We all know that a baby needs to have bodily contact with his mom and dad. By this, I mean rocking, snuggling, holding, carrying, dancing, or baby massage. But why?

It is the sensations from these kinds of bodily touch that are interpreted by the brain and helps him form his first emotional attachment.  

Touch is a baby’s source of comfort and security. Bodily touch leads to bonding, and gives your baby her first knowledge of her physical body. If this first emotional attachment is incomplete, it will be harder for your baby to form emotional attachments later in life.

If you’ve been in both Village and Our Time, you’ll realize that these classes give a very different experience. And our Kindermusik moms and dads and grandmas and nannies all treasure the Village experience. They might not be able to put it into words, but it is all the touching we do that makes this time so special.  

So, hold your baby close. Dance a little more often. Snuggle a little bit longer. Far too soon they will wiggle out of your arms and begin their journey towards independence.

It is what you do now that has a tremendous impact on your baby’s ability to have happy, healthy, well-adjusted and secure relationships as a grownup.

-posted by Miss Analiisa, who is a wee bit sad that she no longer has babies to snuggle in her arms, but is glad her youngest still is small enough to cuddle in her lap.

There really should be a support system for parents of colicky babies. These moms and dads rev themselves up for the toughest, most grueling, most heartbreaking ride of the day: the uncontrollable wail of their colicky baby. They try to remind themselves to stay calm and focus on getting through the spell.  They remind themselves that eventually there will be a light at the end of the tunnel when their baby is 3 or 4 months old.

We were those parents this past July and August.  We bounced, wrenched our backs, and parched ourselves trying to provide solace for our baby Kate when her colic spell would start. It wasn’t until the end of the summer, that I decided to try some of the baby exercises I had learned in my Kindermusik Village classes. After the first round of exercises, I noticed immediate relief. Also, every time, roughly five minutes after our baby exercise activity, Kate would get further relief through a bowel movement. Whether it was distraction, GI tract assistance, or lessening her stimuli, we found a way to cope with colic through a Kindermusik technique.

Right before the spell of colic kicks in, try some baby exercises. Lay your baby down on a soft blanket and think of your favorite nursery rhymes such as, Hickory Dickory Dock, Hey Diddle Diddle, Deedle Deedle Dumpling, and/or Wee Willie Winkie. Chant or sing the rhymes while moving  your baby’s arms up and down separately and then at the same time. Then, move his legs in the same pattern as well as in a circular bicycling motion.  Finish by touching one hand to his opposite foot (for example, right hand to left foot).  Be sure to repeat on the other side.  In Village class, Miss Allison calls this movement “crissy crossy.”  These cross-lateral movements require communication between the two sides of the brain and therefore also exercise baby’s brain.

Here’s another one: Your baby is again lying on her back. Place her heel up next to her bottom by bending her knee sharply. Move the leg, still sharply bent, until the top of the thigh rests against the tummy. Get both legs in this position. Your baby may be a tad confused at first, but later she will actually assist you-babies love this so! Grab her baby’s ankles and gently shake her legs in an up-and-down motion, unbending the knees gradually, until her heels rest on the blanket and her legs are straight. Repeat multiple times.

Pediatricians do not have a definitive conclusion regarding the cause of colic. There are ideas such as: diet, temperament, acid reflux, indigestion, allergies or a natural developmental stage.  However, the consensus on how to manage colic is fundamentally similar:  provide comfort measures like soothing through movement, a warm bath, rocking, or playing music.

Whether it is mere distraction from the pain or assistance to the digestion system, these exercises may aid in a less intense crying episode. The activity will definitely provide YOU with meaningful interaction with your baby during what is often a frustrating time.  Additionally, songs and rhymes reduce stress and promote language development.

There really is something behind all those facts and tips our teachers provide us in class! Thanks Miss Allison, you were right.  We didn’t have to just wait out the spells of colic.  It’s all about taking what you learn in class and applying it at home.

-posted by Miss Kim, the biggest fan of Village baby exercises!

