Keep your eye on these...

Pink Reader Ribbon Collection

Carla D'Angelo was in my first-ever Kindermusik class a little over 2 years ago and has just launched a new business. She has gotten these terrific Pink Reader Ribbon glasses listed in The Bay across Canada, as well as in other retail stores in the Pacific Northwest. $2 from each set of glasses goes to cancer research. Glasses retail for $35.

Way to go, Carla! Much success to you in your new venture.

Have a Shay Day...

At a fundraising dinner for a school that serves learning-disabled children, the father of one of the students delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he offered a question: “When not interfered with by outside influences, everything nature does is done with perfection. Yet my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do. He cannot understand things as other children do. Where is the natural order of things in my son?”

The audience was stilled by the query.

The father continued. “I believe that when a child like Shay, physically and mentally handicapped comes into the world, an opportunity to realize true human nature presents itself, and it comes in the way other people treat that child.”

Then he told the following story:

Shay and his father had walked past a park where some boys Shay knew were playing baseball. Shay asked, “Do you think they’ll let me play?” Shay’s father knew that most of the boys would not want someone like Shay on their team, but the father also understood that if his son were allowed to play, it would give him a much-needed sense of belonging and some confidence to be accepted by others in spite of his handicaps.

Shay’s father approached one of the boys on the field and asked (not expecting much) if Shay could play. The boy looked around for guidance and said, “We’re losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and we’ll try to put him in to bat in the ninth inning.”

Shay struggled over to the team’s bench and, with a broad smile, put on a team shirt. His Father watched with a small tear in his eye and warmth in his heart. The boys saw the father’s joy at his son being accepted. In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shay’s team scored a few runs but was still behind by three. In the top of the ninth inning, Shay put on a glove and played in the right field. Even though no hits came his way, he was obviously ecstatic just to be in the game and on the field, grinning from ear to ear as his father waved to him from the stands. In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shay’s team scored again. Now, with two outs and the bases loaded, the potential winning run was on base and Shay was scheduled to be next at bat.

At this juncture, do they let Shay bat and give away their chance to win the gam e? Surprisingly, Shay was given the bat. Everyone knew that a hit was all but impossible because Shay didn’t even know how to hold the bat properly, much less connect with the ball.

However, as Shay stepped up to the plate, the pitcher, recognizing that the other team was putting winning aside for this moment in Shay’s life, moved in a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shay could at least make contact. The first pitch came and Shay swung clumsily and missed. The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly towards Shay. As the pitch came in, Shay swung at the ball and hit a slow ground ball right back to the pitcher.

The game would now be over. The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could have easily thrown the ball to the first baseman. Shay would have been out and that would have been the end of the game.

Instead, the pitcher threw the ball right over the first baseman’s head, out of reach of all team mates. Everyone from the stands and both teams started yelling, “Shay, run to first! Run to first!” Never in his life had Shay ever run that far, but he made it to first base. He scampered down the baseline, wide-eyed and startled.

Everyone yelled, “Run to second, run to second!” Catching his breath, Shay awkwardly ran towards second, gleaming and struggling to make it to the base. By the time Shay rounded towards second base, the right fielder had the ball … the smallest guy on their team who now had his first chance to be the hero for his team. He could have thrown the ball to the second-baseman for the tag, but he understood the pitcher’s intentions so he, too, intentionally threw the ball high and far over the third-baseman’s head. Shay ran toward third base deliriously as the runners ahead of him circled the bases toward home.

All were screaming, “Shay, Shay, Shay, all the Way Shay”

Shay reached third base because the opposing shortstop ran to help him by turning him in the direction of third base, and shouted, “Run to third! Shay, run to third!”

As Shay rounded third, the boys from both teams, and the spectators, were on their feet screaming, “Shay, run home! Run home!” Shay ran to home, stepped on the plate, and was cheered as the hero who hit the grand slam and won the game for his team.

“That day,” said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face, “the boys from both teams helped bring a piece of true love and humanity into this world.”

Shay didn’t make it to another summer. He died that winter, having never forgotten being the hero and making his father so happy, and coming home and seeing his Mother tearfully embrace her little hero of the day!


