Beverly Mother's Club

The Beverly Mother's Club just launched a new website and it looks fantastic! I highly recommend you check it out. Fabulous people, great organization, and a strong supporter of Kindermusik in Beverly, MA. I like it!

Kindermusik With Friends

Auld Lang Syne And The Importance Of Rituals.

Happy New Year! May you have a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year with your family.

A ritual of New Years Eve is to sing Auld Lang Syne. When the ball dropped in Times Square last night and the familiar strains of Guy Lombardo played over the speakers it was a musical ritual. We expect to hear Auld Lang Syne on New Year's just as we expect to hear Happy Birthday on our Birthday or Stars and Stipes at a Fourth of July fireworks celebration. We seek comfort in these rituals.

Rituals provide safety, security, and context to the moment. That's why in Kindermusik class we always open with a ritual "Hello" song and "Good-Bye" song. These expected songs create an environment where the child knows what to expect.

Just before the holidays I taught an Our Time class that needed a little bit of extra-stimulation. It was three days before Christmas, families were rushing about, and everyone was excited and many of the children had eaten lots of sugar at holiday parties and celebrations. The children were exploring instruments and I decided to prolong that activity and omit our quiet time for rocking, a weekly ritual. I thought that sitting quietly would be too much for the children. Imagine my surprise when little S. who is but two asked for the quiet time ritual after we sang good-bye! We extended class by three minutes and participated in the activity and I learned a lesson about the importance of rituals.

Kindermusik With Friends

Baking Cookies With Your Kids?

I logged onto Facebook earlier today and post after post...baking cookies, baked cookies for 12 hours, need a break from baking cookies, ate a hot macaroon fresh from the oven, and my favorite was the post from the my friend who has been baking for two weeks and claims that airtight packages, wax paper between cookie layers, and cold storage and the cookies will taste fresh for up to two weeks. Amazing.

All this cookie talk inspired me to search out my Our Time Milk & Cookies Activity Guide to check out some of the recipes and songs. Here's a recipe from the guide and if you have already participated in Milk & Cookies you can find it on page 4.

Mexican Sugar Cookies
2 1/2 c. shortening
1 c. white sugar
1 tsp ground anise seed
2 eggs
6 c. all-purpose flour
1 tb. baking powder
1/2 tb. cream of tartar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 c. orange juice
3 tb. ground cinnamon
1 c. white sugar

Preheat over to 350 degrees. Beat shortening until light and fluffy. Add one cup sugar and anise seed. Mix until creamy. Add eggs and mix well. Add flour, baking powder, cream of tartar, salt an orange juice. Mix well. Knead dough until smooth. On lightly floured surface, roll to 1/2 inch thick. Using cookie cutters, cut into shapes. Bake until light brown, 5-8 minutes. Roll cookies in mixture of 1 c. sugar and 3 tb. cinnamon while still warm. Yield: 2 dozen. ("Mexican Sugar Cookies," submitted by Bea Ramirez, is reprinted with permission from AllRecipes.com. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED copyright © 2000 AllRecipes.com)

If you try baking these cookies please post and let us know how they turn out. You can post them on the Kindermusik With Friends Facebook page. I am still deciding which cookies I want to bake this year.

And remember....while the cookies are baking "Go into the kitchen and take a peek!"

Happy Holidays!
Kindermusik With Friends

Why Music?

Give The Gift of Kindermusik This Holiday Season

Math, Music, and More In Your Child's Pre-School Music Class

Today I ran across this quote while preparing lessons and it is worth sharing.

"Any kind of rhythm is setting children up to understand patterns, and mathematics is filled with all kinds of patterns. That doesn't mean that music equals mathematics, but the two are connected. Research tells us that preschoolers deal with patterns all the time. In fact, some mathematicians have even defined mathematics as the study of the patterns of numbers in space." - "Early Child Today Interviews: On Math, Music, and More" by Douglas H. Clements, Ph.D., Scholastic Early Childhood Today, January 2001, p.46

As a parent and teacher you can heighten your child's awareness of patterns with visual representations. Choose objects to create ABAB patterns and then have a discussion about the patterns. Set down eating utensils (fork, spoon, fork, spoon) or stuffed animals (cat,dog,cat,dog)or any objects you have on hand.

I am laundering scarves right now for a visual representation of patterns in Imagine That class tomorrow. When your child attends this children's music class rest assured that a myriad of learning areas are being addressed simultaneously. We will also be moving quite a bit to ABAB patterns so expect your child to get lots of physical exercise as well.

Kindermusik With Friends
Beverly, MA and Marblehead, MA

Beginning Reading Strategies

Research tell us that reading with very young children is an important element of promoting early literacy and in cultivating a life long relationship with and love of reading and books. Yet, I often hear from parents that story time if rife with challenges because children have such short attention spans, often choose to mouth the books, or open and close the same page over, and over, and over...
Children interact with books in different ways and some things to consider are that it is common for children to attend to one book for about 15 to 30 seconds, mouthing board books is a form of exploration, children like to switch books often, and when a child desires to turn the pages it is a way of participating in the activity.

Embrace these interactions as part of the process.

Sit down to read with several books and switch books as often as your child desires. Find a time during the day when your child is receptive. And consider adding ASL signs to the reading experience to create an even more rich literacy component. Many children's books have a repeating character, often an animal or an action. Learn the sign for the repeating idea and sign it for each page. (Adapted from Sign and Sing Teacher's Guide© 2005 Wide-Eyed Learning, LLC)

Have fun reading and enjoy the process.

Kindermusik With Friends
Kindermusik Classes in Beverly, MA and Marblehead, MA