Your Feathers book is a door into the world of conversation.  Your infant may not speak to you in words, but they will point.  So, the Feathers book with its simple, beautifully colored paintings allows you to ask simple questions and get a pointed response from your child.  “Where is the bird’s eye?  Where is your eye? Where is mommy’s eye?”

These questions, lay the foundation of self-identity as well teaching your child what an eye is and where it is located and how conversations work.  There is just one word of text per page, but let that one word be a gateway to the art and the experience you and your child can have with the illustrations.  

I love the book from Do Si Do!  It is one of my favorite Village books. This Is My Dance is filled with rhyming, rhythmic language. It is filled with movement patterns to re-create with your child as you chant the book.  It is all about words and connecting meaning to a particular word.  Your child will learn what “swoopy” means as you read the book and she sees the swooping baby bear, and then she’ll feel the swooping as you chant the page, and swoop her through the room. 

The refrain adds an element of repetition that all children love. The combination of new information on each page and the repeated refrain is the ideal learning combination for your young children, a balance of old and new.

The art banners are the easiest things you get.  Simply hang them somewhere where your child can see them:  above the changing table, behind the bars on the crib, at child’s eye level in the room where they play, on the lower cabinet doors or drawer fronts in your kitchen, anywhere in the house that you think the child would delight in seeing them.  Laminating them preserves them, and allows you use them longer, and move them more often.  You can cut them into sections and mix and match them.  This works especially well if you want to put them in the kitchen.  Blue painters tape will hold them up and not ruin the surface you are adhering them to.  By the way, your child will enjoy the art banners more if you read the books often!

-posted by Miss Allison, who was going to write about the manipulatives:  your chime ball, scarf, and egg shaker.  But, somehow she thinks you know what to do with those.   After all, you do come to class!

Wow, the weeks have flown by and we’re now in the second half of the curriculum and you have a whole new set of home materials!   So I thought it was finally time for me to give you some written information on what to do with your materials.  Let’s begin with the CD.

I’ve heard from parents that their child is completely engaged in the Feathers CD.  It is an instant source of comfort when their baby is fussy or has been stuck in the car seat for too long. I’ve heard that the child actually listens to the current class CD in a different way than they do when they hear other music, even other Kindermusik CDs (such as an older sibling’s CD.) 

Babies don’t just listen when they hear the CD from their own class.  I think they are actually “doing” the activities inside their head while they hear the music.  They remember how wonderful it feels to be massaged when they hear “Wild Geese Are Flying.”  They recall fun of dancing down the line with their partners when they hear “Sing A Song Of Sixpence.”  I think their little mathematical heads are tracking the steady beat as the “Maple Leaf Rag” comes on, and waiting for the animal sounds as “Little Feather” tiptoes through the forest.  

A CD with associated activities is very different from a CD of background music.  No matter how lovely it is, it will never be as interesting as the CD that engages the mind with the memory of activities. 

For this reason, your baby will probably prefer the Feathers CD for a few more weeks.  I know you might be tired of it and would really like to move on to Do Si Do.  But it will take us a couple of weeks to build up a large enough repertoire of activities to compete with the 8 weeks of memories your baby has of Feathers.  So be patient, it will happen!

So, that’s one thing you can do with your CDs, play them often.  Another thing to do with it is to DO it often.  You can use the music at home the same way we do in class:  get out some baby bells, or your new egg shaker and play along with the music we use for steady beat in class. 

Then, coerce Daddy into dancing with you.  (He’ll love it once he gets used to the idea.) Older siblings will also love dancing with you and Daddy and their new sibling.  You and Daddy can trade children halfway through the dance, that makes it even more fun!

You can play hide and seek with your new scarf, bounce, play ball games with your chime ball, do intentional touch and infant exercise with the songs that are your CD as well.  The more you play with the music, the more your child will connect with it.

-posted by Miss Allison, who would like you to go get that baby and do some activities with your Feathers & Do-Si-Do CDs.  Then, come back tomorrow to find out about the rest of the items in your home materials!

