Using Imitative Play to Boost Your Child's Learning.

Play is a Child's Work.

Imitative Play is Your Work.

Play is one of the most important ways that two & three-year-olds learn & develop.  Emerging during childhood, imitative play is a type of play where a child begins to copy or mimic another person.  A child seeing another child play egg shakers, to match the feel of the music, or a child noticing that Mommy dances slower, when the music is slower, then matching her tempo, are examples of imitative play in action.  Imitation helps children begin to work out the relationships between themselves and the things & people around them.  From this, cooperative and pretend play will blossom during the preschool years.  Giving children plenty of opportunities to mimic a wide array of experiences, both familiar, and new, supports their ongoing development.

In our toddler classes, we use imitation to help your child begin to "feel" the music.  Whether it's moving like a slide whistle making glissando's or feeling the syncopation to a favorite chant like "On the Ground," your child will follow your lead. As you move and groove to the steady beat and enjoy the rhythmic patterns of the music, your child will begin to copy you and do the same!

On our blog - read how your child's attempts to imitate you, as you sing, can nurture their speaking and singing voice!

Kindermusik@Home:

• Log in to your Kindermusik @ Home account, and go on a Listening Walk!  
• As you listen to music at home this week, dance around the house, with your child.  Play a 'follow me' game, where your child imitates you sometimes, and you imitate her sometimes.  Who else wants to join the game? 
• Then, play 'follow me' with some animals, during  I Can Do That, Too! 
• Sing "Eency Weency Spider" using hand motions and invite your child to copy you. How soon were they doing the motions? Singing some of the words? 

Big Back Yard: Gross Motor & Singing Voices

Growing Baby's Gross Motor Skills & Her Singing Voice

Playing on the seesaw, driving our 'lawnmowers,' standing tall as a tree - all of these activities help your child exercise her large muscle groups.  Older babies & toddlers are definitely in 'movement mode!'  Crawling, pulling themselves up, walking, running, climbing stairs, using push toys, kicking balls... developing their gross-motor skills!  Gross-motor skills are the actions and movements of the large muscles in the body (arms, legs, torso, etc).  Our dance and movement activities, in class, support the development of those muscle groups, and encourage coordination and balance - with each child moving at his own pace. 

As we move, your child is also becoming familiar with the interval between the notes ‘sol’ and ‘mi.’  These are the first two notes a child learns – from ‘It’s our time..’ in our hello song, to ‘eggs away…’ to ‘rain, rain, go away…’  Sol-Mi is everywhere!

On our blog: Learn about 4 Benefits of Baby Music Classes (including gross-motor development!).

Kindermusik@Home:

• Log in to your Kindermusik @ Home account, and read our new e-book 'In My Sandbox,' together! 
• As you listen to music this week at home, dance around the room, with your child.  Encourage her to reach up high (like a tree!), out wide (like a house), in thin (like a pin), and crouch small (like a mouse) as you dance, together. 
• Help build your child's gross-motor skills, with these Classic Back-yard Games - toddler style!

Musical Expression: Tempo

Teaching Self Expression with Tempo

Fostering self-expression and inclusion (as we do, when giving all a turn to choose 'fast' or 'slow' tempi, as we sing in our preschool classes called "Laugh & learn") assures fairness for children, and enhances meaningful participation in their own learning.  When children are free to express their intentions and act creatively within a form of learning, their development of basic motivation or will is strengthened.  Where this willfulness can be strengthened, a positive relationship to self-directed learning can emerge.  This leads to the development of expertise (much like the professional musician who, through countless hours of disciplined rehearsal, becomes a expert player).  - adapted from Rhiannon Venables, Fostering Artistic and Creative Expression in Children, Learning Links - Helping Kids Learn

On our blog - See how  tempo can help you at home, and help your child in future musical endeavors!

