opera in Kindermusik/Young Child Semester I.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Why did you 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?