Games for Babies: Beak-it

This Article was originally posted Friday, May 14th on the Studio3Music Website.  I will be posting a series of articles about exercises and games we can do with our babies and toddlers.

In my Village Classes, we’ve been exercising little arms, legs, and brains to one of my favorite poems.

One Misty Moisty Morning


One misty moisty morning,
When cloudy was the weather,
I chanced to see an old man dressed all in leather.
He began to compliment
And I began to grin.
How do you do?
How do you do?
And, how do you do again?

When we get to the repeated “How do you do?” section, we stop the exercises and “beak-it” the babies on each word “you.” Beak-it? Yes!  The touch is paired with language, either the poem above, or a simple “beep” or “beak-it.”

- posted by Miss Anita, From Studio 3, who loves the look of glee on a baby’s face during a “Beak-It! Game!”   web site:  http://studio3music.com/category/games-for-babies/

You can learn this game and many more exercises in our fabulous children's music class: Kindermusik Village.  Sign up today!  Call 503-708-2827

Your Baby's Emotional Health

Your Baby's Emotional Health

Emotional development is dependent upon the care received at an early age. The child who receives love, attention, and the encouragement to explore and learn is most likely to have a more highly developed amygdala, the part of the brain that allows a person to calm himself. The parts of the brain that control emotion are very much affected by the amount of handling, love, and care we receive as young children. -Magic Trees of the Mind, by Marian Diamond, Ph.D. and Janet Hopson, pp. 125-127.

"To love means you also trust." -Joan Baez

Building Bonds in Kindermusik Class
Kindermusik Village offers you a time away from everyday life where you can focus all of your attention on your baby, providing her with the care and attention that she needs for her emotional development. Kindermusik activities were designed with you and your baby in mind, and they offer many opportunities for touching, attention, and cuddling. All of the small exchanges between you and your baby have an emotional subtext, and through the experienced repetition of these messages (e. g. "I keep cuddling you because I love you and think you are special!"), children form the core of their emotional outlook and capabilities. In Kindermusik, activities are designed to foster a sense of security.

The hello and goodbye rituals that we use each class support emotional stability and a feeling of trust and well-being between adults and babies. Friendly greetings and exchanges provide an environment for positive social interaction. And the warm-up activities shared at the beginning of class are examples of intentional touch. Intentional touch can nurture the bond between Adult and Baby, relaxing both Adult and Baby with eye contact, skin contact, the adult's voice, and Baby's responses.

Connecting through Music at Home

Enjoy more nurturing at home with these activity ideas.

• "You Are My Sunshine"  Rock and sing along to your baby. He will love this bonding opportunity with you. "Mothers throughout the ages have communicated love and warmth to their infant child through the singing of lullabies and songs.. These simple activities give the baby a feeling of security andprotection." Your singing is a signal of safety and well-being to your child. -Good Music, Brighter Children, by Sharlene Habermeyer, pp. 39, 40.
• Sing and rhyme along with your everyday routines. In the most basic of activities, a musical approach helps your baby feel valued.

• Gentle massage of the neck and shoulders stimulates the release of oxytocin, a hormone that produces feelings of calm and comfort. Spend some time listening to soft music and massaging Baby. He will love the time with you and enjoy the calming effects. -Carla Hannaford, interview by Kindermusik International, Creative Team, 18 January

Babies and Music

Kindermusik Village: Notes from Cock-a-doodle-MOO!

"Musical awareness is observable very early in life. [Howard Gardner, educational theorist who developed the theory of Multiple Intelligences] states that it emerges the earliest of all the different kinds of intelligence. The Papouseks, highly respected developmental researchers from West Germany, report that infants as young as two months can match the pitch, intensity, and melodic contour of the other's songs, and at four months infants can match the rhythmic structures as well. These researchers feel that infants are even more
predisposed to these aspects of music than to speech (Papousek, 1982)."

"Theories of Child Development and Musical Ability," by Sally Rogers from
Music and Child Development, ed., Franz L. Roehmann and Frank R., Wilson, pp. 2-3.

Your Baby's Musical Life

You may have already noticed that your baby is listening attentively to music. He may react to different types
of music in different ways. He may become alert, move excitedly, relax, or even doze off depending on the nature of the music. By filling the spaces of Baby's day with music we are teaching him the many roles that music can play throughout his life. Music can help him relax, cope with feelings, celebrate, create, and express beyond verbal capabilities.

Musical Variety in Kindermusik Village

Kindermusik Village introduces a great variety of music, representing diverse cultures, styles, and tonalities, as well as varied instrumentation and voice types. Cock-a-doodle-MOO! features Cantonese Lullaby, a soothing, traditional Chinese song; Hey Diddle Diddle, a simple, traditional English rhyme and song; Ritsch, Ratsch, a lively Swedish folk song, and Armenian Lullaby, a relaxing song in the minor mode. Not only will your baby enjoy reacting to these different styles of music emotionally and physically, but intellectually it is
important that your baby experience this music. We tend to appreciate and enjoy listening to music that is familiar.  By exposing your baby to a broad selection of music at an early age, you will help him have a rich "repertoire" of familiar sounds and styles that will make more music accessible and interesting to him throughout his life.

