Get Baby Moving!

Parenting Tip: Move baby high, low, and in-between!

Why?

Allowing a child to experience being moved in many different directions (for example, being swung down low, then moved up to dance up high) is an essential part of the learning process. 

Neural pathways in the brain are developed through experience, stimulation, and interaction.  Varied experiences will increase the number of these neural pathways. 

Movement and sensory awareness are the primary ways young children learn about themselves, and their world.

A child moves up & down before learning the words 'up' and 'down.'  By labeling our movements while swooping low, and dancing up high, we help babies make connections between what they are feeling, and the words they are hearing. 

 

How?

Look at the e-book Butterfly, Butterfly, with baby!  Enjoy flying your 'hand butterflies' all around, and landing on baby, with each page :)  What if you used a  butterfly toy from home?  or maybe a scarf, or other, colorful cloth?

Try this High & Low Instruments game! 

As you enjoy your new home CD, keep an ear open for high sounds & low sounds.  Take each opportunity to share those words with baby, and add a movement game, or instrument/vocal play to add to baby's experience with the music!

 

Want to Learn More?

On our blog - learn more about the importance of introducing baby to opposite concepts!

Kindermusik 7-Year Continuum: As a baby, your child counts on you to move her body in a variety of ways – so that she knows what is possible.  In Kindermusik toddler classes, your child will use his vocabulary of movement experiences to move his own body to the music – movement is how toddlers learn best!  As a preschooler, your child will begin to use movement to express stories and music, using her own imagination.  In Young Child classes, your big kid makes use of the coordination & muscle control he's been developing over the years, as he holds glockenspiel mallets, and plays notes on his glockenspiel using just the right amount of force.  Small, quiet movements now become a lighter touch with the mallets, as big, loud movements become a heavier touch, producing more instrumental sound.

 

Words with Toddlers!

Parenting Tip: Build your toddler's vocabulary by singing familiar songs!

Why?

Receptive and expressive language skills develop from infancy. Receptive language skills (the ability to take in language and understand) include being able to follow directions, understand a story, and understand figurative language. Expressive language skills encompass the many ways of conveying a message.

The more you talk, sing, and read to your child, the stronger his verbal skills will be.  Linking motions to words (like with the song, Mr. Sun), advances memory and language. 

Words are just 'sounds,' until they are associated with an object, action, experience, or feeling.  It's one reason why we label so many of the things we do, each week, in Kindermusik!

 

How?

Read the Mr. Sun e-book, with your child!  Enjoy looking for the sun, on each page, making animal sounds to match the illustrations, and don't forget the motions that go with the song

Use describing words to help your child Be a Cloud!  For fun, follow up with a rendition of the Cloud poem, from your new home CD. 

For fun with movement words, listen to I Like to Sing When the Sun is Shining!  As a family, enjoy moving around the room, using the movements sung in the recording.  Can you add your own movements & verses to the song? 

 

Want to Learn More?

On our blog:  Discover some of the ways that music is one of the Best Things for Early Language Development!

 

Kindermusik 7-Year Continuum:

As a baby, your child used your vocal model as a place to begin experimenting with the many sounds her own voice could make.  Today, your toddler is taking all of those sounds, and putting them together to form words – many times with her singing voice, linking those words with motions.  In Kindermusik preschool classes, your child will add new words to his vocabulary, as he learns specific musical terms, like staccato, legato, and glissando.  Big kids in Young Child classes exercise their language skills in a new way, as they read traditional music rhythms and notes. 

 

Pretend play & Preschoolers!

Parenting Tip: Play 'dress up,' and pretend with your preschooler!

Why?

Pretend play is the ability to transform objects and actions symbolically.  If you watch the pretend play of young children, you will see that they are learning about the real world around them by exploring imaginary situations. 

Children use pretend play to practice and explore what is and isn't possible.  Pretend play gives children the opportunity to try out their ideas and solve problems as they create the characters and rules of their world. 

From a musical standpoint, children are using the same creative thinking skills they will need for future musical improvisation and composition.  Being encouraged to share their ideas during pretend play will help them to be confident in sharing their musical ideas, as well. 

 

How?

Read the e-book, Rupert, the Wrong Word Pirate, with your child!  Follow the silly story of Captain Rupert, who is constantly getting his words mixed up.  This is a fun book to explore rhyming words, with your child (did the Captain really tell his crew to put on their pirate CATS???) 

