Just like many of you, I am now beginning to reflect on this year in Kindermusik. I am reflecting on what kind of person and teacher I was before the year started, and I am reflecting on what kind of person and teacher I am now. A Chinese proverb comes to mind: “Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand.”

What I have come to love about Kindermusik is that now, at the end of the year, as I look into your faces and I look into the faces of your children, I know deep down that what you all take with you as you continue on is something that you’ll never forget. It comes from the foundation of how we teach: through play. Every day we get to play with our children, and in the classroom, I know that as a teacher, it is my goal to help you as caregivers and teachers of your children, to show you what you already do so well, and build on it even more. Take for example:

-          A richer vocabulary
-          Better verbalization
-          Higher language level
-          Better problem-solving strategies
-          More curiosity
-          Better peer cooperation
-          Higher mathematics skills
-          Empathy
-          Prediction of other’s preferences and desires
-          Control of impulsive actions
-          Increased motor control

These are all examples of skills we want our children to learn so they can have everything they need to be happy and healthy. Now pick two or three of these things. Think of an example from this past year in Kindermusik where you saw these skills emerge while you were playing and singing and dancing with the children. Reflect on what happened, what you were doing, what kind of play it was, what the children said, what you said, where you were, etc. What did you notice? What do you notice now that you didn’t notice then? Sometimes when we play with children or see children playing together, we don’t always make the connection that their play is helping them learn important skills, but it happens every day.

Learning happens in many different forms. When we get older, there is more time spent on formal and structured learning. We sit down in a desk, we learn from books, and lectures, and so on. However, to truly learn and absorb a concept, there must be structure and chaos. Everything that we learn during structured parts of our day is processed and absorbed into our long-term memory during the unstructured and more chaotic times. We see this every day. A dance with specific steps to follow on the beat is an example of structured learning. Open music play during a steady beat is an example of a more free and open learning. Both are equally essential for learning experiences to happen.

This is why play is so essential to learning and is the foundation of everything we teach. But I am hardly the first to think so. In the 1970s, Israeli psychologist Sara Smilansky conducted research on the role of dramatic and sociodramatic play (dramatic play with others) in cognitive and socio-emotional development. These long-term studies were among the first of many that link children’s ability to engage in dramatic and sociodramatic play to their later academic success.

For example, I was not alive during the Civil War. I know, big surprise. But I am a huge history buff. I can vividly recall most everything I learned in a history or literature class. Problem solving in schools requires a great deal of make-believe. We have to imagine conceptual constructs all the time. Imagining a story and writing it down, solving arithmetic problems, finding a variable in calculus, determining what will come next are all things that require an imagination and a sense of make-believe.

There are many things in education we learn about that we never directly experience, like my anecdote about the Civil War.  Having this ability to make these constructs and imagine these concepts is a learned skill. It emerges in play. That is why children with a strong foundation in play so very clearly have the skills they need to be successful in their education, and can confidently make their own choices.

As I look back over the year, I think about everything we have learned. Each concept in we address in class, all the songs we’ve learned and skills we’ve seen our children develop, and I see that at the heart of all of it, is play. Education should always be this fun I think. In my book, school should never be boring, and play should always be at the heart of everything we do with our children.

-posted by Teacher Aaron, who leaves you with a quote from Ignacio Estrada: “If a child cannot learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn.”

The word “discrimination” tends to get a bad rap. It’s actually a very important skill. Especially when it comes to your sense of hearing. For instance, I don’t want to open my front door, call my children by name in to dinner, and have all the neighborhood kids appear. (Well, that might be a compliment to my culinary skills, but that’s not the point.)

Here are some fun and easy activities for you do with your child to help develop auditory discrimination:

Infants (newborn to around 18 months):
You’ll do most of the work at this age. Point out the noises around you. Sounds have to be alone, rather than layered or mixed in with others. When more than one sound occurs simultaneously, infants cannot discriminate between them, even if they are very different noises.

• Say, “Listen. That is a dog barking.” Then, you imitate the dog. “Woof. Woof. A dog says, ‘woof, woof’”. Eventually, your baby will hear a dog barking and say, “Dog.”
• Ask and answer your own question. “What sound does a truck make? A truck goes ‘vroom, vroom.’” One day in the future when your little one is playing with a truck, you’ll hear “vroom, vroom”, emanating from her mouth.

In this stage, your baby is learning to associate a particular sound with a particular object. Later, he’ll use this skill to match a sound to a letter symbol.

Note: When you speak in full sentences to your baby, you’ll be demonstrating vocabulary, good grammar, and correct sentence structure. What you put in her mind will, at some point, come out naturally!

Toddlers (18 months to 3 years):
As toddlers, children continue to discriminate single sounds best. You’ll still need to name new sounds, but now they will readily imitate them back to you. Toddlers are also likely to ask what an unidentified sound is.

• You can ask questions like, “What is making that sound?” (a cow) “Can you moo like a cow?” “What does a ­­­­­­­­­­­­_______ say?”
• Toddlers can now associate sound with a process or event. “What’s that sound? … Yes, someone is knocking on the door. What does that mean?”… You are right. Grandma is here!” Also, think microwave beeping, clothes drying timer sounding, keys rattling in the lock, phone ringing.

Save the learning of letter sounds for later. And letter names have nothing to do with reading. Auditory discrimination is the best first step towards reading readiness.

Preschoolers (3 to 6 years):
At 3 and 4, preschoolers are now ready for simple layered sounds. That is, identifying a sound (like a lawnmower, and then hearing a bus drive past), and being able to recognize the sound of the bus while the lawnmower is still making noise.

