Feel the Beat!

In all Kindermusik classes, there is always emphasis on hearing, feeling, moving, and even “seeing” a steady beat. It may seem very elementary, but it is essentially the cornerstone of music.

More importantly, steady beat plays a huge importance in our speech, movement, thoughts and verbal organisation. From a baby’s first hesitant steps, he slowly finds his pace and soon starts to walk steadily and confidently. Our preschoolers who have a strong sense of beat would be able to use the scissors more skillfully. Ever watch a basketball game? The steady dribble of the ball before it is tossed smack into the basket require an acute sense of beat and timing. A master chef needs to have a command of steady beat in his knife skills. Even writers rely on a sense of steady beat and rhythm in their prose to produce a good read.

Because it is such a fundamental element, parents and teachers often do not give sufficient attention to the development of this very important underlying skill – a strong sense of beat. The consequence of insufficient steady beat experiences in early years can result in poor physical coordination, halting speech (in some cases, stuttering), and even weakness in thought flow. Would you have imagined that something so apparently a strictly musical characteristic can have such bearing on so many areas of our functioning?!

Here are some simple and fun activities that you can do with your child at home to reinforce the concept sense of steady beat:

Movement – Turn on the music and pretend to be a marching band. March, stomp or jump to the music.  For younger babies, put them on your lap and bounce to a steady beat or dance with them around the room to the steady beat of the music.

Instrument play – Use the instruments from your home materials or make your own. An old pot and spoon will make a very fun ( and loud!) drum. Practice keeping a steady beat along with the music.

Reading – Nursery rhymes are a great way to introduce steady beat. Clap or tap along as you recite your child’s favourite rhymes.

Originally on the Kindermusik Asia Blog by Chiat Goh.  Chiat is the Founding Director and Educator Mentor of Kindermusik Asia.

Learning to Speak!

When was the last time you had to hum, make a sound like a bell, or bark like a dog?

We usually use our voices to speak, and that is the primary way your baby hears your voice. But she uses her voice in many other ways, such as crying, cooing, and babbling. By humming and making different sounds, you encourage your child's vocal skills, giving her assurance to explore the different ways she can use her voice.

As adults we forget how hard it is to learn to speak.  It takes a lot of coordination to use your tongue, lips, and breath control to produce a specific sound. 

Animal sounds and other play sounds make great “first words” for your baby. By listening to and feeling you hum, she may try to make those sounds as well. So go ahead, make your own animal sounds, car sounds, or rain sounds. If anyone asks, say that you are just being a great parent. 

Kindermusik and Scaffolding

Miriam-Webster defines the term “scaffolding” in part, as follows: “a temporary or movable platform…; a supporting framework.” The process of scaffolding in an educational sense is much like the traditional definition of scaffolding. It is a temporary support system used until the task is complete and the building stands without support.

That sounds a lot like our job as parents, doesn’t it?…providing a temporary support system until the building (your child) can stand without support. This is the concept of scaffolding. Why is scaffolding so important? We all start with a platform of various sizes, widths, heights, strengths, if you will, and all learning begins on that platform.

For successful learning, you must meet your child on his or her “platform”, and led to greater heights.  One of the places you will see this concept in your Kindermusik classroom is during instrument exploration time. Here’s how to scaffold: First, observe what your child is doing with the instrument. Then, meet your child on their “platform” by copying that action (thereby positively affirming it with your child). Finally, then extend that action in some way – this provides your child with new ideas and the appropriate level of challenge for him to be creative in a positive, affirming, safe environment.

When you scaffold with your child, one suggestion builds upon another: “Oh – you are doing so well tapping the sticks up high!…can you tap them down low?” Asking open-ended questions is part of the scaffolding process: “What else can we do with the rhythm sticks?”This allows your child to think creatively, based upon what he has done already.

The result from this one little Kindermusik activity? Your child has experienced multiple musical concepts, has been stimulated creatively, and has been affirmed emotionally because of this one-on-one time with Mom or Dad.

The scaffolding concept crosses into every area of life. Interestingly, in a study first published in 2008 entitled “Preschool teachers’ use of music to scaffold children’s learning and behaviour” by authors Catherine Wilson Gillespie and Kendra R. Glider, it was shown that all teachers in the study used music most frequently to scaffold children’s learning, both in academic and social skill areas, and second most frequently to scaffold routine activities such as cleaning up and transitions to new activities.