 Enjoy some pretend play, with your child - need ideas?  Ahoy, There!  Check out this video to get started. 

Want to have your own costume ball, at home?  Find fun items around the house, for dress up.  Then, cue up some royal ball music (like the Sonata in F, from Kindermusik's Make Believe CD) and bow, curtsy, & waltz with your family!

 

Want to Learn More?

On our blog:  Read about the importance of play to your child's development, in Science in the Shower.

 

Kindermusik 7-Year Continuum:

As a baby, every day was full of new things to discover, for your child.  You moved and guided her through each Kindermusik class, and watched her facial expressions & body language, as she experienced each new instrument and activity.  As a Kindermusik toddler, your child learned to imitate you, and others (like the dog in Walk Along, Rover!), in playful pretending games.  Now, as a preschooler, he can take all of those experiences, and blend them with his own unique imagination, to listen to dancing advice from puppets, or build a pirate ship out of a blanket, or look for things out on the sea, by looking through hair-curler 'binoculars.'  In Young Child classes, Kindermusik kids take their creativity and use it to inform their music making.  (Is this song quiet, loud, sad, happy?  This song is about the wind – how can my glockenspiel sound windy?)

 

Babies, Timbre, Rhythms, Counting & Patterns

Parenting Tip:  Sing, play, and count in 3's

Why?

Researchers, scientists, and teachers have long recognized the link between music and math, but the benefits seemed to be long-term – later when children were learning math in school. 

The exciting reality is that even very young children are unknowingly learning math as they participate in early childhood music and movement classes.

How?

Look at the Ball Play activity.  Speak the words to 'Roly Bouncy,' as you play (or play along to the track on Kindermusik's Playtime CD), and enjoy the 1-2-3 feeling of the chant. 

Watch the 'Outdoor Sounds' video, and talk about the different timbres of each sound.  Then, go on an outdoor field trip, right at home - what do you hear?  What about the sounds inside your house? 

Cue up the 'Hop to It' track (also on Kindermusik Playtime), and have fun bouncing around the room with your child - counting '1-2' the whole way!

Want to Learn More?Read more, on our blog, about 3 ways children learn math, through music!

Kindermusik's 7-year Continuum:

Kindermusik parents help babies experience rhythms, timbres, and musical meter (grouping of beats into 2's, 3's, 4's, etc).  As a toddler, Kindermusik kids begin to count to 3 along with the class, and move their own bodies & instruments in patterns of 3.  Kindermusik preschoolers begin to connect graphic representations of rhythm & beat to the sounds they are hearing (like chanting: 'dust, dust, dust!' as they 'read' pictures of 3 featherdusters, from left to right).  In Young Child classes, big kids learn that beats are grouped into sets, by barlines, and begin reading traditional rhythmic notation in the songs that they sing, read & play.

 

Musical Memory for Toddlers

Parenting Tip:  Add music to your daily routine to boost your toddlers' memory!

Why?

Short-term memory has the ability to hold about seven bits of information.  But, when patterns and related groupings of information are bound together as a unit, the volume of material stored increases.  Patterns then become an important avenue for recall and memory (Rhythms of Learning - Chris Brewer & Don G. Campbell).

Learning to recognize patterns means information—language, music, and movement—can be decoded, organized, and remembered more easily.

As children develop pattern-recognition abilities, their learning potential is greatly enhanced because their brains are building skills in prediction and categorization, which can be applied to any new information they encounter.

How?

Enjoy a movement game! 

Next, create a family & friends 'flip book,' with your child! 

Cue up a favorite song from Kindermusik's Family & Friends CD (maybe Hop Up, My Baby?), and create a movement pattern, as a family!  Bounce to the verses, and hop up, on the matching lyrics.  What if you walked & jumped, instead?  Or tiptoed & stretched?  Or...

Want to Learn More?

On our blog - learn why musicians have an advantage, when it comes to memory.  And, enjoy a free 'memory game,' with your child.

Kindermusik's 7-year Continuum:

Kindermusik babies use songs to remember when it is time for class to begin, when it is time for rocking together, and when it is time to say goodbye.  As a toddler, your child starts focusing on details in the music & lyrics, to know when it is time to 'Hop Up!'  Kindermusik preschoolers take this musical memory a step further, by listening for the right place in the song to play their instruments (is it time for the 'see-saw-see' sound, yet?  How many beats before I tap the triangle?)  Big kids in Young Child classes use their musical memories to know which note comes next on their glockenspiel, by reading notation on a staff, singing the melody from memory, then transferring those notes to the glockenspiel as they sing.

