Kindermusik Fun with Alecia

Is Kindermusik A Valuable Education?

Alecia — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 04:00:36 +0000

There are many activities to choose for your child today, like dance, gymnastics and soccer. They do provide certain benefits, but only participation in Kindermusik promises more life-impacting growth in all areas of your child’s development. Areas including: cognitive, physical, emotional, language and social development. All areas that carry on now and for life!

Check out this list of activities and see how you can give your child the best education, and a head start that will last a lifetime.

Activity Benefits	Kindermusik	Dance / Gymnastics	Organized Sports
Helps develop social skills through group interaction	√	√	√
Provides for physical development	√	√	√
Gives parents a chance to socialize	√	√	√
Builds self-esteem	√	√	√
Prepares Child for possible future as an athlete	√	√	√
Prepares Child for a future dance career	√	√
Leads a child toward a lifetime of joyful music-making	√
Provides a flexible, but structured routine	√
Enhances brain development for other skills like spatial and complex reasoning, listening, and reading	√
Allows a child to creatively express and explore individual strengths with art, vocal, dance, and instrumental activities	√
Improves memory and the ability to learn new information	√
Develops a child’s language and auditory skills	√
Is process, not performance, based	√
Supports the home as the most important environment for learning	√
At Home Materials make the weekly experience live at home again and again	√

Compiled by Theresa Case, M.Ed.

Comment on which activity benefit is most important to you. Take advantage and enjoy a free preview Kindermusik class to see how you can give your child a well rounded education.

What If There Were A Place?

Alecia — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 16:51:35 +0000

What if there were a place for you and your baby where all the little miracles were captured, magnified, and celebrated through music, movement, touch, and sounds?

What if there were a place where someone helped you peek inside your baby’s miraculous little body and brain?

And what if every time you left this place, you took home treasures from the day and inspiring ideas to add this joy into your daily routine?

This celebration of music and learning engages toddlers, preschoolers, and babies in vocal singing, movement, instrument play and musical props while parents enjoy all the playful ways to grow as a musical family! In a “one room musical schoolhouse” environment, Family Time helps children build musical skills, as well as the social skills necessary to share and take turns. Siblings are welcome to join in the fun as we experience quality “Family Time” at Kindermusik class! Families will receive an adorable home materials kit with picture books, instruments, CDs and more! Age Range: Birth up to 7 years.

Come experience this celebration at a Kindermusik Family Time Class near you in Gray, Georgia.

Itsy Bitsy Spider your way to stardom! Win a free semester of Kindermusik!

Alecia — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:15:00 +0000

Want to win a free semester of Kindermusik, including tuition and home materials?

Find all the details and a free mp3 download of Kindermusik’s latest recording of The Itsy Bitsy Spider here: http://www.kindermusik.com/VideoContest/ItsyBitsySpider/ItsyBitsySpider.aspx.

How do I enter the contest?
It’s so easy! Just make a short homemade video of any kid, adult, pet, group—whoever!—doing the itsy bitsy spider finger play.

What do I do with the video?
Post your video on YouTube. If you don’t have a YouTube account already, it’s super-easy to sign up. Once your video is posted, share it with us on our Itsy Bitsy Spider Contest group page, found here: http://www.youtube.com/group/kmusikexperience1. That’s it! You’re automatically entered in the raffle for a free semester of Kindermusik.

How many times can I enter?
Enter up to five times (with five different videos) to increase your chances of winning. The winner will be announced in early December.

Is there anything else?
Of course! We’re going to take clips from select Itsy Bitsy videos and edit them into an Itsy Bitsy Spider music video! Need more details? Find them here: http://www.kindermusik.com/VideoContest/ItsyBitsySpider/ItsyBitsySpider.aspx.

Piano Student Videos

Alecia — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 05:13:02 +0000

Kindermusik in the News: How Young is too Young for Music?

Alecia — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:20:16 +0000

This morning our guest says your child can begin learning music at a young age, even infants.

Music instructor Alecia Stringer joined us on Daybreak with more.

Stringer says children will learn rhythm and rhyme skills. Stringer says no one is too early to get their mind in music.

The Family Time Kindermusik classes kick off on Tuesday, November 10th at 10am. Classes will be held at Georgia Music on Eisenhower Pkwy. in Macon. Classes are for newborns to children up to seven years old. For five weeks of classes, the cost is $130.

Making more options for parents also with multiple times offered. See more on the Kindermusik Schedules.

Create those lasting memories with your babies and let them hear YOUR voice. Doesn’t matter how good or bad you sing, it’s your voice that they love the best. No other teacher is their favorite teacher than their own parents.