So be on the lookout for scaffolding opportunities at home, at the park, the grocery store…anywhere at all. Three easy directives to remember (while you’re providing that “temporary platform” for life): Ask questions, make observations, and give challenges – and before you know it…that little “building” will be standing without support!

-Thanks to Studio 3 in Seattle for sharing this post by Miss Analiisa, with thanks to her good friend and Inspirational Kindermusik Educator of the Year Theresa Case, whose Kindermusik program is in Greenville, SC.

Kindermusik at Home! Fiddle Dee Dee!

Kindermusik is NOT intended to be just 45 minutes of fun once a week (though it is fun!) Kindermusik is all about what happens at home, as well as in class. In order to assist you, the parents and caregivers of the children enrolled, Kindermusik International provides you with the tools you need to continue the classroom experience at home.

Your primary resource is your Home Activity Book. I can already see you experienced Kindermusik grown-ups shaking your heads and saying, “Oh, no our CD is the primary resource for play at home.” But I really mean it – the Activity Book is the base for turning your 45 minutes of class fun into a week-long foray into the world of learning through music.

Without the book, you can only re-create what we have done in class. The book provides you with tools and ideas for extending what we have done in class, and adapting the activities to suit your child at home.

So… pull out your Home Activity Book, and turn to page 4. At the bottom, you’ll find a little graph that has 6 icons. Kindermusik has taken the six areas of brain development – physical, cognitive, emotional, language, social and emotional – and given each one an icon so you can quickly identify them throughout the book.

Throughout the book, you will find little tidbits of information (we call them Foundation of Learning Statements, or FOLS for short), about different areas of development. The FOLS also tell you how the activities you are learning in class, or choosing from the book to do at home meet your child’s developmental needs.

Now, you can’t decide to just stay at home and do Kindermusik, and not come to class! The FOLS you will hear in class are not likely to be in the book, and vice versa. The combination of At Home Materials and class provide the optimum well-rounded experience.

In the book, you will also find all the words the songs, all the notated melody lines, and the words and directions for the finger plays and chants. Please don’t hesitate to make up your own words to the songs. This is an age-old tradition called piggy-backing. Did you know there are over 500 verses for Yankee Doodle, and over 100 of them are about George Washington? So be creative and make up some new verses to the songs. It might just get you in the history books!

The core of the Home Activity Book is the activities. (No surprise there!) There are games, activities and crafts, and extensions of activities we do in class that are intended to be done at home. You’ll also find the American Sign Language for several of the animals in Fiddle Dee Dee.

Some of my favorite activities:

The home-made animal stamps on page 11; you can certainly supplement your animals with other shapes from the cookie cutter drawer as well. What animal doesn’t like to look at a sky full of stars, or a rainbow of hearts?

I also love the creature seekers walk on page 12.  To extend this activity at home you can create a scrapbook of the creatures you see on your walk by talking digital photos, printing them, and having your child post them in a book. Ask them about their thoughts on the creature and write them down.  Dictating a child’s thoughts is a powerful tool for language development, and when your child is older and more verbally precocious (and taller than you) you will be so glad you preserved their two year old thought about worms on a path in the park.  (Trust me… those cute little transcriptions from when they were two have saved my verbally audacious teenagers more than once!!)

You can create a bumblebee garden using the pieces on page 27, and the empty garden on pages 30-31.  After you’ve played design master a couple of times by moving the pieces around, let your child choose where things get glued down.  And if they want the flowers floating in mid air and the tree root end up and crown side down, so be it. You might just be nurturing the next Picasso.

You can nurture your own inner Picasso by making butterfly sandwiches and serving them at lunch.  (page 29) And a hot dog and bun decorated with blobs of ketchup and mustard (or other condiments) in symmetrical patterns is great for the meat eaters in your family.

Actually, anything cylindrical and anything you can arrange symmetrically around it works really well – carrot sticks with dots of hummus or ranch dressing, apple slices with drops of peanut butter, caramel and chocolate sauce, a banana half and piles of blueberries, half a strawberry (one half on each side) and kiwi rounds… the options are endless and beautiful.  Art food is a fun way to introduce new foods and concepts to your child- shapes and patterns colors are all easily taught while you are having a beautiful snack together.

You’ll find reading suggestions and listening suggestions throughout the book and things to listen for on your Fiddle Dee Dee CD, too.