 

Integrated Learning for Preschoolers

Parenting Tip:  Learn Kindermusik games from your child, and play, sing, read, write, and move together!

Why?

Each Kindermusik activity has multiple objectives, and helps your child to develop multiple skills, at once.  When we sing Hello, we are using listening ears, singing voices, practicing steady beat & tempo, and using appropriate dynamics.  As we sing & move to circle dances, we are internalizing steady beat, singing, and demonstrating melody & rhythm, with our bodies.  When we use non-traditional melodic dictation, by drawing lines on the whiteboard to match the downward melody in a song, we practice moving our eyes from left to right, which helps your child with writing & reading!  When we play tool sounds (using graphic notation) during Build Ourselves a House (from Kindermusik's Home Sweet Home CD), we decode symbols to remember which tool is needed, next.  When we work together to build our house out of paper & plates, we learn about teamwork, and that we are an important part of the group.  So many things, happening all at once - so much learning in every game!  That's integrated learning - and we employ that concept every week in Kindermusik.

How?

Review our e-book, A House For Me!  For fun, use the rhythm pattern from class (pictured above), as you read.  If you have craft sticks at home, you can make a copy of this pattern, using them! 

Then, have a house-cleaning party!  As you 'dust, dust, dust,' you are reinforcing the rhythm pattern:  tah, tah, tah, rest. 

If you need to do some projects around the house, using tools, be sure to get out an instrument or soundmaker & sing the Build Myself a House song, as a warmup! 

Want to Learn More?

On our blog - read about Arts, with the Brain in Mind!

Kindermusik 7-Year Continuum:

At every age, from babies to big kids, Kindermusik features music and movement activities that reinforce learning in other disciplines, and that foster your child's physical, cognitive, and emotional development.  Discovering math, reading, and science concepts through music learning & movement as a preschooler, helps your child prepare for big kid activities in Kindermusik Young Child classes.  There, he will expand that learning to understand that two 8^th notes fit into a single beat of music (math), and that a larger bar on the glockenspiel makes a lower sound than does a shorter bar (science).  Continued singing in Young Child classes will continue her journey of discovery in speech and literacy.  Composition and Improvisation activities in Young Child classes fosters your child's budding creativity. 

 

Baby's Awareness of Rhythms

Parenting Tip:  Move & tap to rhythms with baby.

Why?

Rhythmic awareness is simply being aware of steady beat and meter in music and in our surroundings.  The most fundamental property of music is beat, the underlying, unchanging, repeating pulse that occurs in song, chant, and rhyme.  Your child was first exposed to be in the womb.  She heard her mother's heartbeat and then, after birth, her own.  

Exposure to steady beat – hearing it, feeling it, being moved to it – is important for your child's developing sense of steady beat.

How?

Share the rhythm patterns of the Two Little Eyes fingerplay with your child

Play with tempo (the speed of the music)!  Bounce fast and slow to Pop! Goes the Weasel (from Kindermusik's 'Playtime' CD)

Tap or shake an instrument to the steady beat of the German Band Song and play the Stop & Go game when you hear the silence.

Bounce to the rhythm of 'Peekaboo, This-a-way:'( iq q iq q ) also from 'Playtime'.

Sway side to side to the Beat! Clap to the Beat! March to the Beat! Wave your arms to Beat! -- All while listening and moving to the Ten Penny Bit track on the Playtime album.

Play with rhythm and a home-made drum while chanting to "Monkey in a Tree" (iq iq q z ) Or drum gently right on your baby's feet, back, or legs.  The more they feel the beat, the more they will begin to internalize it.

Want to Learn More?

On our blog:  Did you know that rhythmic awareness may help predict learning disabilities in children?

Kindermusik 7-Year Continuum:  Now, your baby relies on you to help him notice rhythmic patterns in music.  We move, tap, play instruments, and sing rhythmic patterns for baby to see, feel, and hear.  As toddlers, Kindermusik kids try out ways to move their own bodies to rhythms they hear, as they see and hear the adults in the class modeling those rhythms.  Kindermusik preschool classes see children begin to associate visual representations with rhythm (ie:  3 dots might mean the 'rap, rap, rap' of a hammer in a song about building a house).  Big kids in Young Child classes take their familiarity with rhythmic sounds & movements, and go a step further – learning to read traditional rhythmic notation, and connecting pitches on the staff to those rhythms to read sheet music!

