Studio3Music Blog

Archive for the ‘Our Time’ Category

Jan
10

Not so “old” Kindermusik At Home Materials.

Posted in Bits and Pieces, Imagine That, Our Time, Things to do

This post came in the form of an email from a long-time Kindermusik mom (whose boys have had Miss Beth, Teacher Aaron and Miss Allison!) Like most families, she keeps the music and instruments handy, but what about the rest? And do children really remember what they learned in class years before? Here’s what she had to say:

Owen and Patrick when they were in Our Time and Imagine That!

My little Patrick (now 3 1/2) took out our wonderfully stocked music box on New Year’s day and started doing ~ wishy washy wishy washy ‘wee’ for awhile and then Owen (now 6) found his blue blocks and started to do the same. First of all, Patrick barely talked much when we did Wiggles & Giggles, so his recall to me was amazing.

Then, I pulled out all our stuff and all the CD’s and we spent all of New Year’s day singing all our old songs, dancing and using all our gear. Patrick pulled out his puppy house from Fiddle Dee Dee and Owen searched and found his ‘park’ from Imagine That too.

We have used these items here and there all the time, and especially listen to the CD’s in the car always, but perhaps not as much as when they both used to be in class all the time.

The music instruments are always available; it was the “props” and activity books I put away, but brought them back out after New year’s and what the fun we had!

** THANK YOU ** THANK YOU** for being such an important part of their happiness.

All the best-

Margaret Klinkenberg

Tags: guest post, kindermusik, music, parenting, Things to do

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Oct
25

There’s no place like home.

Posted in Bits and Pieces, Family, Our Time, parenting, Things to do

I recently did an Internet search for the words “+home +quote”. HOLY SHEETROCK BATMAN! I’m surprised my computer didn’t melt. Here are some of the ones that struck a chord with me-

“Where we love is home, home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes.

“Peace- that was the other name for home.” Kathleen Norris “Where thou art- that- is home.” – Emily Dickinson.

“There is nothing like staying home for real comfort” Jane Austen. “There’s nothing half so pleasant as coming home again”- Margaret Sangster

“I long…. To be at home wherever I find myself” – Maya Angelou.

“Snoopy, come home” – Charley Brown

“Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam…” (Sing that one)

There are so many famous thoughts and poems and quotes about the four walls we call a home- there must be something more to those four walls than just 2×4’s, windows and doors.

My kids love to be at home. Even now that they are teenagers they will insist occasionally on a jammy day. We wear our pajamas all day. (Well, now that they are older, we wear our lounge clothes.) These days are full of book reading, movie watching, and game playing. We might make cookies or milk shakes. But we relish our time together, cocooned in the haven that is our home.

We had jammy days when my boys were little, too. I would come down on a Saturday morning to find them showered and in clean jammies, usually the footed zip-up kind (they wore them for jammy days up until about a year ago). They would wait for me at the bottom of the stairs. I knew that meant I should back upstairs and put on my yoga pants and prepare to spend the day at home, regardless of what I had planned or needed to do.

We’ve always had a busy life. So when my boys were little, home was where we decompressed from our many adventures, and the daily events that every family has to do. Home was where we connected those adventures to the emotional framework that holds our world together.

Not that home wasn’t a great adventure, too. We built many a tent for camping in the family room. We battled space aliens in our yard, and constructed a rocket ship, complete with a light up control panel that beeped, bopped, flashed and wailed when you hit the buttons on the outside (That toy, built by Boppa in an old suitcase, is a whole other blog… what a great toy!) We constructed train tracks that ran the whole length of the downstairs, and then ran our trains around and around. We hunted dinosaurs, and scaled Mount Everest. We built metropolises out of blocks and demolished them with Tonka trucks, without ever leaving the comfort of our house.

My boys had favorite activities they loved to do on jammy days. Hammering endless nails into scrap lumber, planting flowers in the yard, or planting anything, including Star Wars guys, Lego, Hot Wheel Cars. (I still dig up an occasional gem from their earlier years.) They’d make a pot and pan band on the floor in the kitchen and sing at the top of their lungs

As they got older a jammy day was a time to play the never-ending board games that they liked so much, and for Michael and I to show them movies we’d always loved and that they were finally old enough to watch.

For a child, home really is where the heart is; there is no place like home. It is their safe place, the place they can just “be” in. It’s where they are most connected to you, and their siblings. Their whole life revolves around home.

So it’s only fitting that the current Our Time semester is all about loving being at home. It combines a variety of music, poems, and finger plays about the kitchen, the market, the food we get at the market, what we do with when we get it home, games we can play, the sights and smells and sounds and tastes and textures that make our own home the best place in the world. We even get to build the house.

