Village: Dream Pillow Week 7

FOUNDATIONS OF LEARNING

Sing for Joy: Singing is for everyone – even those who don’t consider themselves “singers”. To your baby, enjoyment level in music making ism ore important than his adult caregiver’s skill level because babies learn best when emotionally involved in an activity.

Time to Rest: Your baby’s most rapid growth and development occur during the first two years of life, from reflexive infant to capable toddler with a well-developed sense of self. It is important for this incredible little learner to have quiet times to just be aware without actively being stimulated by your or his environment.

Parentese: Adults unconsciously tend to speak to babies in a very musical way, in a slow tempo, with exaggerated stress, variation in pitch and volume, and changes in vocal timbre, or “colour”. Vocal exchanges between adult and baby tend to be in rhythmically predictable patterns, allowing the two partners to learn to take turns in conversation. Some scientist believe that the more musical these exchanges, the more communicative they are.

Can you believe it's the last class?!? Where did it go? Continue the fun with Zoom Buggy starting next week!

Our Time Milk & Cookies Week 7

FOUNDATIONS OF LEARNING:

Vocal Expressiveness: Through the use of the vocal slide (glissando), the child can learn to use the voice expressively. The development of vocal expressiveness can enhance communication skills.

Physical Confidence: Body awareness is important in the development of the child’s physical confidence. This developmental goal may be met by engaging in movement activities which focus on: body part movement, whole body movement in one place, and whole body movement while traveling in space.

Play as a Learning Mode: Because children do not separate feeling from thinking, acting, and socializing, play is the most effective learning mode available to them.

Reconnect: Calming lullabies provide time for the very active toddler to reconnect with the adult. As the lesson progresses, the toddler will exhibit “bound away and back” tendencies. The opportunity to reconnect is valuable to both the adult and child.

Imagine That! Hello Weather, Week 7

FOUNDATIONS OF LEARNING

Sign Language: Sign language is considered the “unvoiced language” and is easily learned by preschool-aged children. Signing can create an environment for understanding without words and help children avoid frustration when words don’t come easily. It can also foster language refinement and provide ways to communicate with non-hearing people as more children are “mainstreamed” into preschools. Sign language also helps children attend more easily as it requires eye contact (many children are overloaded with sound in their environment). It makes language active; children are active participants in the learning process. Sign language can foster self-esteem by giving children more control in expressing themselves and is an acquired skill. Finally, sign language can lessen conflict in the classroom as it channels kinetic energy positively and can be a quiet way to “correct”.

Integrated Learning: I Can Hear the Rain & Wind is another example of integrated learning. It requires that the children apply analytical listening, label sounds with music terminology, demonstrate a musical interpretation with sound (sticks) and with movement (scarves), and sing the appropriate verses.

Family Time: Here, There, & Everywhere Week 2

FOUNDATIONS OF LEARNING

Thinking Cap: Use your thumbs and index fingers to gently pull your ears back and slowly unroll them; begin at the top of the ear and gently massage down and around the curve, ending with the bottom of the ear lobe. The “Thinking Cap” is a Brain Gym exercise that activates the brain for focused attention on hearing. Specifically this exercise stimulates over 400 acupuncture points in the ears which relate to several brain/body functions including increasing auditory recognition, attention, discrimination, perception, memory, and reticular formation of the brain to tune out distracting, irrelevant sounds and tune in to language or other meaningful sounds.

Steady Beat: Steady beat is an organizer for the child, purposeful and calming. The research carried out by High/Scope Educational Research Foundation shows a positive correlation of steady beat with reading, vocabulary, math, music, and physical coordination. Steady beat seems to help in these areas because it contributes to a child’s ability to concentrate, understand space and distance, and have better control of physical movements.

Phonemes: Phonemes are the smallest parts of spoken language, the sounds that distinguish one word from another. All languages share certain phonemes in common, and playing with syllables like su and lu will help children perceive the distinctions between different phonemes. As children learn to distinguish the sounds of language, they become more creative and expressive in their communication, and enhance their understanding of the words they hear spoken around them.

