We live in a noisy world. Buzzing lawn mowers, phones ringing, cars honking, dogs barking and cats meowing, planes zooming—and those are just the sounds your child makes during play!  As adults, most of us know how to tune into important sounds and tune out the rest (well, usually!).  Children, however, need to learn how to identify and discriminate between sounds and tune into those sounds that matter most—like the sound of your voice instead of the sound of a toy.

During the school years, children will spend an estimated 50 to 75 percent of classroom time listening to the teacher, to other students, or to media. Developing strong active listening skills will prepare your child for classroom learning, including language and literacy development. Each week in Kindermusik we provide many opportunities for your child to practice active listening skills. So, when we intently listen for the sounds of the pipe organ in a Bach piece, use the wood blocks to produce a Staccato sound, or move smoothly with streamers when we hear the the music change from Staccato to Legato, your child is practicing active listening.

Everyday connection: M is for? Make a letter sound and ask your child to identify the letter and to name an animal that starts with that sound. How would that animal move? What would it sound like? Pick another letter. Try whispering so your child can practice listening even more intently to the sound of your voice.

As parents, no one can make us more self-aware than our own child. After all, our children do not need to look like us to be our mirror image.  They mirror our actions and reactions and the words we say in our best moments—and sometimes our not-so-best moments. They can even mimic our likes and dislikes. Eventually, as they become more self aware, children begin to express their own preferences for things, like wearing pajamas everywhere (Not a bad idea!) or eating ice cream for breakfast (Not a good idea!).

In Kindermusik, we support your child’s growing self-awareness and your unique role in it.  Each week we include activities that not only encourage your child’s personal choices but we actually incorporate them into the lesson. By including your child’s favorite way to say “Hello” at the beginning of class or movement idea during the “Monkey Dance,” we place value on your child’s ideas and preferences.  In doing so, your child learns to not only recognize and share ideas in a meaningful way but also to celebrate the differences of others.

Everyday Connection: Feelings, Nothing More than Feelings. Recognizing and responding appropriately to feelings further develop self-awareness skills in young children. Listen to music that expresses different emotions, like happy, sad, angry, or scared. Dance with your child based on the emotion and help your child label the emotion. Not only does this activity develop children’s vocabulary; it also helps them to identify—and even to manage—their own emotions.

 

Do you remember when we actually called someone on a cell phone? Ah, those primitive years! Then texting entered the scene. Many of us watched in amazement as those of a certain age moved their fingers at an alarming rate while we struggled to text even one word on the tiniest of keyboards. Our finger muscles and fine motor skills certainly got a workout as we learned this new skill.

Children also need to learn how to use and coordinate their finger, hand, and wrist muscles—not for texting—but for reaching, grasping, and more. In Kindermusik class each week, we include many activities that support your child’s fine motor skills development. Wiggling fluffy chicks in a “Ten Egg” finger play or striking the resonator bars on “Sweetly Swings the Donkey” helps your child learn to coordinate hand, finger, and wrist movements that support fine motor control and precision. The skills practiced in class and at home build the foundation your child needs for buttoning buttons, zipping zippers, tying shoes, using scissors, and even writing. Texting will come later. Much later.

Everyday connection: Let your fingers do the walking. Finger plays are great activities to do together anywhere. Waiting at the doctor, grocery shopping, restaurants, or even at bedtime. Teach your favorite to your child or pick one from class. 

What a terrific class we just had, celebrating the Canada wide Culture Days event! Local families with children under age 7 from Port Credit joined us at Sing Music Studio to participate in a fun filled music and movement class to celebrate the event! There was singing, lots of movement, instruments, laughing and learning for both parents and kids. And was it ever fun! I’m lucky to say I really do love what I do! I adore meeting new children and families and sharing my passion for music with them – what better time to do that than during Culture Days!