It is an old saying that children grow too quickly, and it is so true.  As parents we are often so excited to introduce our kids to the wonders of the world.  We want them to see and learn and be amazed at all there is to experience.  I think we sometimes move too fast.  This is not to say the a little push in the right direction to overcome a fear or try a new challenge is bad.  Rather, I believe it is important to allow a child the opportunity to learn all they can before they move on to next level. 

Jacob and Matthew

My littlest man has just turned 3, and for the past two years he has been a Kindermusik Junkie.  As an infant he lounged in my lap, sat up to gum all the toys handed him, and even took his very first independent step in class.  How quickly my little snuggle bug grew older and started squirming away during intentional touch! Eventually snuggling had to be with Mom standing, so he could not get away. Jacob went in his first year from one of the youngest in the Village class, to the oldest or BMC (Big Man on Campus). This was so fun because he now got to hand toys to the babies and bounce with Miss Allison.

Fall came last year and we graduated to Our Time. And do you know what? My BMC was once again the little guy.  He had a new routine to learn for singing and dancing. Big kids answered questions and sat right up front during story. Being the little brother, Jacob was used to watching big kids, and so he followed the lead of others and loved it.

We are now newly three and now we are once again BMC. This semester he is ready to bounce and sing, he know the words and actions, he gives song ideas, gently puts instruments away and he is sitting right up front for story of Pete and PJ.  The fact that he has come full circle in an environment set up for him to succeed is wonderful.  We are teaching him tools for his life. This, as a parent, is the goal, some time they will fly away and do well.  But for now he is mine to kiss and tickle and find frogs on his belly.

-posted by Angie – the mother of boys who are busy from Son up to Son down.

Cream colored ponies and crisp apple strudels
Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings
These are a few of my favorite things

When the dog bites
When the bee stings
When I’m feeling sad
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don’t feel so bad

Ah, my favorite things….Why is it that fall often launches us straight into extended episodes of nostalgia?? The crisper days, the scent of smoke in the air (well, not so much here in California!!), the shorter days and longer evenings, backpacks full of notepaper and freshly sharpened pencils, pumpkins guarding the grocery store entrance. They all send me backwards in time, back to simpler things, favorite things.  

From her alpine meadow, Maria rehearses her eclectic list and reminds us that remembering favorite things somehow has the capacity to lift our spirits; and by some inexplicable bit of magic we no longer “feel so bad”. I remember the year Julie Andrews brought the conflicted Maria to the big screen. I was the too-young accompanist of the Jr High choir. I can still see the old piano in the school gym (who can forget that smell!) and hear the slightly awkward but earnest singers attempting to set all those now famous words into three part harmonies. Just hearing the words “raindrops on roses” sends me immediately back to those somehow safer, less complicated days.

We’ve been enjoying “Wild Geese Are Flying” in Village Class this fall. The melancholy lullaby in a minor key soothes the babies and gives us the opportunity to create a warm, quiet space in our class. The song reminds us that change is just around the corner.  “Winter is coming, winter is coming!” and it’s bringing all those treasured memories of winters past. If only for the moment, the grim possibilities of one too many snowfalls and cabin fever “don’t feel so bad.” (Again, this doesn’t necessarily apply to those of us in SoCal, but we do our darndest to happily welcome something that looks marginally different than summer!) 

One of the most pleasurable tasks of parenting is the intentional facilitating of memories that will live in our children’s hearts and minds for the rest of their lives. By the time we send them out the door to put their own stamp on the world, hopefully they will have accumulated a backpack full of never to be forgotten memories.

Every week Kindermusik provides opportunities to create wonderful memories with our little ones.  Whether in class with our friends, or creating special “at home” moments with the rest of the family, Kindermusik is a great memory facilitator! While we can’t ensure our children will reach adulthood with only pleasurable memories, we can give them enough sweet ones to make the “bee stings” of life seem not quite so bad.

-posted by Miss Colleen, who leaves you with a favorite quote, “Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose.”  From the television show The Wonder Years