What's in momma's purse?

The other day at a wrap-up party for one of our youngest classes, we were sharing in some snacks together.  Snacks can be a challenge for young families, making sure things are of a non-choking size, but particularily in "buffet" type situations like we have for our parties.  Some selections are difficult for small hands and small mouths to manage.

Carla, a very resourceful mother, showed me a new trick that in all my mothering years and years teaching Kindermusik had never seen before.  She travels with scissors.  When it was time to have the snacks, she takes out her handy pair of scissors and proceeds to cut up her daughter's food to just the right size!  No knife, no fork needed.  The scissors do it all.  Then she wipes them off and puts them back in the purse for the next time.

Smart!

Have any handy tips you'd like to pass on?

Why making music fun is so important

Smiling faces.  Eager stories.  Favourite actions to songs.  Moving our bodies to music.  Playing instruments in ensemble together.  Meeting with friends.  Rocking and moving with stuffy friends.  Connecting with family members through dance and physical touch.  It's quite a list of elements to a typical Kindermusik class.  It's part of why families tell me on a weekly basis that the moment they mention it's a Kindermusik class day, that their child beams with delight!!  

The other day a mother came to class with this story - her 18 month old son had been quite fussy that morning, and Mom had tried in vain to find the solution to his distress.  But when she mentioned that they could go to Kindermusik, he instantly stopped, and indicated with a smile on his face that he did want to go.  Can't tell you how many stories I've heard of children driving to Kindermusik and starting to call out "Kindermusik!!" as soon as they see our building.  

Kids LOVE their Kindermusik class and it's really important that they do!   All learning takes place in an emotionally charged environment.  That's why laughter, commraderie, and pleasure are all associated with excellent learning environments.  It's why being a teacher who cares and listens is better able to encourage better results from the students.  Positive feelings toward a teacher, a class, a topic provide an open heart and mind to receiving information.

I love the opportunity to create a fun and fresh, age appropriate learning environment for children each week.  For a brief time, the teacher and the classroom are the message of music.  And Kindermusik is the music that matters to your child because they associate strong feelings of belonging, fun, and creativity with the songs that we do in class.  There will be LOTS of time in the future to have a more disciplined approach, learning scales, technique, and such.  But for these early years, the most important aspect of developing a life long love of music is to keep it fun and the activity age relevant.

Summer camp provides the opportunity to keep up with alll the things we love doing, with the added attraction of a coordinated craft and snack.  Just today when the Imagine That class was able to do a small art project, I was noticing that the children LOVE to learn through the various art mediums, and they LOVE a coordinated craft activity.  They are always eager to test out their creativity, exploring with various mediums.

Keep the learning coming.  Keep music making a daily occurrence!  Keep feeding their inner strength with the joy of successful, age appropriate songs, games, rhymes, and activities. Keep growing their young brains through the only activity available that stimulates the ENTIRE brain at once!  And keep it fun!

Family music making

Having grandparents come visit the Kindermusik classroom is a regular and happy experience!  There is no greater cheerleader than a grandparent coming to encourage each growing musician!  I think that the  classroom becomes more celebratory in any grandparent visiting day because of the joy in their hearts that they carry with them for each accomplishment!  

This particular day we were privileged to have a 4 generation class.  Both grandparents and great grandma were there for these girls' class, joining right in with the songs and rhymes and whole body movements!  Even great grandma got in on the fun using shakers to play along.  Music is about community!  Music is about joy!  Music is meant to be shared!  

Music as a game changer

The most recent issue of "Today's Parent" magazine has an article touting the benefits of music for your child.  While just a few short years ago parents were jumping on the bandwagon of having their children experience the "Mozart Effect", as it turns out, it isn't so much the listening to music that changes your child's learning potential, intellect, or even brain structure.*

What has the biggest effect on children is their interaction with the music!

This is just exactly what we at Kindermusik have been saying all these years.  You can play music for children as background music, but it isn't going to have nearly the same effect for them as when you get out instruments and play along, move your body to the rhythms, rock to the steady beat, or use your own voice to sing along.  In Kindermusik classes we help families to make music in class, so that the familiar activities become home favourites, as well.  It is just the process of taking it beyond the CD player to the bodies and voices that solidifies the learning, actually changing the brain's structure.

Each activity you do, each class you attend, each semester you enroll in, each home activity that you do together is building a bigger and better learning outcome for your child by combining sensory and motor elements!  All that with a smile on your and your child's faces - now that is AWESOME!!