 

Instrument Exploration for Toddlers

Parenting Tip:  Create an 'instrument petting zoo' for your toddler!

Why?

When a child takes up a new instrument and bangs, pushes, rolls, and shakes it to find out what sounds it makes, they are working on the skills of curiosity and persistence.

When they decide they would like to try the instrument that knocks instead of the one that jingles, they are following their likes and dislikes.  

When they create a new rhythm while playing the sticks and find different ways to vary that rhythm, they are learning to express themselves which helps them make meaning of their world.

How?

Think of child-safe instruments, and sound-makers that you have, at your house.  Gather those items, and create an 'instrument petting zoo,' for your child!  Which sounds is she most drawn to?  Does he play the sounds in an unexpected way?  Can you copy your child's playing style, for a duet performance?  What favorite Kindermusik songs can you play along with?

find your Head & Shoulders! 

Sort out who should be where, for the Family Picnic! 

Get out a tambourine (or other instrument), and play along with Come On Through, My Darlin (from Kindermusik's 'Family and Friends' CD)  How will you play in a way that matches each verse?  Where, in the room, will you move those instruments 'through?' 

Want to Learn More?

On our blog - Read Why Children Blur the Line Between Work & Play! 

Kindermusik 7-Year Continuum:  As a baby, your child heard the familiar timbre of Mommy & Daddy's voices, among other sounds.  She also learned, through cause & effect, that she can produce a sound from a shaker instrument by moving it around!  Kindermusik toddlers try out a wider variety of child-friendly instruments in class, and discover many new ways to make sounds with them (oftentimes, discovering new, 'non-traditional' ways to make sounds).  As preschoolers, Kindermusik kids make choices about which instrument is best for a particular situation (ie:  'which instrument most resembles a frog sound?  Oh – you chose the guiro/scraper for that!').  Young Child students continue to explore instruments –and explore some, in depth:  glockenspiel (pre-keyboard instrument);  dulcimer (stringed instrument);  and recorder (wind instrument), offering students experience with multiple instrument families, as they prepare to move into private music lessons. 

 

Preschoolers - Connecting Symbols & Sounds

Parenting Tip:  Write a song using symbols!

Why?

Just as children must learn the relationship between sounds and letters and words in order to begin to decode or interpret the printed word, children learn the relationship between sounds and musical symbols in order to begin to decode or interpret the language of music or the printed page of music.

When preschoolers use symbols to represent sounds and even duration of sounds, and learn that they go in a progression of left to right they are making a path towards reading literature and also towards music reading.

How?

See Animals at Home!  Can you make your hands into the shape of each home, like in the Kindermusik rhyme, Where Do You Live (from the Home Sweet Home CD)?

Go on a House Hunt, to find many items around the house! Do you have any of those objects at your house?  Do they make a sound?  Can you create your own symbols to match? 

Get out a scraper instrument, and have your child show you how to play our symbols used in class (3 dots = 'tap, tap, tap';  3 waveforms = 'scrape, scrape, scrape;'  2 short swirly dots, and one longer swirly dot  = 'bzz, bzz,  bzzzzzzz;'  3 rectangles = 'swish, swish, swish')

Want to Learn More?

On our blog - Try your hand at the 'See the Music' game!
Also, discover that symbol recognition is just one, of Six Ways Kindermusik Prepares Young Children for Formal Music Lessons!

Kindermusik 7-Year Continuum:

Kindermusik babies associate visuals like puppets and pictures with words and songs.  As toddlers, Kindermusik kids actively listen for specific sounds, and connect those sounds to known objects (like the sound of a telephone, or of a puppy barking).  Your Kindermusik preschooler is just beginning to read iconic notation (instead of notes, we use pictures:  3 dots = the 'rap, rap, rap' of the hammer in 'Build Myself a House,'  3 colored rectangles = the 'brush, brush, brush' of the paint brush in the song, etc).  Big kids in Young Child classes go from iconic notation, to traditional music notation, as they learn to read rhythms and notes on the music staff.