A wise man once said every society is judged by how it treats it’s least fortunate amongst them.

May your day be a Shay Day.

Our New Favourite Game

Jacob received Hullabaloo, a Cranium game for kids, for his birthday. It's AWESOME! You throw a bunch of shapes on the floor and punch the button. A funny little song comes on and tells you which shape to move to. Sometimes you stomp, sometimes you twirl, sometimes you crawl (is this sounding like your Our Time class yet?). There is a random winner after about 6 instructions. So fun! The kids can play by themselves, or with friends & family.

It's rated for ages 4 & up, but I know a few 3 year olds who would thoroughly enjoy it!

Developmental Notes: See What I Saw Week 2

Steady Beat: Some 3-5 year-olds might exhibit the skill of adjusting their beat to match that of an external sound source. Most frequently this occurs with bilateral motions (both hands doing the same thing at the same time) or alternating bilateral motions (one hand alternates with the other in the motion). Which motion seems to be easiest for your child while keeping the beat?

Vocal Development: Interactive storytelling such as that used in the Grasshopper Park Story fosters vocal development by integrating a variety of vocal experiences, including speaking, singing, and playing with vocal sounds. The child experiences the wide expressive range of the voice by playing with extremes – high and low, fast and slow, loud and quiet, etc.. The child also explores exaggerated dramatic interpretation – everything from whispering to shouting.

Glissando: The music term “glissando” refers to a continuous or sliding movement from one pitch to another.

If you make a tape this week of glissando sounds, please bring it to class and we will listen to them together. If you have a portable instrument from home, please bring that along too, and we can listen to the glissando sounds made on it.

Developmental Notes: Wiggles & Giggles Week 2

Rituals: Toddlers experience a sense of comforting self-control from being able to anticipate what will happen next. The adult provides daily rituals and routines which contribute to the stability of the child’s emotional development. In Our Time the Hello and Goodbye songs are important rituals for the opening and closing of class.

Scaffolding: Scaffolding is a process of interaction between the adult and child. During this process the adult gently guides and supports the child’s learning by building on what the child is able to do. This involves varying the level of the activity depending upon the child’s responses.

Eye-Hand Coordination: Playing instruments, such as sandblocks with a back and forth alternating movement, gives the child an opportunity to develop eye-hand coordination. The eye leads the hand movements, so that the internal knowledge becomes the basis for the movement. This connection of movement with sight is essential in writing, drawing, playing an instrument, learning a sport or dancing.

Developmental Notes: Feathers Week 2

Movement Variety: Moving in a variety of ways gives baby a chance to “see the world” from many perspectives, thus strengthening neural pathways.

Variety of Sounds: Exposure to a variety of sounds and rhythms is critical to intellectual development. Varied exposure leads to language proficiency, spatial reasoning, and temporal reasoning. It also increases understanding of moods and emotions.

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

Enriched Environments: Environments enriched with music and movement allow brain cells and neuropathways to be strengthened and expanded. With more interconnections, the brain learns and remembers more effectively.

Steady Beat

If you're in class, you'll hear Jessica & I talk about steady beat a lot. It's one of the first musical skills to develop. The ability to keep a steady beat is extremely important, of course, for future musical experiences, but it is also important in everyday life. Think of all we do that requires regularly paced repeated motion (a sense of steady beat!): walking, running, riding a bicycle, cutting with scissors, bouncing a ball, and more.

In Village we help them feel the beat.




In Our Time we help them play the beat.



In Imagine That! we help them vary the beat.



In Young Child we help them read and write the beat.

Happy Pooh Day, Jacob!

It was a lovely day in the Hundred Acre Woods today (thank goodness!). Jacob turns 4 on Tuesday, so we had a few of his friends over for a Pooh Party. We flew kites and climbed honey trees, pinned the tail on Eeyore and ate vegetables from Rabbit's garden.


Where would Pooh be without his honeybees to make honey?

Developmental Notes: See What I Saw Week 1

Rituals: Rituals provide predictable structures in the life of the preschool-aged child and contribute to the child’s emotional development.

