Sign and Sing- class 1

We had our first Sign and Sing class last night! If you haven't checked the pictures out, they are on my facebook fan page which you can access on the right side of my blog. Feel free to bring cameras to class to take more pictures!

LOVED, LOVED, LOVED having dads in class as well as the moms! Kudos!

Last night, we talked about ways to bring signs into your child's world during class as well as during playtime after class. You do not need to know every sign there is, or to use signs constantly for this to be effective. Start by choosing some of the signs from class last night that your child might be most interested in. The goal of this week is to get started signing and become comfortable signing yourself. The "see a lot, do a lot" signs are things that happen often during the day likebed, eat, more, finish, what, help and milk. There are plenty of opporunities thoughout the day to use these signs. The other type of signs which are an important part of the "Signing Smart" strategy are the "highly motivating signs." These are things that your child is very interesting in or might be very motivated to learn to sign. This may be different for each child. The signs we used last night from this category would bny, mom, dad, music, ball, bear, as well as a few more.

1. The first step is learning how to use the signs so that your children see them. It doesn't help to do the sign when you child isn't looking at you! When they are attentive to you, interested in something and making eye contact with you, this is the perfect time to sign.
2, the Second step is recognizing your child's early attempts at signing. If you are feeding your baby and they touch their hands together as if attempting to sign "more" then respond by giving them more of whatever they were eating! Some early attempts at signing may be accident, but if you respond to them, the child will learn that by speaking with their hands, they got what they needed. Also notice if your child is responding to the signs YOU give. If you sign and ask "more?" and you child's face lights up this is progress as well! Remember that it does sometimes take a long time for those first signs to appear. Don't be discouraged if you don't see any signals that your child is attempting to sign right away. Sometimes we cannot see the result of what we do with our babies for a long time. But these early experiences become aborbed into who they are. The time you spend communicating verbally and by signing with your baby will not go unrewarded.

How do I practice for Recital?

We have our spring recital coming up very soon. My private students have been researching their composers to write program notes about their pieces. We chose our music a while ago and have been working on it bit by bit each week in lessons and classes.

How should we prepare for recital at home? Please work to run through your music at least twice each day without the music. Music will be performed on the recital by memory, so at this point, they should be practicing from memory every day. Don't forget to go back and check the music to be sure that the child didn't start to make new mistakes. Sometimes after working on one piece of music for a while, new mistakes start creeping in. Be sure to keep it steady. If you have a CD, practice along with the CD to keep a steady beat and to practice "keeping going." We cannot stop during recital to rehash a mistake, to restart or talk about a mistake made.

Have recital run throughs where the child practices walking up to the piano, bowing towards the audience and sliding into the correct position (usually in front of middle C). Tell them its ok to take their time to find the correct hand position and to think about their music before beginning. Other ways to practice include singing the piece, counting the piece, calling out the note names and practice starting from the different sections of the music. A good way to work towards memory is to remove the music and have the child attempt to play from memory. If the child begins to struggle, replace the music for that portion of the piece. Eventually, he will learn play it without the help. About a week away from the recital, stage practice recitals in your home for your family, friends, neighbors or even for the video camera. During the week before the recital we place more emphasis on the recital piece than ever.

In lessons we have been practicing the recital music each week. We will work on bowing correctly. We are also working to polish dynamics and correct any mistakes that have crept up along the way. The memory work should mainly be done at home so that we have time in lessons and classes to also work on other music. Music must be memorized by May 3 to participate in the recital.

Why Kindermusik before piano?

Today in our Family Time class I had a great reminder of one of the reasons we suggest taking Kindermusik before starting piano.

The children took a little extra time today with the instrument exploration during family jam. One thing we worked on with the older kids, was trying to exercise BOTH hands, not just the favored hand. Playing the simple instruments like a drum with mallet, rhythm sticks, castanets, sand blocks and shakers work on fine motor skills and hand eye coordination required to play the piano or any other instruments. Alternating egg shakers or rhythm sticks not only strengthens neural connections between the right and left sides of the brain, but it also strengthens coordination in the non-dominant hand which is essential for piano technique.