Fun Craft Idea

Pinecone Bird Feeders

You’ll need:
• some room-temperature peanut butter (or if allergies are a concern, shortening)
• a few pine cones
• some birdseed in a wide shallow dish (and a soapy washcloth close at hand)

1. Show your toddler how to use a little plastic knife (such as a playdough knife) or a spoon to smear some peanut butter on each petal of the cone.

2. Now she can roll the pine cone in the birdseed, shake it off and set it somewhere safe to dry. You can add a colourful ribbon so you can hang the feeder in a tree.

3. These make great gifts for grandparents & friends! Wrap the pinecones in cellophane or add a layer of waxed paper before you wrap them up in gift wrap.

Piper Jayne Castley

This is Piper immediately after birth. A big, big girl at 11lbs, 12oz. She was so big, she crushed the lower half of my right lung. Fluid collected, became infected, and I got pneumonia. All was much better after they drained over a litre from my lung. Painful, but better! Breathing is very, very good...


Daddy, Jacob, & Piper at Camp Lions Gate. Piper was born on Friday, October 13th, and we were discharged on Monday morning. By 8pm, I couldn't breathe and we had to go back to emergency. I didn't get home until the 26th. Piper was allowed to stay with me as a companion baby, which meant that I had to have help 24 hours a day in the hospital for Piper and I, and at home for Jacob. A bazillion thanks to family and friends who covered the vigils! We could never have done it without you!


Jacob LOVES holding his baby sister, but I have the feeling that they are still in the honeymoon period...

Family Time: Here, There, Everywhere! Week 1

FOUNDATIONS OF LEARNING

Vocal Play: Playing with vocal inflection – the intonations and melody of language – is a critical part of vocal development, which may begin as early as 5-7 months of age, and provides older children the opportunity to explore the complexity of communication. Vocal play allows children to practice the precise coordination of lips, tongue, and breathing necessary to speak words.

Tonal Development: most young children can easily sing minor thirds, major seconds, and perfect fourths. These intervals create a universal foundation for tonal development in children. Descending tones and smaller intervals are easier for a child to reproduce. Imitation and vocal play help children develop audiation, musical thinking, and sophisticated listening skills – fun, interactive ways to recognize pattern and meaning in sounds.

Vestibular System: The vestibular system tells our bodies and heads where we are in relation to the surface of the earth. Are we upside down, sideways, on a roller coaster, hanging from the side of a cliff? The vestibular system helps us feel gravity so we can plan movements to control balance and bilateral coordination. It also plays a role in processing auditory language, visual-spatial relationships, and even emotional security.

Pretend Play: Pretend play is the ability to transform objects and actions symbolically. If you closely watch a young child’s pretend play, you will see that he is learning about the real world around him 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.

Entraining Beat: Our bodies transmit sound vibration and are profoundly and subtly affected by the music we hear. “Entraining” our bodies to music simply means that our bodies are vibrationally in sync with the sound. Because music is “structured sound”, when we are fully entrained with music, it can have the effect of helping us focus our energy to the tasks at hand. An easy way for you to help your family become comfortable with this process is to have them simply rock or move to the beat! Moving some part of your body, if only tapping a finger, is enough to entrain you to the music. In addition to enhancing your physical energy level, music entrainment can be used to change your state of mind, enhancing creativity as well as general performance.

Imagine That! Hello Weather Week 6

FOUNDATIONS OF LEARNING

Games: Games involve other players, have rules, and are eminently social. Games develop gradually as children’s social skills mature. Young preschool children play games in much the same fashion that they participate in movement play. They observe a particular way to move and imitate it. Older preschool children frequently perceive rules as an interesting example of how to play rather than a required behaviour. When playing together, they sometimes have difficulties regulating sequential turn taking. Nor are they concerned with what other players do; they simply are interested in their own actions. Each player is on his or her own.

Village: Dream Pillow Week 6

FOUNDATIONS OF LEARNING

Together in Unison & in Harmony: Music sometimes has one voice, as in a song sung by one person or sung in unison by a group. Other times, as in a symphony, there are many groups of musical “voices”, each distinct, but all complementary to the others. And sometimes music has just one, two, or three voices. In lessons 6 & 7, we draw attention to the experience of unison singing and speaking and contrast this with the experience of two- and three-part ensembles.