A good portion of the music could even be considered home-grown. There’s lots of jazz, mostly New Orleans style, but other styles as well. Jazz is truly an American musical genre, one of our unique musical contributions to the world. And party songs from the early days of our country become dances and games that can be played with your child at home. Even the music that is not uniquely American is all about home. Two piano works from Schuman’s Children’s Corner Suite grace CD number one. This beautiful music was written for his beloved wife to play while their children played around her piano.

I love Away We Go, and Wiggles and Giggles and Fiddle Dee. They are the adventures we have when we are out and about in the world. But Milk and Cookies is the foundation on which those adventures take place. Our home is place we return to after dancing in Arkansas, where we are most likely to find Liza Jane and where Lukey’s boat is in dry dock.

This semester offers us a way to make our home more exciting and meaningful, and to make the adventures we have within those beloved four walls deeper and full of learning, and to discover how significant home is to our children’s development. They can’t get excited about a train trip if they aren’t fully immersed and attached to home. Because that’s where their hearts are, and yours, too.

-posted by Miss Allison, who leaves you with her favorite home quote: “There’s no place like home” – Dorothy Gale (Click your heels together, and be sure you say it three times.)

Tags: kindermusik, Miss Allison, music, parenting, pretend play

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Aug
26

I’m so embarassed.

Posted in Child Development, Our Time, Village

When your mom is a Kindermusik teacher, you get to play with ALL the scarves!

The following is taken from an email one of our Kindermusik moms (and newest teacher!) sent to our Studio3Music teacher loop. It’s an amazing inside perspective, and we thought you’d find it interesting as well.

Right about the time that Samantha turned a year old, her behavior shifted dramatically in class (at least to her mom). She went from sitting in my lap quite contentedly and grinning at me to being more and more independent.

The last couple of months, she’s gotten so mobile that I often spend most of the class (again, at least it feels like it to me) chasing her around the room and keeping her out of mischief. It was SO frustrating when she first started doing it (which was also about the time her “selective hearing” got crazy, too, and she stopped listening to me call her back), and I admit, I was really embarrassed.

I had no idea why my kid couldn’t keep still in class for more than 10 seconds (when I’m lucky), and why she seemed intent on taking everyone else’s instruments, knocking down their towers, and attempting to pillage the toys behind the sheets. It really felt like my kid was the only one behaving this way, and I started to wonder if I was doing something “wrong” or if Samantha just wasn’t getting anything out of Kindermusik anymore.

There were days that I came home feeling totally exhausted and confused. However, since y’all had already hired me, I decided to attempt to stick it out. ; )

Let me first say that I place none of the feelings I felt at the feet of the amazing teachers we’ve had. I know had I come to any of you, you would have helped me feel better. But I was embarrassed and felt that the “failings” were mine alone (can you tell she’s my first kid?).

As I’ve been going through the Kindermusik Educator training, this issue is one that is specifically addressed. I sat in my living room one morning and listened to part of a presentation about it. As the traits for the developing walker were discussed, I got misty-eyed. It meant SO MUCH to be told that my kid was not only “normal,” she was doing everything exactly right for her age. I realized that it was my expectation of her behavior that had to change, and that while she may not seem to be paying attention during much of class, she was still very much alert and aware of what was going on (which I can attest to – she LOVES her Kindermusik materials).

I’ve also realized this summer after attending some fairly wide age range groups that while it’s tiring to chase after her in Village, it’s a thousand times more so in an older class. The little ones don’t generally care too much about her rambunctious nature, and the parents laugh when she sits in the middle of the room during an activity and covers herself in scarves or hoards shakers. This is SO good for her self-esteem to be the center of attention and to feel like a “big girl.”

With older toddlers, however, I have to keep her in arms’ reach because they get MAD (understandably!) when she exhibits the same behavior. The parents are always kind because they remember, but that doesn’t keep a 3-year-old from throwing a fit when Samantha takes the cards from his hands for the eighth time that day. She throws more fits during these classes and comes home frustrated sometimes. Again, NOT the teachers’ faults. It’s just that she’s not able to express herself during class and, well, it pisses her off. ; )

-submitted on behalf of Miss Chris, who declares “I’ve become a poster child for the ‘no Our Time before 17 months’ rule. I am so grateful for a safe, fun environment in Village class where Samantha can be silly and we can both truly enjoy the hilariousness that is her right now.”

Tags: babies, kindermusik, Miss Chris, physical development, toddlers

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May
22

Spatial Awareness

Posted in Child Development, Imagine That, Music and the brain, Our Time, Village

Did you know there was a link between your child’s Kindermusik experience and his potential ability to read a map? It’s true….Though spatial awareness is a skill that usually comes naturally for most children, it is certainly a skill that parents can do much to promote. Using Kindermusik to encourage the development of spatial awareness is a natural choice.

Spatial awareness can be defined as: an awareness of the body in space, and the child’s relationship to the objects in the space. This can include spatial orientation, which is the skill that allows them to understand and comply with simple requests such as: “line up at the door” or “sit in a circle.”