Your Family Time Rituals

Alecia — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:55:25 +0000

By week nine in the semester, I am celebrating all that we have learned and enjoyed during this Family Time class. We’ve established a set of classroom rituals and routines that have provided a framework in which your children can flourish. I invite you to share your favorite class memory or perhaps something significant that you’ve observed at home that illustrates how your family has enjoyed and benefited from this class.

Rituals and routines like these, in class or at home, contribute to the stability of your child’s emotional development. With that in mind, create a new ritual for your family this week, perhaps a bedtime ritual. Read and sing along to “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” with the whole family and your kangaroo puppets, too. Then turn down the lights and listen to one of the following tracks on the Home CD to help your children relax before bed: “Brahms Intermezzo,” “Simple Gifts,” or “The More We Get Together.”

As you continue these rituals and create new ones, know that you are contributing to the stability of your child’s emotional development.

Community = Family

Alecia — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:47:30 +0000

One of the key benefits of Family Time is being in a class full of children of different ages. You can see this benefit most vividly in our pretend play scenarios in class.

When two or more children are engaged in pretend play, the social interaction is usually characterized by a heightened use of action and language. This kind of play becomes more complex as children base it on their own life experiences and then add in or change the play based on new experiences. That’s why Our Kind of Day embraces the every day themes from home that your children well know—such as bath time and play time.

Throughout the week watch and see if your children bring their play experiences from class, into their own pretend play scenarios at home.

Take away other family benefits they see as taking a Kindermusik class together:

“Taking time in the week to do “constructive” activities together.” -Deal
“We Like Spending More Time as a Family.” -Faircloth
“A closeness with my child and lots of quality time with him while at the same time exposing him to other children and families.” –Jones

What have you seen your child experience that they have taken home and shared with your family? – Please comment below.

Wishy Washy, WEEEEE!

Alecia — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:13:09 +0000

Wishy Washy, Wishy Washy, Wishy Washy, WEEEEE!

Catchy, isn’t it?

Who knew you could do so much with the tub? It’s a wonderful place to be, no matter what your age. So this week we explored bath time games that will help your children develop fun-tub and learning skills.

Whether using cups, sponges, or rubber ducks in the tub, your children can use bath time for developing reasoning skills. Splashing, making bubbles, pouring water allows your children to use various action schemes to discover what he or she needs to know about an object—and builds problem solving skills, too. In addition, use bath time to name all the body parts as you wash away the day. Use a variety of motions for washing, such as scrubbing, rubbing, tickling, bouncing, digging, etc. and you can make each bath time a new experience and a new adventure.

Plus, you can use a favorite song to signal to your children when it’s time to get in the tub, and when it’s time to get out of the tub, too.

The Kindermusik parent activity guide has some great suggestions with bath time too. My personal favorite is peekaboo fun for babies, and making bathtub paint for the older ones. Just mix 1/3 cup clear or white dishwashing liquid with ¼ cup corn starch. Stir in a couple drops of food coloring and let it thicken for a few minutes. Fingers get extra clean! Just splash off with water for a clean tub too. Then, if even mixing that is too much for you, Avon has some fun bath time paints too…

Have fun and share your favorite bathtub play.

Creative Movement Takes Practice, Practice, Practice

Alecia — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:43:06 +0000

One goal in every Kindermusik Family Time class is to help children move to music in lots of creative ways. The brain has a plan for development that involves specific and intensive motor activities to make full use of our complicated nervous system.

This means showing your toddler how to hop on one foot, and giving her lots of room to practice. The same is true for a preschooler. Most will learn by watching their friends and they’ll practice, practice, and practice.

By exploring a variety of movement in everything you do—even as you clean around the house—you not only help your children understand what it means to play an important part for your family..
So don’t forget to “go into the kitchen and take a peek!” Or a jump, or hop, or a swing, or swoop!

What is your favorite way to move? With our busy family, its fun to skip… over the toys! A fun way to move while cleaning up the house is to scoop up the toys. Making it a game makes it so much fun, and can even go faster! Let’s hear your experiences.

Simple Whimsical Applications to Life

Alecia — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 23:16:32 +0000

Activities for children have so many practical and whimsical applications to life around your house. Simple, fun songs you can sing together will make clean-up time a breeze, and make this important ritual—which is a necessary part of being in a family—a fun, musical activity.
You can reinforce learning concepts such as self-discipline when you sing “Shake, Shake the Apple Tree” at home. Pause at the end of the line, “One for you, one for me!” Then finish the song with enthusiasm as you sing the last line, “Shake, Shake, the apple tree!” By repeating this song several times, your children practice inhibitory control, a skill used in self-discipline, or when waiting in line, and taking turns.

Patiently waiting until next time, in Kindermusik in Gray Georgia… Share your experience you’ve had with your child that they took turns with you.