Physical Benefits of Intentional Touch: In addition to facilitating emotional bonding, intentional touch has many physical benefits. It stimulates, strengthens, and regulates internal organs and promotes nerve myelination, making for better mind-body communication. For babies who spend any extended time in a baby carrier, massage on the back aids the developing posture as well.

Baby’s Outlook on Life: “All the small exchanges between parent and child have an emotional subtext, and in the repletion of these messages over the years children form the core of their emotional outlook and capabilities.” Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman.

Hear, Feel, and See the Beat: Rocking your baby while singing “O How Lovely is the Evening” to her gives your baby a whole-body steady beat experience: she hears the beat, feels the beat, and see the beat as you rock together.

Taking Turns Talking: Your baby learns the art of conversation from the adults in her life. When speaking to your baby, leave time for her response, then imitate the response. Imitation sets the foundation for learning language.

Our Time Milk & Cookies Week 6

FOUNDATIONS OF LEARNING:

Language Centres: Environments rich in written, spoken, and gestural language provide the experience necessary for the stimulation of neural dendrites and circuits in the brain. This stimulation causes the brain’s language centers to grow, thus allowing the child to understand and speak efficiently.

Balance & Stability: In order to develop balance and stability, toddlers should practice walking in different directions and in different patterns.

Experiencing Sound: The locrian mode, which may be represented by thinking of the white keys from b to b on a keyboard, is rarely used. However, the “fun” of this particular mode is the little-heard interval, the tritone. The earlier a child hears and experiences a particular sound, the easier it is for the child to reproduce that sound. Exposing children to a sound they may not hear in their day-to-day experience allows them a new point of reference for sounds.

OUR TIME: Milk & Cookies Week 5

FOUNDATIONS OF LEARNING:

Community: Circle dances foster a sense of community within the classroom. Historically, community has meant the overall social context in which people live out their lives…community remains central to children’s social and emotional development. (Fostering Children’s Social Competence: The Teacher’s Role, Lilian G. Katz & Diane E. McClellan)

Emotional Development: Many experts agree that the child’s emotional development is dependent upon the care received at an early age. The child who receives love, attention, and the encouragement to explore and learn is most likely to develop an “amygdala,” a part of the brain which allows a person to calm himself. “The parts of the brain that process emotion grow and mature relatively early in a child and are very sensitive to parental feedback and handling.” (Magic Trees of the Mind, Marian Diamond, PhD. And Janet Hopson)

VILLAGE: Dream Pillow Week 5

FOUNDATIONS OF LEARNING

Audiation: Audiation is the ability to hear music when no musical sound is present. When you audiate, you have internalized music and are “thinking” music. “Sarasponda” has an invitation to audiate when the last note is left off the song. As the song becomes familiar, some babies may spontaneously fill in the blank. Regardless of the response, this is an opportunity to engage your baby’s listening skills.

Through Stress to Success: Your baby’s emotions and motor development are interrelated. Each new skill brings frustration during the learning and delight upon mastery. As your baby learns to walk, she may express stress through tantrums, which are a sign of her developing independence.

Cuddle Up: Babies who have warm, responsive care are more resilient later in life. By following your instincts to cuddle your baby in activities such as Rock-A-Bye, Baby, you are providing the security and safety necessary for your baby’s healthy development.

Patterns in Music: Music is rich with patterns of rhythm and melody, from simple to complex. Your baby’s brain is designed to seek patterns, right from birth, as she makes sense of the world. Thus, the simple, engaging song, “May There Always Be Sunshine” provides experience your baby’s brain is hungry for.

IMAGINE THAT! Hello Weather Week 5

FOUNDATIONS OF LEARNING

Sound/Symbol Relationship: The musical raindrops activity is one of many ways to present the idea that sounds can be written down without the need for printing the letters of the alphabet. Understanding the sound/symbol relationship is a necessary building block in literacy development. Classrooms filled with print, language and literacy play and writing allow children to experience the joy and power associated with reading and writing while mastering basic concepts about print that research has shown are strong predictors of achievement.

Dance: When movement experiences and the sensations of moving are connected to the expressive and imaginative powers of the mover, we have dance. Dance involves a heightened kinesthetic awareness, a bodily intelligence, and a sharpened perception of movement as an aesthetic experience.