Doing the Hokey Pokey in Kenya!

Spatial awareness is also linguistic. The understanding of the positional words people use to define themselves in space is essential to spatial awareness. “I am underneath the bridge….I am behind the tree.” You get the picture.

Next time you are in your Kindermusik class, check out the movement chart on the wall and notice how many of the words are directional or relational. Hoop play is one of the many activities in Kindermusik designed to promote spatial awareness…I am in the hoop, outside the hoop, beside the hoop, in front of the hoop. Another well-loved favorite is the “Hokey-Pokey” …“you put your right arm in, you take your right arm out, you put your right arm in, and you shake it all about…”

Our Time’s “Zoom-E-Oh” which demonstrates up/down, high/low, in/out, away/together, etc. Songs like these and activities like hoop play are allowing your child to learn to organize the available space in relation to themselves and in relationship to objects and other individuals.

In addition to spatial awareness, they are learning things like body parts, rhythm patterns, and a sense of direction. Spatial concepts learned through movement and exploration simultaneously develop muscle strength, coordination, self-confidence, and thinking skills. Spatial awareness helps you distinguish between words on this page and see the letters in correct relation to each other.

Which brings us to the initial question: what is the link between your child’s Kindermusik experience and his ability to read a map? Studies show that the development of spatial orientation leads to increased understanding of location and direction and even eventually the ability to understand and read a map – the point being that spatial awareness or a lack thereof has a direct impact on everyday skills that make a practical difference in our ability to navigate through life.

This same ability applies to reading and writing music on the staff, swinging a golf club, lobbing a tennis ball over the net, heading a soccer ball into the goal, or sending a baseball over the fence.

So…what if the Hokey-Pokey is what it’s all about? Well….in some respects, it is!

-posted by Studio3Music, with thanks to contributor Theresa Case, our friend and Kindermusik Educator from Greenville, SC.

Tags: brain, kindermusik, language development, music, physical development, preschoolers, toddlers

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Apr
27

In My Heart.

Posted in Bits and Pieces, Family, Our Time, Things We Love

I was privileged to witness a most wonderful thing today. It happened in an Our Time class. We were playing a word game. Games that are about word play and give the kids the opportunity to fill in the blank can be very dangerous- you just never know what is going to come out of a little ones mouth.

For instance, once in an Imagine That class a student shouted out that his favorite movie was “Hell Boy”. I’m not even sure now what we were talking about that triggered this bit of sharing, but his mother was horrified- after we all got done laughing, that is. (By the way, the only bad thing about the movie is the title.)

But that door swings both ways and occasionally something marvelous walks through. Today was one of those days.

So we’ve been playing the word game with “There’s a Little Wheel a’ Turning In My Heart”. (I just wrote a blog about this game, so you can do a search and find out how we play it….) We’d played it twice already in this class and had some pretty fabulous things inside our hearts.

The typical things are dinosaurs roaring, and balls bouncing, but this class was on an unusual roll. We had a lovey blanket hiding and a horse making that snorting/blowing sound (Now that was funny – 15 grown-ups singing and then vibrating their lips like a horse…) I asked for one more thing so we could finish up and move on to bouncing.

Imi and Allie

But it was taking a long time so I asked one of my older students, she’s three or so, and comes to class with her little sister. “Allie,” I said, “What’s in your heart? What do you love best?” And she answered in a clear strong voice, (such a sweet little voice), “My sister, Imi, is in my heart”.

There was silence for about 3 seconds, which is a long time, really. Then every grown up in the room spontaneously said “OHHHHHHHH!” I looked up and several moms had tears glistening in their eyes. I did. I was suddenly reminded of how much I love my own sister, how much I miss her. Denver is so far away.

However, we had a task at hand, and I couldn’t leave Ali hanging, waiting to finish her song, even though every heartstring in the room was stretched taut. So I asked “Allie, what’s she doing in your heart?” She answered quickly without hestitation. She already knew what she was going to say. “Imi is playing with me in my heart.” Their Mom was crying, and everyone else was sniffling, including me, but we all bravely swung our mallets, rang our bars and sang Ali’s beautiful verse….

Imi’s playing with Allie in her heart, in her heart,
Imi’s playing with Allie in her heart.
In her heart, in her heart,
Imi’s playing with Allie in her heart.

I’ve been thinking about my sister all day- and what a gift she is in my life. I’ve choked back tears several times just thinking of how blessed I am to have a sister that is also my dear friend. Thanks Allie, for reminding me that I should tell her more often how wonderful she is. I sent her an email earlier today.

-posted by Miss Allison, who says that this is one of those days I’ll never forget. It’s one of the days that makes teaching the very best job that could possibly exist. Thanks again, Allie.