Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Kindermusik’

Kindermusik educators in the (well deserved) spotlight

Posted April 1st, 2010 in Blog Leave A Comment


Kindermusik toddler music infant baby preschool movementKindermusik toddler music infant baby preschool movementAt Kindermusik International, nothing makes us happier than to see our super talented Kindermusik educators spotlighted in news stories or with awards. When you put a Kindermusik educator in the spotlight, her passion for music, love of children, and dedication always shine.

Congrats to both Suzanne and Laura on this well deserved recognition!

Thanks to Kindermusik educator Theresa Case for contributing to this post. Theresa's Kindermusik program, Kindermusik at Piano Central Studios, is in the top 1% of all programs in the world.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Do you TUNE IN?

Posted March 17th, 2010 in Blog Leave A Comment


Did you know Kindermusik has a monthly newsletter called "Tune In"? It contains the latest news, activities ideas for home, and some amazing deals on products. Want to check it out? Click here.

If you want to sign up for Tune In, you'll find a link near the bottom of the page.

Tags: , , , ,

Stories that make us all smile

Posted March 2nd, 2010 in Blog Comments Off


One of our favorite things at Kindermusik International is when we are emailed stories from happy parents. These stories usually make us smile, not only because we get to see how the parents are enjoying their classes, but we know happy parents means happy Kindermusik educators too!

Here's one of those emails we got with a little story that made us smile. Kindermusik parent Shaunna sent this story about her daughter Jessie (pictured, right) to their eduator, Linda Courchesne of Kids Music & Movement in Ontario, Canada. It really captures a what it's all about — how Kindermusik classes bring learning into the home.

"I just have to tell you what Jessie did tonight … I always put on the Do-Si-Do CD after her bath (she now runs to the playroom and waits by the CD player for it!), and we did the Hello Song and then just started playing with her toys, as usual. BUT — when it got to the Boom-Pa-Pa song, she immediately dropped her toys and stood up and started dancing and saying, "Ba Pa Pa Pa" and when it got to the "swoopy and swervy" verse, still standing, she bent over in half, dropped her arms all "noodle like" and swooped and swerved her whole body. Then she stood up and clapped for herself! SO cute! I just had to share my happy little at-home Kindermusik moment with someone who would REALLY appreciate it! … Shaunna"

Big thanks to Linda for passing this along to us, and, of course, Shaunna and Jessie for making us smile.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

What Teach For America and Kindermusik both know

Posted February 24th, 2010 in Blog Comments Off


One thing I love about teachers: the great ones want to learn from each other. A fascinating article recently came out in The Atlantic. “What Makes a Great Teacher?” seeks to answer that time honored question with data from Teach For America (TFA). It’s a powerful finding: great schools have great teachers. But so do lousy schools. In fact, we ought to be obsessed about teachers — not schools — in looking for the answers to our public education challenges.

So, what does make a great teacher, at least those whose students perform best among the over 7,000 TFA teachers? “Superstar teachers had four other tendencies in common: they avidly recruited students and their families into the process; they maintained focus, ensuring that everything they did contributed to student learning; they planned exhaustively and purposefully — for the next day or the year ahead — by working backward from the desired outcome; and they worked relentlessly, refusing to surrender to the combined menaces of poverty, bureaucracy, and budgetary shortfalls.”

Funny thing, this sounds exactly like what we train our licensed Kindermusik teachers on during their Kindermusik Fundamentals course and as they grow in various Kindermusik Professional Development courses. Moreover, it is what we observe among our very best licensed educators. I’m proud to say Kindermusik licensed educators are provided extensive opportunities for in-service training and that their relicensure requires them to take full advantage.

Teach for America & Teach for Smile (Kindermusik)…birds of a feather!
-by Michael Dougherty, CEO of Kindermusik International

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Listening equals learning

Posted February 19th, 2010 in Blog Comments Off


"It turns out that mere exposure makes an enormous contribution to how musical competence develops." -researchers at the University of Amsterdam

In Kindermusik class, we tell parents that simply having their child in an interactive musical environment has huge impact. This impact usually goes well beyond what we are seeing in class. (For example, a child may initially be shy about singing in class. At home, however, she will sing the class songs all the time! We know she's learning and abosorbing).

Recent research backs up what we have known and seen for years. According to researchers at the University of Amsterdam (2008), there is evidence that some musical capabilities are developed just by being exposed to music, especially music of the listener’s preferred genre. And we can tell you that Kindermusik kids LOVE their Kindermusik music. (And most parents are closet fans too!)

When it comes to music, listening equals learning. Most parents instinctively recognize the power of music and want to do all they can to foster their child’s musical interests and development. One of the easiest things you can do is surround your child with an active musical environment. Kindermusik International’s experience over the past 30 years has shown that for young children –- baby, toddler, preschooler, or big kid — there’s no better way to listen and learn than with us!

Check out Kindermusik Play, our new e-music site to preview and download some of our music. Have a listen with your kids. They'll be learning!

To check out the research, click here. From ScienceDaily (Aug. 13, 2008): Researchers at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) have demonstrated how much the brain can learn simply through active exposure to many different kinds of music. "More and more labs are showing that people have the sensitivity for skills that we thought were only expert skills," Henkjan Honing (UvA) explains.

Special thanks to Kindermusik educator Theresa Case for her contributions to this article. Theresa's Kindermusik program, Kindermusik at Piano Central Studios, is in the top 1% of all programs in the world.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Behold, the power of music!