I am deliberately skipping the instructions for the Hush Little Baby cards at this point.  I love the activities in the book- but before you embark on ANY of them, be sure you scan the Hush Little Baby pictures first, so that you will have the pictures later for the in class activity… the VERY important, life altering activity…. So scan away, and then you can do any of the activities on page 18. Three sets of the cards is best, anyway; one for home, one for the car and one for your purse so that it always gets to class.

So off you go now to the Fiddle Dee Dee box; pull out that book and get some ideas for ways to spend some time playing with your child today.  Feed your brain with some of those incredible bits of knowledge found in the book, and we will look forward to playing with you later this week!  (Thanks to Studio 3 in Seattle for sharing this blog post with us!)

Young Child 1, What we learned!

We discovered that music has a steady beat and learned about quarter notes, eighth notes, and rests.  We discovered where the cat "C" and apple "A" lived on the treble staff.  We learned to play these notes on our glockenspiels.  We learned about Beethoven, and Mozart's Magic Flute.  We danced and sang songs from cultures around the world. We learned about the percussion section of the orchestra.  We learned tools that will allow us to discover and express our own uniqueness through music. We missed those of you who couldn't make it to the last day of class.

Village end of Semester Pics!

Rock a bye Abby!

Taste, Taste, Taste, my egg!

Learning to Share

A picture of Logan smiling!

Skip to My Lou!

While your child is developing an understanding of language, it is important that he be given many opportunities and experiences to hear and feel a wide range of speeds; from slow to moderately steady, to quick.

The best way to do this, of course, is through music. And it’s a lot of fun, too.

Do you know the song Skip to My Lou? If you don’t, it’s easy to learn. Just look it up online to learn the melody, and then try this game.

The words go:
Skip, skip, skip to my Lou.
Skip, skip, skip to my Lou.
Skip, skip, skip to my Lou.
Skip to my Lou, my darlin’.

Skipping usually comes naturally by about Kindergarten. If you don’t yet have a skipper, that’s okay. You skip while you sing, either with your baby in your arms or on the floor. Your toddler may just watch you at first, while your preschooler may give it a try.

Now, substitute movement words, and vary the tempo.

For example: really slowly…
Creep, creep, creep to my Lou.
Creep, creep, creep to my Lou.
Creep, creep, creep to my Lou.
Creep to my Lou, my darlin’.

Here’s a whole host of movement words to get you started:
march, twirl, sway, rock, run, walk, gallop, lunge, wiggle, prance, spin, waddle, slither, swoop, slide, hop, jump, leap, nod, crawl, kick, wave, shake, flop, stretch, swim and bounce

Alternate between the two extremes of fast and slow, and notice the joyful realization on your child’s face (even your baby!) when she anticipates what is next.

-post created by Miss Analiisa, at Studio3 music, located in Seattle Washington.

Musical Play

What’s so great about musical play?  A child’s work is play.  Through play a child safely learns about and explores the many dimensions of the world around him, it is also an important tool for self-discovery.  Musical play is especially important because only in making music does a child engage all the learning centers of the brain. 

Brain Development

In infancy and early childhood, children create the pathways they will use for future learning and problem solving.  The more pathways a child creates in the brain the easier it is for a child to learn.  Music helps a child create and connect a multitude of pathways in the brain.  For example, as children learn to move to a beat they are creating pathways that will help them in math and reading, as well as athletic coordination.  Musical play increases comprehension and listening.  Music also allows children a safe place to explore and experience both positive and negative emotions.  They can play the emotions of happiness and sadness; play being scared as they listen to music that imitates a storm and then be happy when they get to play outside after the storm.  This helps them deal with being scared during a real storm. 

Socialization

Important socialization skills are learned as children make music in groups.  They learn to share and take turns and learn that music sounds better when they are not all randomly banging on a musical object.  They also develop a balanced sense of self in relationship to a group as they learn to play their own musical part in an ensemble. 

Creativity

With the ever increasing busyness of the American life style creativity in children is declining.  Without creativity the modern advances in technology will halt.  There is nothing better than musical play to stimulate creativity.  All the centers of a child’s brain engage as they creatively personalize music.  The creative process is in action when music is adapted to a child’s name and when the child picks the motion to go with the song.  In early childhood music there are no rights or wrongs, there are a few safety boundaries, but are no absolutes.  For example, there are no right ways to play rhythm sticks, children are rewarded and praised for coming up with as many different ways to play the sticks as they can.  It is also a safe environment to just watch and learning from observing the different ways other children play the sticks.