Steady Beat: The most fundamental property of music is beat, the underlying repeating pulse. Playing an instrument to a steady beat helps develop a sense of time and the ability to organize and coordinate movements within time. Upper body bilateral motions (both hands doing the same thing at the same time) and alternating bilateral motions (hands taking turns doing the same thing) are easiest for keeping a steady beat.

Body Awareness: The development of body awareness in the preschool-aged child goes beyond labeling and moving specific body parts, to focusing and controlling the movement of one’s body. Our walk/run/stop activity with the hand drum is structured to take body awareness a step further by including aural signals. When a specific signal such as walking, running, jumping, or ready stop is played on the hand drum, it allows the child to focus on the signal, to understand the meaning of the signal and then to transfer the meaning to a self-controlled action.

Pretend Play: Imitation is the first stage of pretend play. As a child imitates activities that may be common life experiences, such as playing at a park, pretend play starts to emerge. Play becomes more complex as the child re-examines life experiences and adds to or changes the play experience.

Literacy Development & Play: “Both literacy development and play involve creating, planning, sequencing, shaping, communicating, predicting, synthesizing, participating, producing and evaluating. Both involve representations of the child’s feelings, thoughts, and actions and representations of actual and imaginary worlds. Expression of self is heightened; yet incorporation of others’ perspectives is also encouraged. Literacy development and play can promote understanding and acceptance of others and provide safe boundaries to examine who one is and who one wants to be.” Read, Play, and Learn!: Storybook Activities for Young Children, by Tonie W. Linder, Ed.D, p17.

Explore & Discover: Preschool-aged children are ready to research, find out more, explore and discover. Asking the children to broaden their understanding and experience of moving a ball somehow other than bouncing or throwing it opens up new play possibilities. Through repeated exploration experiences, the children develop the concept that every object has unlimited possibilities to be explored. They can then transfer this explorer attitude to other Kindermusik activities.

Follow the Leader: In follow-the-leader activities such as “Do As I’m Doing”, children are encouraged to:
• Observe and respond to a steady beat ball motion
• Understand nonverbal communication of gestures and motions
• Sustain attention by staying with a motion for a length of time
• Understand and follow guidelines of the activity.

Building Community: 3 & 4 year-olds are very aware of the people in their lives. Social behaviours are learned interactions that occur through their experiences with various people. Children come to Kindermusik in different stages of social development, which is as it should be. Ha, Ha, This-A-Way provides the opportunity for building community by including all the adults, children, and siblings and by allowing everyone to interact socially within a Kindermusik community.

Developmental Notes: Wiggles & Giggles Week 1

Steady Beat: The most fundamental property of music is beat, an underlying, unchanging, repeating pulse. Feeling and moving to stead beat develops s sense of time and the ability to organize and coordinate movements within time.

The awareness of beat occurs while greeting everyone with a steady beat motion and singing Our Time Hello, swaying to a steady beat while listening to My Bonnie, pendulum rocking from side to side while singing Lukey’s Boat, playing the rhythm sticks to the recording of French Folk Tune, and rubbing hands back and forth while chanting Wishy Washy Wee!

Fine Motor Movement: During the first part of life, gross motor activities dominate the child’s repertoire of movement with the major objective being the mastery of walking. Now the child can focus on activities that encourage the development of fine muscles. Fine motor movements allow the child to increase skills that require finger and hand movements such as putting together a simple puzzle, painting with a paintbrush, turning a page of a book, or stringing beads.

Active Listening: Active listening is a process that goes beyond the physical act of hearing. It is an intellectual and emotional process that integrates a full range of inputs in a search for the meaning of and an understanding of a sender’s message. It involves listening between the lines to hear what is not said as well as what is said. Active listening involves interaction and participation in the cycles of communication.

Literacy: The participating in joint picture book reading helps young children to internalize some basic skills and concepts important for true literacy:
• Builds on familiarity and enjoyment
• Provides repetition and predictability
• Expands vocabulary and knowledge of story structures
• Promotes critical thinking and problem solving
• Fosters creative expression and language play.
These same skills required for good reading also build musical language literacy. Language and musical language skills are more fully developed when woven together.

