Month: September 2012

Many Thanks for Culture Days – Celebrating the Arts!

What a terrific class we just had, celebrating the Canada wide Culture Days event! Local families with children under age 7 from Port Credit joined us at Sing Music Studio to participate in a fun filled music and movement class to celebrate the event! There was singing, lots of movement, instruments, laughing and learning for both parents and kids. And was it ever fun! I’m lucky to say I really do love what I do! I adore meeting new children and families and sharing my passion for music with them – what better time to do that than during Culture Days!

So thanks for participating with me today! And thanks to Culture Days for creating such a wonderful weekend of arts celebration! I’m really looking forward to continuing to share my passion for music and music education with more new and familiar children and families this coming week as our new Kindermusik classes begin!

Spotlight on Move & Groove for School Aged Kids

Lesson Focus: Musical Patterning

If young children ruled the world, daily life would follow a predictable AB pattern: Play, Eat, Play, Eat, Play, Eat. However, even world leaders need to sleep, take a potty break, and brush teeth. So, as a parent, you add a few more of those things to your child’s daily routine, creating a pattern that works for your family.

In Kindermusik, we lead children to experience patterns through movement, listening, and playing instruments. When we step, step, step, stop through the rainforest or ta, ta, ta, rest with rhythm sticks, your child is learning rhythm patterns (quarter note, quarter note, quarter note, rest), a basic musical concept.  Rhythm patterns are combinations of long and short sounds and silences. Your child’s whole body involvement with patterning not only lays an early foundation for reading music but also for math and literacy…and maybe even world leadership one day!

Everyday connection: DO play with your food. Give your child two small snacks, such as pretzels and blueberries. Make patterns with the food and then sing or clap it together. Add a third item as a “rest.” Example: pretzel (hand clap), pretzel (hand clap), blueberry (wave), cracker (shh!). Enjoy eating the patterns you make together.

Learning through Music: Steady Beat

Spotlight on Learning: Laugh and Learn for Preschoolers

Lesson Focus: Steady Beat

Do you remember the first time you listened to your child’s heartbeat? Hearing that steady gagon-gagon-gagon-gagon probably made your own heart skip a beat or two (or three or four!). As an infant, hearing the steady beat of your heart coupled with the feeling of being swayed back and forth could lull your child to sleep…usually!

In music, the most fundamental property is beat—the underlying, unchanging, repeating pulse. For your child, feeling and moving to a steady beat develops a sense of time and the ability to organize and coordinate movements within time. Each week in Kindermusik class, we develop your child’s awareness of beat when we greet everyone with a steady beat motion, drum, march along with Liberty wagon, play together with zig zag blocks, or move together on the Merry Go Round. We know your child will use this same sense of steady beat for walking, running, riding a bike, cutting with scissors, and even reading!
Everyday connection: And the beat goes on! Steady beat occurs everywhere. Take turns naming things with steady beats and those without. Try this at home and in the car!