Posted February 18th, 2010 in Blog Comments Off


Kindermusik educator Kathy Morrison recently received an email from one of her enrolled parents who is homescholing her children. The email read:

"I just found another HUGE benefit to the kids knowing all about steady beat. We recently began learning about syllables in words. I thought it would be kind of a tricky thing to teach, but I started by calling the syllables 'beats' and the kids didn’t have any trouble catching on. Once they were able to count the beats in a word (which didn’t take long at all), then I transitioned to calling the beats syllables. It was effortless! When one is homeschooling, there are few things that one can call effortless –- so thank you for setting up that foundation in my children!!!"
-Mother of Trudy (age 7), Elias (age 5), and Clara (18 months)

To learn more, check out our Benefits of Kindermusik page.

Special thanks to Brandi, mom of three, for allowing us to share this, and Kathy Morrison for allowing us to share a post from her blog. Kathy is in the Pittsburgh area and runs Kathy's Music, which is in the top 1% of Kindermusik programs in the world.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Real moms, real blog entries

Posted February 11th, 2010 in Blog Comments Off


One thing that really gets us excited at Kindermusik is when we stumble across blog entries from moms (or dads) writing about Kindermusik. We get to peek into the real world of real parents experiencing the highs (and occasional lows!) of raising kids. We're humbled to be a small part of so many parents' lives. Plus, some of the stories we find are just too fun!

Here on the Minds on Music blog, we've put together a collection of short quotes and links to some of our favorite Kindermusik-related blog entries. Wow — there are so many creative parents out there in the blogsphere!

You can check out these Real moms, real blog entries. There is also a link to the page in the right rail of Minds on Music. We'll be routinely adding new entries as we come across them.

Thanks to all the mommy bloggers out there. Write on!

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Thoughts on music, part 5 (“the best gift you can give anyone is presence”)

Posted February 5th, 2010 in Blog Comments Off


Kindermusik 30-year veteran and guru Carol Penney shares some thoughts on music in a five-day, five part series.

Isn’t it amazing how fast these children in Kindergarten and First Grade are learning, gaining new skills and loving all they can do on their own? It’s easy (and frequently, a relief) to let them do just that – proceed on their own – especially with a younger sibling at hand.

I frequently wore the cloak of guilt that surrounds the issue of quality time v. quantity time. I remember stretching the definition of “quality” to include inviting my son to sit at the kitchen table and play a song on his glockenspiel (a simple barred instrument with the musical notes of a scale) while I cooked dinner, emptied the dish-washer, cleaned out the moldy containers in the refrigerator and made tomorrow’s lunches.

The best gift you can give anyone is presence – unencumbered attention and participation, connecting with what they are saying, doing, learning, enjoying. When a young child senses that something is important to you, important enough for you to invest your authentic and full attention, it gains in value, energy, and enjoyment.

“Let’s play our recorders!” (Because I purchased one, too, and love that he is teaching me what he is learning.)

“Play one note of a song and let me guess which one it is.” (Turn any new skill into a game that’s both fun and challenging. Keep requesting the addition of another note until you can you guess the song – or until he’s played the whole song!)

“Time for Bernie’s (our golden retriever) concert.” (Schedule a regular time everyday to practice a new skill. The rewards of mastery alongside the life lesson of the importance of practice will pay off in all aspects of life – in sports, in spelling, in music, in everything!)

If you feel you don’t have the skill necessary to participate in musical activities with your child, enroll in a class, like Kindermusik, that provides the knowledge and guidance you might be looking for. Many parents graduate from Kindermusik with their own new musical skills!
-Carol Penney, Kindermusik educator and employee-owner

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Thoughts on music, part 4 (“capture their world of energy”)

Posted February 4th, 2010 in Blog Comments Off


Kindermusik 30-year veteran and guru Carol Penney shares some thoughts on music in a five-day, five part series. Check back with Minds on Music each day for the next post!

Ahhh! Life with a preschooler. New skills, new questions, new activities, new friends. It can be downright exhausting! But you learn to embrace the emotional rollercoaster. Equilibruim: “I love you." "I love my hamster." "I love everything.” Disequilibrium: “My shoelaces aren’t right." "I hate salad." "I won’t go to bed.” (Do they still make shoes with shoelaces?)

You expect their world to be of opposites: conforming/rebelling; in-bounds/out-of-bounds; security/insecurity. But never underestimate the joy and the learning potential of their turn-on-a dime toggles from reality to fantasy. When you play with 3- and 4-year-olds, you really learn how to play. You don’t pretend to be a princess or pirate…you are a princess or pirate. The world magically transforms into a palace or a ship despite the uniformed eye seeing sofas and chairs.

As a grandma, I will not let the challenging aspects of a preschooler’s growth and learning sap my energy. I plan to capture their world of energy and eagerness and lean into that imagination.

Silly and Creative
Take those beloved nursery rhymes and make them silly – adding new rhyming words to foster their listening acuity, sense of rhythm and phrases, and creativity. Future reader. Future musician.

Sing a Story, Sing a Transition, Sing a Chore
Use familiar melodies (e.g. Row, Row, Row Your Boat) or make one up, then add your own words. (e.g. Toys, toys, toys away; Now it’s clean-up time; Quickly, neatly, that’s the way; Soon you will be done.)

Dance and Move throughout the Day
Like princesses, like pirates, with happy feet, with angry feet. Fill the day with a wide variety of musical styles and join in the creative expression while building musical awareness and a wonderfully expressive and coordinated body. (Theirs and yours!)

Need more music that’s preschooler tested? Enroll in a Kindermusik class or go to play.kindermusik.com.
-Carol Penney, Kindermusik educator and employee-owner

Check back tomorrow for part 5, the final part of the series!

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Newer Posts »