• Focus now on picking out sounds. Make a game of it. Let’s say you are taking a trip to the beach. What are the things that you, the grownup can hear? Birds, waves, people talking, laughing, a ferry boat… Have your child identify a sound. He picks laughing. You listen for it, too. Now you say, “Can you also hear the waves?” He has to use his filters – turn off his ears to laughing, and listen for the waves. That is auditory discrimination.
• For 4 ½ and up, I love the Kindermusik CD called Ned Redd, World Traveler. Every song on the CD is from a different country, and the narrator at the beginning of each track will give you a choice of three different sounds to listen for, and how many times each sound occurs. There are three different “levels”, so younger and older kids (and their grownups!) can play together.

Here’s a track from Ned Redd so you can play this game right now.

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If you’d like to download the whole album (great for a car trip!), you can right here on play.kindermusik.com.

-posted by Miss Analiisa, who developed her auditory discrimination skills by practicing band music on her euphonium in the woods at music camp right next to her violin-playing friend Gwen, while blocking out Gwen rehearsing orchestra music. I am told that it sounded rather horrible to the non-discriminating!

We at Studio3Music are tickled to announce that Chris Welton has joined our staff! Miss Chris will be teaching in Redmond on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. She is an experienced teacher and Kindermusik mom, and we know you’ll love her, too. Here is a little bit more about Miss Chris:

Along with the tap, ballet and jazz dance lessons that she took as a young child, Miss Chris was the coach of her (imaginary) dance troupe that met several times a week in her living room.  Her parents quickly recognized her love for music and encouraged her to develop her talents throughout her life.  She has taken formal lessons in piano, French Horn, and voice, and is a (self-proclaimed) world-class kazoo player! 

Miss Chris was seemingly destined to work with children.  From being the neighborhood’s favorite babysitter, to reading with young children in school, to volunteering with Bellevue Youth Theatre, the times that Miss Chris has felt the most like “herself” have been in sharing her love and laughter with children. 

 In high school, Miss Chris had a defining moment when her classmates were asked to pick an animal that best described her.  The emphatic consensus was that she was a “mother bear” – nurturing, playful, and protective of the children she always seemed to have around. 

Miss Chris graduated from City University with a degree in K-8 education and taught at a local Montessori school, working with children all the way from pre-K through 5^th grade.  In addition to her teaching duties, Miss Chris helped direct the school’s annual performing arts recital for multiple years. 

Since then, Miss Chris and her husband Kevin have had a darling little “bear cub” of their own.  Miss Chris and her daughter currently attend Kindermusik classes through Studio3Music and love the balance of developmentally appropriate play, music, and education that they receive every week. 

Miss Chris is thrilled to be joining the family here at Studio3Music, and looks forward to taking a fun-filled journey with you and your little ones! (If you’re lucky, she might even play the kazoo for you.)

You don’t have to bring the sand all the way from Mexico to have a good time at the beach; Kindermusik helps bring that fun wherever you are!  (Especially if you are taking Creatures at the Ocean right now.) I love this website for great crafts  that are both inexpensive and creative! 

Fill up the tub and make some new “boats” out of Tupperware you’ve got in the house.  Take some plastic animals or people for a ride.

Build your sandcastle with paper cups instead of sand. Don't forget to stack the cups in a pyramid shape to make tall walls!

If you haven’t already built “sandcastles” in class with us, then try building them out of paper cups!  Bathroom  “Dixie” cups work great. Just stack them in a pyramid pattern, and then be the waves that knock them down.  

Throw a blanket down outside or inside and have a beach blanket picnic.  Don’t forget bubbles…..there are always bubbles at the beach!  Blowing bubbles is a great way to learn breath control, and little brothers and sisters can watch the bubbles and try and catch them, which helps with fine motor and eye tracking.

Go to your local hardware store and get some play sand.  You don’t even have to have a sandbox to have a good time.  Just grab some toy cars, plastic cups, muffin tins and spoons and then have a beachy time in your yard or even on the patio with the sand in a big, flat Rubbermaid-type box that you’ve put the sand in. 

Make some shell pasta for a delicious dinner with an ocean ambience to top off the day. Have fun at the “beach” with these ideas, even if it is raining!

-posted by Miss Beth, who loves to wiggle her toes in the sand!

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.

Jennifer, Ella and Liam

One of our long time families is moving to Austin. It is a bitter goodbye, because we will miss them so. It is a sweet goodbye, because we will connect them to a Kindermusik studio in Austin, so they will be able to continue there. Jennifer wrote us a short note that we asked her permission to post.

We’ve enjoyed Kindermusik for years and Studio3 has been such a great resource and playtime for me and the kiddos.  Miss Stacey and Miss Allison have been terrific with the kids, always attentive to their individual strengths and needs.  My daughter is a Kindermusik pro and knows all the hello and goodbye songs by heart.  So when Miss Allison encouraged her to be a part of her little brother’s Our Time she was elated to be a big sister/helper in class.  My son Liam is new to the program and a bit shy but having Ella in class relaxed him and he was also encouraged with kindness and sweet kisses from his teachers.   Kindermusik is one of the few curriculums around that teach moms how to interact creatively and musically with their kids and carry it over into our time at home with them.  Learning doesn’t stop at the classroom but naturally seems to flow into the daily routine.  Our whole family will miss Studio3Music! 

The feeling is mutual, Jennifer!