Another aspect of the instrument exploration is that the instruments are all played in different ways thus using different muscle groups in the arms. This strengthens the fine motor muscles that control the individual fingers. Finger independence and equal finger strength is also important to learning to play the piano.

This is also important in help the child learn to hold a spoon and feed himself or learning to write. Other activities that facilitate fine motor development are the pegged puzzles, stringing beads, putting beans through a small hole in an old can, using tongs to move cotton bowls from one dish to another, or using an eye dropper to squeeze out one drop of liquid at a time. Try putting these activities where they are worked from left to right. This helps prepare them to read text as well as music from left to right.

Kindermusik provides the perfect opportunity to work on all these skills in a free environment where there are no wrong ways to play an instrument and endless outlets for creativity.

Summer Jazz Piano Classes

Should my child take piano over the summer? Should we take a break from piano lessons? Will we even be able to practice over the summer?

These are valid questions I hear from parents. Summer time is busy with vacation and camps. Sometimes parents feel that their child needs a break over the summer from any kind of academic pursuit like piano.

Perhaps they are correct- summer should be fun. We don't want the children to become burned out do we? However, summer can also be a time where children lose a lot of knowledge and progress gained over the past school year. I often see piano students lose interest over the summer or regress if they do not take summer lessons. Sometimes I spend the first few classes of the school year reviewing previous lessons.

I think I have a solution to this problem. This summer, I will be offering jazz improvisation classes in our piano lab at the Cherubs Clubhouse. We will break from the routine of the school year and from the repetition of recital practice. We will work on learning chords, scales and form and use this to improv in the jazz, rock, pop and blues style. This is a fun approach to theory which allows for creativity on the part of the student. We will also continue to play our theory games and review previous pieces in class as well.

New students will use this method to improv at the keyboard as they learn about keyboard geography and the basics of rhythm and steady beat.

No materials are required for the summer term. The jazz method will be provided at each class from my studio library. We will offer 4 weeks of classes on Thursdays in June and July. You can sign up for the classes that you will be able to attend according to your schedule or you can attend the entire term. Registration is required by by June 1 so that I can schedule the classes according to age and level. Check here for pricing and the schedule- Summer schedule and registration

We will also be holding a summer piano camp! No previous instruction is required. Our summer camp will include ensemble and theory classes organized according to age and level as well as play time at the Cherubs Clubhouse. Registration is required by June 1 Click here for more info

Sign and Sing

In a Kindermusik Sign & Sing class (developed by Signing Smart™), we give parents the tools and knowledge to communicate with their babies using American Sign Language. Through songs and play, both parents and babies learn signs for words like “mommy” and “eat,” and as well as practical signs like “more,” “milk,” and when he’s “all done.” This research-proven signing class for hearing children speeds language development, eases frustration, and enhances long-term learning abilities.

What a Parent and Child Experience In Class
Play, sign, and sing -- Using everyday items in engaging small and large group activities, we’ll sing songs and practice the sign as we say the words, play with toys, and help the children learn both the spoken word and the sign.
Expert advice -- Parents will learn to spot their babies’ most “teachable moments” and the sign language teaching methods of the experts. Plus they’ll learn to recognize and respond to their children’s versions of signs.
Communication through sign language -- When a child is chasing a bubble or asking for the ball, make the sign for it and say the word. So a child has the ways to associate the word with the object: the child holds the ball, hears the parent say the word, and then sees the adult make the sign.

Tuition: $70
Enrollment includes:
Developmentally appropriate American Sign language curriculum for parents and hearing children, ages 6 months to 3 years
5 week semester with classes held every other week
40 minute classes plus 30 minutes of playtime
Family Activity Guide, DVD, and Clip-On Flashcards showing adults and children using signs
Over 75 sign language activities and games to play together

Class is held on Thursday evenings at 6:00 at the Cherubs Clubhouse. Enroll now!

New classes!

We have just begun our new term of Family Time this week! I enjoyed one of my returning students picking up brand new songs on the first day of class! Many of the Kindermusik songs are built on bi and tri-tonal melodies which are the first intervals that children readily pick up. Children all over the world sing various songs built on these 2 or 3 notes without even being taught: "
Ring around the rosie", "nanny, nanny booboo", "its raining- its pouring as well as rain", "rain go away." Since children so naturally sing these tones, this is where we start teaching them to match pitches.