Music at Home

Allegro! Andante. Adagio.

Pick a song and sing it to baby slowly and then quickly. See if you can tell from Baby's response
which tempo he prefers. Which do you prefer?

Dance!

Play Skip to My Lou and dance with Baby using fast, pointed movements. Then play Little Boy Blue and slow dance with her. Try continuous, sweeping motions.

What Time Is It?

Play different types of music for different times of the day. Perhaps you could play Simple Gifts when it is time for a nap, and then play The Merry Farmer when it is time for active play.

A Musical Treasure Hunt

Explore everyday objects with Baby to see what sounds they make when you strike them with a spoon or shake them. Does there seem to be an object or sound that Baby is particularly interested in or finds humorous? Did you find something that you never expected to be musical?

"Children must receive musical instruction as naturally as food, and with as much pleasure as they derive from a ball game...and this must happen from the beginning of their lives."  -Leonard Bernstein

Patterns for Learning Success

Patterns are everywhere! Does your child notice them? Patterns are in words like button. consonant, vowel, double consonants, vowel, consonant. Patterns are in numbers. 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, etc., Patterns are in nature, like the colors on a butterfly, the rings of trees, the flight paths of birds. So many patterns everywhere. Each week at Kindermusik we are working on patterns and helping your child be aware of them. Here are some ways we've worked on patterns this semester:

Village (ages 0 -18 months): Babies have been moving to high and low sounds as they come repeatedly in songs like: Irish Trot. We go around, go up, go around, go down, and go around again! Not only are we experiencing patterns, but also high and low sounds. The more experience with high and low, the better your child will understand this important language and musical concept later on.
 







Our Time (ages 18mo-3yrs): One of our class's favorite songs is: "Toe-Tapp'n Blues" which leads to egg-shak'n blues, swing'n blues, and much more! Our Time has really enjoyed exploring all the movements while listening to the pattern of the melody and chords in the song. This song is in the blues style and has its chord pattern:

Family Time (all ages): We clap and recite "Doctor Knickerbocker."  Feeling these patterns will help us move in space and in time and help children recognize when patterns change.

Patterns are so much fun, especially combined with Kindermusik. As you can see each age group follows a logical progression from experience to cognition, recognition, and production of their own patterns. That's the benefit and the value of Kindermusik, we grow with your child to give them the next step in the learning process!

So, is Kindermusik just for kids?

Yes, Kindermusik is for kids of all ages. No doubt about it. Their ears open and their eyes widen. They blossom before your very eyes in music class.

Yes, Kindermusik is for kids of all ages. No doubt about it. Their ears open and their eyes widen. They blossom before your very eyes in music class.


But here's something you may not have considered: Kindermusik is for parents too! In fact, parents tell us that they get as much out of Kindermusik as their kids do. Think about it -- with Kindermusik you have a special time each week that's set aside just for you and your child. In class, you'll learn all kinds of great things you can do at home to help your child continue to grow. What parent doesn't love that?

Parents in our Village (age newborn to 18 months) especially tell us that they can't wait to get to class to socialize and connect with other adults. Many lasting friendships have formed on a Kindermusik mat. (Check out this great story about a singing duo who met at Kindermusik.) At Kindermuisk you're surrounded by parents who have a child the same age as yours, so it's easy to make connections.

So, yeah, your child will love Kindermusik. But we're pretty sure you'll be looking forward to class just as much!

Sing your baby talk

Posted by Kindermusik International
March 29, 2010

Even before your baby is born, she responds to the sound of your voice. Researchers have observed that a baby in the womb can respond to the sound of a mother’s voice as early as 5 months into pregnancy.

After your baby is born, you’ll naturally talk to him or her in a cooing, sing-song-y language formally called infant-directed talk (IDT) or child-directed speech (CDS). Some also refer to it as “motherese” or “parentese.” But we know it more commonly as baby talk.

Research shows that these are the first sounds that your baby will try to imitate with cooing and babbling. Studies have also shown that children can recognize and even imitate certain musical notes. So, mix up your language-building parentese with singing, talking, and rhyhming. This will help expose your baby to a variety of sounds to aid her singing and language development.

Kindermusik Tips:
• Your Baby: In the first year, your baby will be especially interested in listening to the sound of you singing. So, choose songs that you love, hold her close, and sing and dance together.
• Your Toddler: Simple songs that go back and forth between two notes are easiest for toddlers to repeat. Songs with this interval include, “Rain, Rain, Go Away” and “Star Light, Star Bright.”
• Your Preschooler: Expand your preschooler’s musical vocabulary by adding more notes with songs like, “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” “Baa Baa, Black Sheep,” and “The Alphabet Song.”

