Children are ready to learn long before schools are ready to teach

Posted July 27th 2010 at 10:16 am by Kindermusik International

Music is a magic little key to your child’s heart and mind. It’s a dynamic sensory experience that evokes a powerful response in children. Early exposure to music is a vehicle for profound learning.

We’ve found that music and movement that involves interaction, demonstration, and exploration is the perfect way to introduce a child to the learning environment.  That’s why Kindermusik provides a unique opportunity to begin your child’s preparation for school – and, for that matter, for life.

Our program is carefully structured and developmentally appropriate. That means the music and activities reflect the age of your child. The Kindermusik classroom is set up in a manner that is most similar to what your child will experience in preschool and/or kindergarten.

This can give your child a great head start.

That said, don’t confuse Kindermusik with the potentially stressful environment you might find in a “toddler prep school”. Our program is not design to push children. In fact, quite the opposite. Instead you’ll find that our curricula nurtures and mirrors your child’s development with a fun, engaging, and stimulating environment. We encourage all children to learn and participate at their own pace. You’ll hear our Kindermusik educators say this all the time.

We know that these days parents have dozens of activities to choose for their children. Our goal is to stand out above the rest as the best option for you and your child. We feel that our research-based, research-proven program will not only prepare your child for school and the future, but you’ll get to have a lot of fun along the way!

Want to preview a Kindermusik class for free? Fill out this online form and an educator near you will contact you with more information. We hope to see you in Kindermusik soon!

One Hundred Thousand Five Hundred

100,500
by Andrea King

It's a big number, and it caught my eye in a recent issue of Real Simple (I love that magazine, thanks Heather!). So what does it mean? The average person consumes (reads or hears) 100,500 words per day... let's do the math. For the 16-or-so hours a day we are awake, we are exposed to (and sometimes assaulted by) an average of 6,281 words per hour. And guess what, that number has tripled in the last 20 years (thanks to the internet, and maybe even this blog).

So what does it all mean? More than ever our children are growing up in a world demanding strong language and literacy skills. Whether it's reading & writing, or speaking & listening, strong communication skills are a must. That's why I love teaching Kindermusik classes! Everyday in class, I see children of all ages (babies too!) using music as their stepping stone to expressing themselves.

Sing-a-long to our favorite hello song? That's 20 words right there that share the idea of welcoming and building community. Actively listening to a recording of live sounds in our environment? That encourages a whole slew of descriptive words and sounds that encourage children to think critically about their world. Chanting that nursery rhyme while playing rhythm sticks to the steady beat? Those rhyming skills build a young child's understanding of the sounds in language and the steady beat cues them into the rhythm of language.

Music is language & expression! It's never too early to build on your child's communication strengths in the Kindermusik classroom!

Listening to What we Hear

At 20-weeks a fetus can hear sound from inside the mother's womb. From that time until well into their young childhood their ears & brain are fine-tuning themselves to make sense of their world. Interesting stuff!

Check out this article about a study that show infants can distinguish emotions heard in the voice by 7 months old:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125123354

Don't, Shouldn't, Can't, Won't

This was taken from a great post on Kindermusik International's official blog, Minds on Music.
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I heard something from a conference speaker that I believe EVERY parent and teacher and child care worker and family member should know. I’ve been searching for months for the source, because it has changed my way of speaking to the young children I work with (and the preschooler in my own home). 

The following is used by permission and taken fromConscious Discipline by Becky Bailey, PhD.

Watch a toddler. If you say, “Don’t touch the lamp,” what does the child do? She will look at you, look at the lamp, point to it, touch it and then look back at you – usually with a big smile. Her brain heard, “Touch the lamp,” so she looks at you proudly as if to say, “Hey! I did it! I touched the lamp!” Imgaine her confusion when you growl, “What did I tell you?” and push away her little hand. No wonder we all need therapy!

As an adult, you probably make the connection between a negative command (”don’t hit”), and a positive alternative (”talk through your problems”). For young children, this is impossible. Children younger than five or six simply do not understand conjugated verbs such as “don’t”. When you say, “Don’t talk with your mouth full,” you actually increase the chances that your child will “disobey” and that you will get to watch them grind broccoli in living color.

Instead of focusing on what you don’t want, redirect the child. When she spots the lamp, you could say, “You see the pretty lamp. Put your hand in mine and I will show you how to touch delicate objects that might break.” Perhaps you do not want to teach the child how to touch the lamp. Then you could say, “You see the pretty lamp. Let’s look at this truck. I will roll it to you. Whee!” Then push the truck over to the child. Have fun with the alternative you choose. Children, like all of us, respond to enthusiasm.

It’s so simple, but makes complete sense. I read this, and went, “No wonder they do the opposite of what I want them to do!” This fall, I purchased a copy of the book for each one of my teachers, and there are lots more nuggets of parenting gold where this comes from. I’ll be blogging more as I go through her book.

In the meantime, if you’d like more information about Becky Bailey and Concious Discipline, visit her website.

-by Miss Analiisa, who is going to make an effort to tell her children what she WANTS them to do, not what she DOESN’T!

Kindermusik Happy & Healthy

At Kindermusik, you child's health is our top priority. That's why we are taking steps to prevent the spread of germs both inside and outside the classroom. You can take comfort in knowing that we sanitize all our instruments and objects we use in class!

Also, we incorporate activities for parents and children to to promote happy and healthy living at home. Check out just one Kindermusik activity that can make bath time and hand-washing easier and more enjoyable!

To find out all the ways Kindermusik makes great parenting easier, come and experience a FREE Demo Class!

Kindermusik Makes Great Parenting Easier!

Find out all the reasons Kindermusik can make great parenting easier! 

Check out a FREE Kindermusik Demo Class today!

Music: The Younger, the Better

Some people are quite surprised to find out that Kindermusik is for children as young as newborns. Really, what can such a young child gain from starting in a music and movement program like Kindermusik as an infant or toddler?

The following statement, jointly issued by The National Association for Music Education (MENC), the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), and the US Department of Education, helps explain just how important music education can be for even the youngest musicians...

The Value of Music for the Very Young
The idea that very early education provides great long-term benefits has been rendered incontestable by studies in cognition and early learning. Research in developmental psychology and commonsense observation underscore both the importance and the wisdom of making music an integral and overt part of the earliest education of young children:

• [M]usic is among the first and most important modes of communication experienced by infants.
• As young children grow and develop, music continues as a basic medium not only of communication, but of self-expression as well.
• As preschool children not only listen to and respond to music, but also learn to make music by singing and playing instruments together, they create important contexts for the early learning of vital life skills.
• Guided music experiences also begin to teach young children to make judgments about what constitutes “good” music, thereby developing in them the rudiments of an aesthetic sense.
  
• Music contributes strongly to “school readiness...”

- excerpted from a report issued by the Early Childhood Music Summit, June 2000.  Read the article in its entirety HERE