Self-Esteem: The possibility of multiple ways to interact with the Rainbow Puzzle Pieces provides many learning opportunities for children, including: problem solving, decision making, exploration and discover, and content knowledge. Allowing children to self-direct the play with the manipulatives results in higher self-esteem, self-confidence, and sense of accomplishment and lets them know “I am in charge.”

Explore & Discover: The preschool-aged child is ready to research, find out more or explore & discover. Exploration becomes play when the child shifts from the question, “What does this object do?” to a slightly different questions, “What can I do with this object?” The object itself ceases to be the major focus of concern as the child incorporates the object into play in which meanings and goals are assigned by him.

Through repeated exploratory experiences, the child discovers that every object has unlimited possibilities for use. He can then transfer this explorer attitude to other areas of his daily life.

Play: Young children’s play is symbolic, in that it represents reality with an ‘as if’ or ‘what if’ attitude. It is meaningful, in that it connects or relates experiences, and it is active, in that children are doing things. Play is pleasurable, even when children are engaged seriously in an activity. Play is also voluntary and intrinsically motivated, whether the motive is curiosity, mastery, affiliation, or something else. Finally, play is rule governed, whether implicitly or explicitly expressed.

Analytical Listening: Analytical listening require children to evaluate what is heard and comprehended, contemplate and reflect, weigh new information against what is already known, and discussion, sharing thoughts, opinions, and viewpoints.

Movement Response to a Musical Cue: By inviting a movement response to a musical cue you can help children to coordinate auditory and motor skills at specific moments, control movement through focused listening over time, be involved at different levels, and make free, expressive movement choices.

SIGN & SING Week 5

It’s hard to believe that five weeks have gone by already! It's always so rewarding to watch your child discover new ways to communicate. In the last five weeks, you have given your child an early start on learning and building vocabulary, as well as strengthening the bond between you by learning more about the ways she learns best.

Keep signing, and check out a Village class!

Yoga Kids2: ABC's

The Jabberwocky Jellyfish, the Volcano, the Moo-Meow...From Alligator to Zebra, this delightful program uses the alphabet to guide kids through 26 playful kid-style poses, movements and games inspired by animals, flowers and other familiar icons kids love. Teaches yoga fundamentals, builds physical fitness and self confidence, and challenges coordination and imagination.

Jacob loves this video, and follows along really well. Although it says it's for kids 3-6, I've heard lots of people say their 2 year olds are into it.

Thanks so much to Anita & Signe for recommending it!

DVD, 43 minutes. Available online at Indigo Books & Music

Music Lessons Help Young Child Memory Skills

By Jennifer Kwan

Parents who spend time and money to teach their children music, take heart — a new Canadian study shows young children who take music lessons have better memories than their nonmusical peers.

The study, to be published in the online edition of the journal Brain on Wednesday, showed that after one year of musical training, children performed better in a memory test than those who did not take music classes.

“(The research) tells us that if you take music lessons your brain is getting wired up differently than if you don’t take music lessons,” Laurel Trainor, professor of psychology, neuroscience and behavior at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, told Reuters.

“This is the first study to show that brain responses in young, musically trained and untrained children change differently over the course of a year,” said Trainor who led the study.

Over a year they took four measurements in two groups of children aged between four and six — those taking music lessons and those taking no musical training outside school — and found developmental changes over periods as short as four months.

The children completed a music test in which they were asked to discriminate between harmonies, rhythms and melodies, and a memory test in which they had to listen to a series of numbers, remember them and repeat them back.

Trainor said while previous studies have shown that older children given music lessons had greater improvements in IQ scores than children given drama lessons, this is the first study to identify these effects in brain-based measurements in young children.

She said it was not that surprising that children studying music improved in musical listening skills more than children not studying music.

“On the other hand, it is very interesting that the children taking music lessons improved more over the year on general memory skills that are correlated with nonmusicalabilities such as literacy, verbal memory, visiospatial processing, mathematics and IQ,” she said.

While I normally really enjoy cooking, these days I'm all about having something quick & easy on the table. A friend just suggested this this place to me, and swears by it. One prepared meal feeds her family of 4 twice.