Wiggles & Giggles At Home: Water play is both fun and cognitively challenging! On page 16-17 in the Home Activity Book, water play activities such as Washing Up! And Painting With Water encourage discovery of the physical properties of water. Through these activities, concepts such as full and empty, heavy and light, wet and dry, floating and sinking can be experienced and explored.

Children can better understand the meaning of a word when given the opportunity to experience the word through a variety of sensory activities. Words such as sea, whale, boat, swimming, float used in the song Above the Sea may be new concepts to some of the children. The following activities can enhance the child’s understanding:

• Show pictures of sea, fish, whales, and boats
• Encourage movements of swimming like a whale, swimming like a little fish, swimming like a child.
• Float a boat or plastic container on the water, then watch a heavy object sink.
• Smell fish and salty water.

Folk Song: Ring Around the Rosey has survived for hundreds of years. Although this song had its beginnings in tragedy, the days of The Great Plague in England, it has evolved into a standard childhood favourite with new meaning and purpose. Through child’s play, the pleasure and joy of this song has overcome its past. This is only one of the many examples of how the original concept and meaning of a folk song can be altered as it is passed on from one generation to another.

Developmental Notes: Feathers Week 1

Communication: Effective communication between adult and baby can be encouraged through touch, eye contact, vocalization, and listening – all are part of the greeting ritual.

Intentional Touch: Gentle rubbing facilitates the learning of relaxation and can help soothe baby, aid in digestion, and relieve colic.

Not all babies will be comfortable doing this activity in class with so much going on around them. Try it at home during a quiet moment. (Did you know that “Grassey Grass Grass” was written and performed by Woody Guthrie?!)

Exploration: Being allowed to explore and experiment within safe limits is of extreme importance to brain development. Those babies who are allowed to explore generally tend to become eager and flexible learners.

Language Development: Babies learn language and the art of conversation from interaction with the adults to your baby, be sure to leave some time for her to respond before continuing. If baby responds, imitate her speech. Imitation sets the foundation for learning language.

Reading: Reading to a child aids in language development. As a child hears language spoken to him, he internalizes the sounds which he will use later in his own speech. Younger babies will not understand what the words mean but will hear words, tones, and inflections which will eventually transfer to his own speech. Speaking in many tones and timbres stimulates an enormous amount of neural growth. Also, reading to a child can foster a lifelong love of reading.

Don't Miss Out on a Great Opportunity!

Wondering about how Kindermusik is going to fit into your preschooler’s life this year?

Transitioning to preschool can be made easier by maintaining some school year routines that have brought joy to your child in the past. Re-enrolling in Kindermusik this fall will actually help your child adjust to their new preschool schedule. Knowing they can count on spending time with you and music will add a sense of comfort and security to the new school experience. With life getting busier, and your child’s activities more independent in nature, Kindermusik is one place the two of you can spend time focused on each other. Loving your child is what it’s all about!

This is not only reassuring to your child, but it should also give you some peace of mind as well as to the “rightness” of continuing on with Kindermusik beyond age 3. Two studies actually indicate that not only does early musical training increase intelligence, but also that the amount of parental involvement can greatly affect the amount of improvement.

A study at Sam Houston State University stated that “parental time spent with a child is a more important factor in predicting intelligence test success than such factors as single parent households, poverty, low parental education levels, and ethnic minority status.” Also, “the experimental group children who were active participants in the Kindermusik classes and whose parents helped them with the home musical activities showed significant gains on the areas of the Stanford-Binet subtests that measured abstract reasoning abilities.”


Classes are Tuesdays at 11:15 at the North Shore Unitarian Church. Come See What I Saw!

Total Momsense!

I caught myself starting to sound like my mother when I was pregnant with my first child. Some days now I feel inhabited by her; I open my mouth and out pops the tried and true. Never did I think I'd say, "because I said so!" It would seem that a three year old's logic only stretches so far...apparently a little further than my sanity on a rough day.