Want to discover even more great techniques to use with your baby? Try a free Kindermusik Village class today. Village is for caretakers and babies from newborn to 18 months.

Egg Shakers!

Playing with egg shakers in Village class

Fun In Village Class!

Miss Ginger going for a ride on a blanket--a pretend horsey ride!

Singing

"Singing is related to the ability to control speech fluctuations, and speech activities appear to help develop tuneful singing skills." Playing with rhythmic speech (poems, rhymes, etc.) as well as simple tonal melodies help children develop both singing and speech skills. McDonald and Simons 1988

Connor and Mommy Moving with Scarves

Your Infant and Beat and Rhythm

The daily rhythms of life change when a newborn joins a family. Suddenly, everyone must adjust to the new sleep and wake cycles, and to the baby's pattern of comfort and discomfort. And with most babies, these rhythms change often and unpredictably! No sooner do you think you've established a pattern of sleeping, feeding, playing and diapering, than your child changes the tempo, and you must learn to keep time all over again.

You and your infant are discovering beats and rhythms with each interaction. You listen closely to the tempo of your newborn's breathing. You sense her pattern of sucks and pauses as she feeds. The two of you develop brief but powerful back-and-forth moments when you make eye contact. Without any self-consciousness you begin using baby-talk, because your baby responds so naturally to a rhythmic voice. From the moment she's born, your child engages you in an intricate dance where you are intuitively aware of every subtle change in the music.

Direction in Movement:

It is essential to the learnng process to allow a child to experience all aspects of direction in movement (up, down, in, out, around, etc.) Neural pathways develop through experience, stimulation, and interaction. Varied experiences increase the number of neural pathways.

Timbre

In Kindermusik class we explore a variety of musical instruments with different timbres (pronounced tambers) or characteristic sound qualities, such as the scratching of egg shakers, the ringing of bells and the resonant boom of the drum. As Baby or Toddler hears this variety of sounds, she is developing the listening vocabulary necessary for sound discrimination preceding language. And if she play the instruments, she learns that she can create a nice-sounding result.

503-708-2827
web site: www.kindermusikwithangie.kindermusik.net
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Security

Babies who have warm, responsive care are more resilient later in life. By following your instincts to cuddle Baby, you are providing the security and safety necessary for Baby's healthy development.

web site: www.kindermusikwithangie.kindermusik.net
blog: www.kindermusikwithangie.blogspot.com
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Stop and Go

Music is sound and movement, and it is silence and stillness. Just as we experience sculpture in terms of where it begins and ends in space, we experience music in terms of where it begins and ends in time that surrounds it.

Kindermusik Teacher
503-708-2827
web site: http://www.kindermusikwithangie.kindermusik.net/
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Free Kindermusik Asian New Year Party

Come Celebrate The Year Of The Tiger With Kindermusik!

We'll be Singing, Dancing, Marching in a Dragon Parade, Playing games, Noise Making, Face Painting, and Eating New Year's Treats

Saturday, February 13th
10:00 - 11:00 am
at
The New Day Center for the Arts
5516 SE Foster Rd, Portland

RSVP: 503-708-2827 / jansonfamily@spiritone.com
Yes, please bring a friend!

If you are unable to attend call to set up a
Free preview class!

Presented by Kindermusik with Angie
kindermusikwithangie.kindermusik.net; kindermusikwithangie.blogspot.com

Announcing Free Preview Classes!

Come try Kindermusik for Free




Mondays "Our Time" 1/18, 1/25
Fridays "Our Time" 1/22, 1/29
Saturdays "Family Time" 1/23, 1/30
all at 9:30 - 10:00 am

Wednesdays 1/20, 1/27
"Village" 9:30 – 10:00 and
"Sign and Sing"  10:30-11:00

RSVP: 503-708-2827/jansonfamily@spiritone.com

At the New Day Center for the Arts
5516 SE Foster Rd, Portland OR
All attending will receive a complimentary CD of children's music

Presented By: Kindermusik With Angie

http://www.kindermusikwithangie.kindermusik.net/
http://www.kindermusikwithangie.blogspot.com/

Classes Starting Soon

My winter/spring classes will be starting soon.  Please visit my website at http://www.kindermusikwithangie.kindermusik.net/ or call 503-708-2827 to sign up today!

Children are Artists

"All children are artists, and it is an indictment of our culture that so many of them lose their creativity, their unfettered imaginations, as they grow older." Madeleine L'Engle

Angie, Kindermusik Teacher
503-708-2827
web site: www.kindermusikwithangie.kindermusik.net
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Movement and Learning

Children ages 1 1/2 to 3 learn primarily through movement. In order to learn they must manipulate objects and participate in body movement.
Rhythms of Learning, by Chris Brewer and Don G. Campbell


web site: www.kindermusikwithangie.kindermusik.net
blog: http://www.kindermusikwithangie.blogspot.com/
                      Become a fan of my Facebook page!