The deal is that you go and "prep" the dinners yourself. They have everything ready to go, you just have to assemble it. If you are expecting or have a child under the age of 1, they will waive the prep fee for 3 months for you. That means, they'll do all the assembly for free - you just have to place your order and then go pick it up! I think they might even deliver for a fee...

They encourage you to get a group together and come en masse for a prep party. Apparently it takes about 2 hours to assemble 12 meals. (Not that you have to buy 12 meals!)

Check it out!

Dinner Works

Bon Appetit!

Carolyn

Merry Meadow Music Maker

Click here to make some Merry Music!

SIGN & SING Week 4

This week in class we learned more about recognizing and responding to your child’s versions of signs. Just as a child’s first attempt to pronounce “water” may sound like “wa-wa,” a first attempt at signing MORE may look as if she is clapping her hands or fists together.

Whenever you see your child moving her hands and you think she may be signing, respond enthusiastically. This will encourage her to use her hands to communicate with you.

Try MORE signing at home this week. Your Family Activity Guide this week explains how to use Conceptual Grouping to learn even more signs.

IMAGINE THAT! Hello Weather Week 4

FOUNDATIONS OF LEARNING

Accommodation: The active listening activity focuses on identifying the sounds in each family’s morning activities. As the children share their tapes they encounter differences. “His toothbrush is electric. Mine’s not.” Such exchanges challenge children’s egocentric perspectives and help them learn to accommodate the views of others. Accommodation forms the basis for learning about cooperation, equality and fairness, which are important ingredients of morality.

OUR TIME: Milk & Cookies Week 4

FOUNDATIONS OF LEARNING:

Steady Beat: Many children ages 1 1/2 – 3 years have a well-developed sense of their own internal steady beat. Once this internal steady beat is secured, children are then ready for experiences in which they are invited to match the steady beat of an external sound source.

VILLAGE: Dream Pillow Week 4

FOUNDATIONS OF LEARNING

Vocal Play: Each of us was born with our very own musical instrument and our very own way of playing it. The voice is as musical as any orchestral instrument, and arguably more powerful, because it conveys our identity to others. The focus of lessons 4 & 5 is to become more appreciative of the expressive power of the voice, and also more aware of the joy of singing and speaking expressively. This is done through playful vocal explorations and lots of singing. As each adult shares her joy singing and speaking with her baby, her baby is led to discover the pleasures of her own vocal gifts, learning new ways to communicate and express herself.

One More Time: One method of learning for young children is repetition. Repetition of experience provides stabilization of the brain’s neural pathways.

Steady Beat: Relaxation is a learned behaviour. Setting aside this time each week not to be engaged in an active, thinking activity helps your baby learn to enjoy quiet play and learn that relaxation can include times other than nap time and bedtime.

Listening to Language: Your baby is learning more than she can say as she watches and listens to you reciting “Let’s Go the Woods”. Infants younger than six months can distinguish a wide range of speech contrasts. By eight months, many can distinguish familiar words from unfamiliar words.

I Feel; Therefore, I Learn: Your baby must be emotionally involved in an activity to learn. Incoming sensory stimulation is processed first through the brain’s non-rational, non-conscious limbic system, the seat of emotion, and only then goes to the neocortex, or rational brain.

At the Park

Next time you're doing the grocery shopping, grab a bag of balloons off the shelf and throw them in your cart. When you get to the car, put them in the glove box. Next time you stop at a park to play, pull out the bag of balloons. You will instantly be the coolest mom on the playground (according to anyone under 3' tall, anyway).

If you're feeling brave, try it with bubbles, although it has more of a Pied Piper effect...

Holiday Window Decals

Halloween is fun on so many levels - it's one of my favourite holidays! Decorating the windows with decals is a great way to talk about pumpkins, ghosts, spiders, & bats, and just generally warm your little one up to the idea of dressing up in costume and knocking on neighbours doors. It's also a terrific way to exercise those fine motor skills as toddlers peel them off and on (and off, and on, and off, and on).

Decals are available pretty much anywhere Halloween decorations are sold. Check Michaels craft store, Superstore, Walmart, etc.. The new jelly ones look really cool, but are less tolerant of multiple applications. They also really don't do well after a night in bed with a toddler. (It's our latest thing - EVERYTHING goes to bed. Heavy negotiations get it down to soft things that won't wake him up when he rolls over.)