We also worked on inhibitory control- which is the ability to stop and start according to directions. We worked on gross motor inhibitory control during movement time as well as fine motor with the instruments.

This term, we began working on some of our school skills at a new level. Instead of the children spending the entire duration of class in their parent's lap or by their parent's side, we encouraged the children to sit on the music squares in the front of the room for some of the activities. This allowed them to learn to sit in a classroom-like setting but still gave them the comfort of knowing that their caregiver was close by.

We do a variety of movements in a Kindermusik class. Most things we do have a specific developmental purpose. This week we talked about activities that cross the mid line of the body thus creating neural connections from the right to left side of the brain. Alternating hands to play the egg shakers, crawling on the floor, or bouncing both hands across the mid line from one side of the body to the other work on this.

We are still enrolling for this class! Be sure to register online today to make sure we order your materials!

The Absorbent Mind

I am currently re-reading one of my favorite works of Maria Montessori, The Absorbent Mind. When I last read this work, it was about 2 and a half years ago when my oldest child had just entered the toddler program at her Montessori school. I decided that it was time to revisit this masterpiece now that both of my kids are older and in a different stage of development.

There are a few things that I have read this second time that have rung a bell concerning my Kindermusik classes. This is one of those books that is very difficult to quote because every paragraph seems to perfectly encapsulate the spirit of aiding life through education rather than simply filling an empty vessel with knowledge.

One of my favorite passages is the following: "Our day has seen a great awakening of interest in the mental life of the newly born. Some psychologists have made special observations of the baby's growth from the first three hours after birth. Others, as a result of careful study, have come to the conclusion that the first two years are the most important in the whole span of human life." To many of us, this is not a new idea. However, at the time period in which this was written, the concept of education beginning at birth was quite radical. However, I believe the education of which she speaks does not concern itself with the filling of an infant's brain with facts, or the pressuring of the child beyond his developmental level, but with the environment in which the child lives. It is about exposing the child to nature, fine art, musical experiences, and culture at an early age. It is about providing order and peace in the home and early classrooms. These early experience become a part of the child in a way that we cannot fully observe and help the child to become the person that they will be.

Montessori quotes Carrel saying, "The period of infancy in undoubtedly the richest. It should be utilized by education in every possibly and conceivable way. The waste of this period of life can never be compensated. Instead of ignoring the early years, it is our duty to cultivate them with the utmost care." Maria then responds to this quote by saying, "Today we are beginning to see the value of these ungathered fruits, more precious than gold, for they are man's own spirit."

So what?
So what are we doing to nurture our own children? Certainly I am not talking about hyper-parenting by cramming each day with enrichment activities with little to no time for relaxation. I am also not suggesting that we allow the children do explore and do whatever they want. But are we parking the kids in front of the TV as a babysitter all day? Are we handing them a video game to keep them busy? I know we are all guilty of that and in my opinion, educational TV and educational video games can even be good in moderation. But are we providing our kids with the opportunity to take an enrichment class that interests them? Are we exposing them to fine art and music, or do we assume that they are too young to appreciate "grown up" culture. Are we taking the time to teach them spiritual lessons, or are we waiting until they are older because we think they will not "get anything out of it" at a young age. Are we spending one on one time with our kids?

Often times parents wonder if a child is too young for Kindermusik. An infant under 12 months will probably not be singing along, will probably not be playing the glockenspiel and may not perfectly follow directions in class at that age. But by being exposed to the classroom setting, hearing the music, moving to the music and experimenting with the instruments, you child is absorbing these things into their very being. You may not see the results right away, but by providing your child with an enrichment activity, they are becoming who they will be and developing a love of music.

"There is-so to speak- in every child a painstaking teacher, so skillful that he obtains identical results in all children in all parts of the world. The only language me ever speak perfectly is the one they learn in babyhood, when no one can teach them anything! Not only this, but if at a later age the child has to learn another language, no expert help will enable him to speak it with the same perfection as he does his first." Maria Montessori