Kindermusik@Home:

• Log in to your Kindermusik @ Home account, and look at 'I Can Do That!' As your child enjoys moving like each animal, encourage her to notice whether the animal moves fast or slow - then match that tempo!
• Then, listen to some Garden Sounds.  If you like, extend this into a family game of 'Who's Making All That Noise' from our new home CD. 
• If you didn't get your home CD, this week, download your music!  Look on the In My Garden homepage, and look to the lower right side.  Find the purple dots in the download center - your music is in the one on the left!

Early Learning Happens Through The Senses

Exploring Baby's Senses

Early learning happens through the senses.  Babies' ability to see, hear, smell, taste, and touch, as well as their proprioceptive and vestibular senses, allow them to take in information about the world.  In class, we provide baby with a variety of sensory experiences, with an emphasis on touch & sound.  From hearing bees buzz, to playing with bells, to feeling the 'wind' blown gently on their faces, these activities engage baby's senses.  Since babies learn and remember more when they engage their senses, these activities help them develop cognitively, linguistically, socially, emotionally, physically, and creatively.

On our blog - learn more about multi-sensory learning!

Kindermusik@Home:

• Log in to your Kindermusik @ Home account, and read the Wiggle Waggle Bee! 
• Look on the Nature Walk homepage, and find the download center, on the lower right.  Your music is in the red dot furthest to the left. 
• Then, take baby on a Sensory Walk!  What can you help your baby see (notice), touch, smell, or even taste while walking outside?  

Elyse Scott: Piano and Strings Teacher

Elyse Scott, Piano and Strings Teacher

Duquesne University, BS in Music Education

Since beginning her teaching career as an undergrad, Elyse has worked with students of all ages and skill levels, teaching in the public school system and preschool as well as giving private lessons.

At Duquesne University, Elyse studied piano under Ken Burky and performed in the Voice of Sprit, serving as section leader, under the direction of Christine Jordanoff.  As a sophomore she began teaching preschool classes as part of Duquesne's Early Childhood Music Initiative, funded by PNC's Grow Up Great.  The following year, she began teaching supplementary general music classes at Hope Academy of Music and the Arts for preschool and elementary school students.  In her Junior year, Elyse was inducted into the National Music Honor Society, Pi Kappa Lambda.  She completed her student teaching in the East Allegheny School District in cooperation with Steve Ehrlich, direction their string orchestra in grades 4-12, and at Fox Chapel Area High School in cooperation with Craig Cannon, where she led the choirs, music theory classes, and piano lab.

Elyse has perfumed with the Pittsburgh Compline Choir and has served as an accompanist, pianist, cellist, and vocalist at various schools and churches in the area.

Currently, Elyse is the Director of Christian Education and Youth Ministry at First Lutheran Church in downtown Pittsburgh. She teaches private lessons with Kathy's Music and works with actors with special needs at the Center for Theatre Arts in Mt. Lebanon.

Cecilia Orazi: Cello Teacher and Chamber Music

Cecilia Orazi, Cello and String Teacher

Carnegie Mellon, MM in Cello Performance

Cleveland Institute of Music, BM in Cello Performance

We are so pleased to have Cecilia working with our cello, violin and viola students and assisting with Chamber Music ensembles. 

Cecilia Orazi recently graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a Master of Music degree in cello performance. She studies with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s principal cellist, Anne Martindale Williams. She earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music in 2013, studying with Richard Weiss. Cecilia, a native of Cleveland, Ohio, began playing the cello at the age of eight and performed in the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra and the Contemporary Youth Orchestra. She served as principal cellist of the Cleveland Women’s Orchestra and as the Librarian/Assistant for the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra. She has attended Round Top Music Festival, Chautauqua Music Festival, Credo Chamber Music Camp, ENCORE School for Strings and Interlochen Arts Camp. 

This summer, Cecilia participated in the National Repertory Orchestra in Breckenridge, Colorado. She has played in masterclasses for cellists Desmond Hoebig and Richard Aaron and has worked with the Pacifica, Avalon and Cavani String Quartets, as well as Peter Salaff, Noah Bendex-Balgley and Alisa Weilerstein. 

She is a certified Suzuki cello teacher who also enjoys running and trying new foods.