So thanks for participating with me today! And thanks to Culture Days for creating such a wonderful weekend of arts celebration! I’m really looking forward to continuing to share my passion for music and music education with more new and familiar children and families this coming week as our new Kindermusik classes begin!

Spotlight on Learning: Laugh and Learn for Preschoolers

Lesson Focus: Steady Beat

Do you remember the first time you listened to your child’s heartbeat? Hearing that steady gagon-gagon-gagon-gagon probably made your own heart skip a beat or two (or three or four!). As an infant, hearing the steady beat of your heart coupled with the feeling of being swayed back and forth could lull your child to sleep…usually!

In music, the most fundamental property is beat—the underlying, unchanging, repeating pulse. For your child, feeling and moving to a steady beat develops a sense of time and the ability to organize and coordinate movements within time. Each week in Kindermusik class, we develop your child’s awareness of beat when we greet everyone with a steady beat motion, drum, march along with Liberty wagon, play together with zig zag blocks, or move together on the Merry Go Round. We know your child will use this same sense of steady beat for walking, running, riding a bike, cutting with scissors, and even reading!
Everyday connection: And the beat goes on! Steady beat occurs everywhere. Take turns naming things with steady beats and those without. Try this at home and in the car!

Congratulations to Chiara and Marcus for winning our draw for free tuition!

Marcus has been attending Kindermusik classes since the summer of 2011, beginning in the baby classes. Now Marcus has graduated into the next level, attending our toddler programs. Marcus and Chiara love kindermusik so much that they come twice a week to different toddler classes! So, it seems pretty fitting that Marcus was drawn as the winner of our June draw for fall tuition.

Marcus definitely marches to the beat of his own drum in kindermusik – illustrating how their are many different ways to participate and no one “right” way. Marcus is a mover and a shaker, as many toddlers are, and prefers to be up and dancing when we’re sitting and sitting when we’re dancing! Lol! But he is really taking it all in – no matter how he participates. He’s very focused when we do listening activities and has lots to comment on during story time. And the second I start to play the guitar, Marcus is up front and centre, bopping to the tunes as if he’s front row centre at a concert! It’s evident that Marcus loves music! I can’t wait to see how Marcus grows and changes with music as he gets older.

So, once again, congratulations to Chiara and Marcus! And I’ll see you both in Kindermusik!

My students never cease to amaze me!!!! What a fantastic job all of our singing, piano and guitar students did that participated in our 4th recital on June 23rd at the Regency Retirement Home!

I’m so impressed with the improvements of my students who have had a few recitals under their belts. And a special hats off to David, one of my adult students who consistently has been participating in the recitals as the adult representation despite performance anxiety. David really pulled it together and did a terrific performance. I know all the parents were quite impressed with his courage to perform!

I’m also very impressed with all the new students who participated in the recital for the first time. Some were super excited, some were full of nerves. But each and every one of them did a wonderful job!

We were also lucky to have some great instrumentation this year of 2-3 students/teachers playing together in an ensemble including ukelele, piano, guitar, singing and drums. In the future, I’m excited to put more student ensembles together as the students grow and improve and of course with the addition of drum lessons at the studio. This will make it easy to start forming bands with the students in the future. So expect the recitals to continuously improve and include great music!

A special thanks to Neal Burstyn for drumming with some of the students, videoing the recital and taking photographs…. which will be coming soon. And a special thanks to the staff and residents at Regency Retirement Home who hosted our recital as per usual! And last, but certainly not least, a special thanks to all the students of Sing Music Studio who worked very hard to prepare such a wonderful show and the parents for their ongoing support!

Can’t wait for the Christmas Recital!!!

We’ve been having so much fun in the drum classes that have been happening here at Sing Music Studio over the last few months that we thought it was high time we brought you an inside peek into what happens in our Drum & Percussion Circles. The children have been learning about steady beat, rhythm, ensemble experience, feeling the beat with their bodies and trying their hands on different drums. Just take a look at this video to see for yourself!