*  If you would like to read more, please find the article on-line at http://www.todaysparent.com/activities/can-music-make-your-child-smarter

Starry, starry night

Home made paper stars are just the thing to add a little "pizzazz" to a treasured song and story.  Love adding a craft to our already engaging Imagine That classes :)

Of course, a music class wouldn't be complete without adding "Twinkle twinkle Little Star", but we expanded that standard with other elements, too!  As we twinkled our stars above, we listened to the hushed expression of the children's classic story, "Goodnight Moon", then danced our stars into the night to the magical sounds of "Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy", now transformed into our "starry dance".  

Oh, the joy of paper and pretend!

Your story

Whenever I start a new semester there are parents who are bringing their children for the first time.  Like any first time experience, they come with hopes but perhaps some reservations as to how their child will adjust to the class.

Just this last week I heard, again, from parents who had come for the first time.  One parent excitedly told me after the end of class time that she was completely surprised when her daughter came up for a hug, as she doesn't even hug her grandparents.

Another parent commented on how settled and "into" the class her son was because he usually just runs around.

These are comments that I keep in my heart as awards from a tough audience;  after all, if kids are not into what you are doing, they will let you know!  I LOVE helping families to love music through social connectedness, movement, and play.  Not just because it is fun to do - more importantly, because music has the power to transform a person's outlook and life expression.  Music can calm an agitated heart, bring energy to a just-waking body, translate deep emotion without even using words, and help a celebratory moment soar to greater heights.

The "moments" are not just for the new families, though.  This week I also had a mom tell me that her daughter delightedly exclaimed "KINDERMUSIK!!" when they pulled up in the parking lot, upon returning after a semester away.   And just this morning at church another returning Mom told me that she had waited til the morning of class to tell her son that they were going to Kindermusik that morning, and although he usually drags to get ready to go anywhere, he couldn't get out the door fast enough to get to class - wanting to leave at 7:30 am!

Moms, can I ask you to share your Kindermusik experiences with me?!  In February we are going to have an "I LOVE KINDERMUSIK" week where we have special things happen.  I'd love to be able to post some of your "moments".  You can post them on my Kindermusik Stepping Stones facebook page. You can send them to me via email at kmsteppingstones@shaw.ca, or leave them as a comment on this blog.  Share your joy!  Encourage the newcomers with your success stories.  Smile at the stories you read that are similar to your own.

Here are some suggestions -
What is your favourite Kindermusik curriculum book?
Does your child have a Kindermusik instrument stash that they use for "Family Jam"?
Has your child latched on to a particular lullaby from the rocking with the stuffies time?
Has your child felt so proud showing grandma and grandpa their new instrument and displaying their skills?

Share one sentence!  Or share a few!  Share a humourous moment, or a quietly touching one.  Share an observation.  Share a learned skill.  Share a parenting tip you've learned from Kindermusik or from a class parent contact.  Your story is one click away from making someone's day!  I know it will make mine!

Share with Our Kindermusik family - we all are better together!

Finding inspiration

It always seems like such a wonderful dream, to come home after a day of teaching or shopping or running errands and have dinner then sit by a crackling fire with a great book and have time to read.  My mind is getting a little restless even as i write that - thinking that I should've done that today.

The trouble is there is always a list.

You know the one.  The to do list.  The list that says "Do me now!!!"
On mine is
making meals
laundry
picking up stuff left by others in the family
work-related administrative stuff
tidying a bathroom
grocery shopping
solving kids' dilemmas
exercise
dealing with the mountain of daily paper that comes to our home
...endless, really.

Most of it is non-negotiable, at least to a point.  When I settle in to read, my hands find 6 things to put away on the way to the couch.  But when I set aside the demands and make time for inspiration - what a sweet, sweet moment to be savoured.

Read two books over the holidays.  One by a newly found again, but long-lost friend from university days.  Another by an author whom I have read several times - Brennan Manning.  Both left me feeling like I had taken a breath of inspiration.  One took me on an adventure.  The other on a journey inward.

I love being inspired!  Love filling up my heart with love and wisdom and and hope and life-lessons.  The daily tasks, the giving part of life, seem so much lighter when the heart is full.

Sometimes I take the fast track to inspiration, though.
Music.
Watched some amazing youtube videos over the holidays.  Videos that had me with wet cheeks, videos that had my heart in my throat with their beauty.