Note for neat freaks: skip this activity. Your windows will look horrible for a good month, no matter what you do. Grandma threw hers out on day two... We're not so fussy at our place!

KINDERMUSIK CLASSES THIS WEEK ~


VILLAGE: Dream Pillow

Sleep Well, Parent and Child: Massage enables babies to release tension, helping them learn to cope or self-regulate. This helps them achieve greater relaxation and a sense of well-being, which tends to promote more regular sleep patterns. Parents tend to sleep better as a result of the improvements in their baby’s sleep.

Patterns in Language: Pattern awareness is crucial to learning and memory. Just as in story reading, singing directly exposes participants to the patterns of language, including rhythm, speech, sounds, syntax and rhyme.

Steady Beat: Internalizing a steady beat is important to baby’s developing physical coordination. Later on this internalized steady beat will help her learn to use scissors, bounce a ball, and walk with self-confidence.

Sensitivity: Hearing a variety of tonal registers and timbres helps your baby become more aware, alert, and sensitive not only to music but to his tonal environment.

Balance and Coordination: Moving in different directions and in a variety of ways is important to the development of your baby’s vestibular system. His sense of balance, coordination, and locomotion all depend on the proper functioning of this very important system.

OUR TIME: Milk & Cookies

Repetition: Growth and development of the child from birth to seven years old, take place primarily through the child’s body experiences. Repetition aids in solidifying the neural pathways which are formed through experience of activities.

Movement: Movement is a universal, full-time, personal, childhood occupation, and its importance in children’s early learning experiences cannot be overemphasized. Children develop movement in space to understand position, size, distance, and shape. Continuous activity is essential for an optimal rather than a marginal level of motor performance.

At Home: Look on page 9 of your home activities book for ideas on how to get some help while washing & drying the dishes!

Body Control: During movement activities, children learn to organize the available space in relation to themselves and in relationship to objects and other individuals they are developing body control and confidence in the power and ability of their own bodies.

Nurture & Control: Encouraging participation provides a framework of appropriate behaviour for your child. A combination of nurturance and control, encouragement, demandingness, and communication provides the emotional and social context req uired for your child’s optimum development. (Fostering Children’s Social Competence: The Teacher’s Role, Lilian G. Katz & Diane E. McClellan)



IMAGINE THAT: Hello, Weather!

Tempo: The speed of a composition or a section thereof, ranging from very slow to very fast.

Literacy Environment: A supportive literacy environment includes opportunities for children to observe parents and teachers as they engage in reading and writing activities. Writing down the children’s suggestions visually affirms their contributions to the activity and reinforces the importance of the written word.

Fantasy Play: Fantasy play allows for the personal integration of temperament, experience, and concepts that help the child understand the all-important question, ‘Who am I?’ and thereby become a mentally healthy person. When children pretend, they manipulate events and actions, which gives them a sense of competence, an important ingredient in mental health.


SIGN & SING
Over the past two weeks we have used strategies to make opportunities for signing with your child more effective.

This week, we introduced an Adaptation Strategy. This occurs when you move a toy next to your face so your child can see you making the sign while you hold the toy. Watch your baby’s eyes as she looks back and forth from the object to you. You have created the ideal environment for learning.

Page 10 in your Family Activity Guide gives you more ideas on how to use adaptation strategies even in the quiet times of the day, such as reading a book together. Your child is naturally captivated and relaxed while sitting in your arms, sharing a story—it’s a perfect time to use the signs you have learned from class!

Hi, and welcome to the Kindermusik With Notable Kids blog!

I'm always looking for new and effective means to communicate the benefits of Kindermusik to parents, and thought this might be a great vehicle.

Check the blog on a regular basis. You never know what you might find!

- Tips on what to do this week to fill in that hour of dead space when you just can't think of another way to entertain your little one.
- Fun things going on around town.
- Developmental benefits covered in class each week.
- Quirky photos and sites to share.

If you've got anything that might be fun on the blog, please email me to let me know!

Hope you enjoy it!

Carolyn