And then there were moments of inspiration through live music!  Heart-melting, courage-building, awe-inspiring moments of "this-is-how-life-was-meant-to-be".  I walk away from such moments feeling like my heart is so full I couldn't keep the energy and love in if I tried!

I really do need to make MORE time for inspiration!  Makes me a better teacher.  Makes me a better Mom.  You too?

New Year's Goals: Children loving music!!

It's the New Year and many people start thinking about what goals they have for the year.  You know, the usual
- I need to get in shape
- I need to organize the basement
- I want to take a course
- I want to ...
But so many times people have a list of things they want to see happen, and don't have a plan for seeing it through.

I was at my hair stylist's house this afternoon getting my 5 week cut, when in wandered her 9 year old daughter.  Kayle had been in Kindermusik since she was 5 weeks old, and I recently heard from her piano teacher what a pleasure it is to have her in piano lessons.  She is naturally very musical, but the lessons over the years have helped to elevate her natural gifting to an even more established talent.


A few minutes later, one of her other daughters, the youngest at 4 years old wandered in to use a nearby washroom...singing her way in, and then through the entire washroom visit.  As I could hear her in the adjacent room, I commented to her mom about how remarkably in pitch she stays.  A great auditory memory, indeed.

The mom, Corinne, has had her girls involved in music lessons since they were VERY young and it remains a big priority for their family.  There are always lots of things on the go, like most families, but music making always remains on the list.

I was sharing with a new-to-Kindermusik  mom on the phone the other day that although Kindermusik is a well researched and developed by experts program, the fundamental reason why so many families stay over the years, is that it makes making music a pleasure.  Fun in the classroom, fun on the road, fun at home.  And I hear that from families almost everyday!

Moving to great rhythms.
Using instruments to play along in ensembles.
Using our voices to sing what's in our hearts.
Developing a sense of belonging to a community of other musically minded families.
It's all part of what we do every week!  And one moment at a time we are helping your child to know music, to feel music, and to LOVE music!

On your list of goals this year, why not commit to the process of encouraging a lifelong love of music in your children by coming to Kindermusik classes again this semester? Never been?  No time like the present to come be a part of it!  The first class preview is FREE!

One cello and a room full of children

One room.  

Families gathered.  

One cello 

and one very talented dad.

Our usual time for sharing in family connectedness

and rocking the stuffies

transformed into a 

sweet,

not-to-be-forgotten,

intimate moment in time.

The music wrapped it's arms

around the children

as they

wrapped their own arms around their "friends" and family.

Beautiful.

Putting a song in your heart

I think I was 7 years old when I first sang a duet in church with my friend, Dawn.  She took the harmony, I sang melody.  I'm not sure people even heard me as I was SOOO nervous.  But there we were on a Sunday night, two young girls with a song in our hearts, wanting to give a piece of ourselves to our audience.

I've lost my "nerves" since then, and  I've sung in music festivals, exams, choirs, solos, music productions, and of course, Kindermusik class.  I sing through my students' piano lessons, I sing in the van as I'm driving, I sing in the stores (with and without background music)...I guess I sing all the time.

So this past week when I was at my daughter's band concert and they opened the program with all 200+ band kids singing an acapella African folk song complete with body percussion, I was getting a little misty eyed.  It was beautiful!!  Some students were hiding out behind other students, but most were smiling and enjoying the moment.  Their voices were in tune, their rhythm was great, and they were having a GREAT time - and so was the audience.

It is my firm belief that a musician needs to be able to sing - that a heart full of music should be a heart that bursts forth with spontaneous singing, as your voice is your instrument you carry with you wherever you go.  Some sing high, some sing low, most sing somewhere in between.

Most of my piano students are Kindermusik grads and have been singing for many years.  So when I sing along to with their playing to help show them the melodic lines it is the most natural thing in the world for them to sing along, too.  At my piano recital a week ago, one of my former Kindermusik students played and SANG along to his piece because it helped him keep track of where he was in the piece.  He sang out boldly and confidently, not quietly and under his breath.   And...here is the really amazing part...none of my other music students giggled or thought it was weird in any way!  They have a song in their heart, too, and sing along when they play, too.

With the Christmas season here, maybe now is the time for you to embrace your heart song and sing along with the songs of the season.  You may find your heart feels lighter, and a smile showing up on your face and the face of those around you.   And you just may lead the way for another heart song to sneak out to waiting world!