Brass Christmas carols

Next Semester in the Kindermusik Young Child 2 class we will learn about the brass, string and wood wind families of the orchestra. Here's an audio of the brass and percussion families. You can tell they have fun when they make music! Makes you want to dance.

Everybody SING!

Wee fish ewe a mare egrets moose!
Wee fish ewe a mare egrets moose!
Wee fish ewe a mare egrets moose,
Panda hippo gnu deer!

This is to get back at some of the kids who've sung strange versions of Jingle Bells and We Three Kings....
Who teaches them those songs anyway!
OK, don't tell me the answer to that one.

Happy New Year.
Yvette

Merry Musical Christmas!

Dear Families, You mean so much to us. We really do love your children and respect that you have chosen to share them with us. Thank you from the bottoms of our hearts.

Have a wonderful, merry, musical, safe and healthy holiday time. Safe trips to those traveling....

Don't forget to stop the rushing to enjoy the moments with your children.

See you next year!!!

Love,

From your Kindermusik of Holland teachers!

Yvette, Darcy, and Heather

How do we listen?

Stir it up, stir it up, just like so! Stir it up, stir it up....Around we go!!!!!

You've surely heard your Kindermusik teacher mention the importance stimulating the Vestubular System. They've even tried to explain it but it's a little foggy because at that moment the children begin running around (hmmm, stimulating their own vestibular systems!!!!)

When I first started teaching the newer Kindermusik curriculum I came across the information about the vestibular system and thought "What in the world is THAT?" And "How do I explain what I don't really understand?" So with a little bit of research leading to a passion of collecting information...I discovered that this is a fascinating part of our ear that really governs everything about us from balance to emotional well being to reading skills to.....

Hearing, which is a very very complex sense is the first to develop in the fetus (functioning at 23 days gestation!!!!Before most women even know they are pregnant ) and is the very last sense to leave us when we die. Really, you can't begin to imagine the importance of your vestibular system. Please read the great informative article at this link: http://www.tomatis.com/English/Articles/how_we_listen.html

Now go sing and listen!

Bells are ringing, listen to them ringing!

Bells are ringing, listen to them ringing!

Bells are ringing, listen to them ringing, all through the day.

Yvette

ps the diagram of the ear is from: http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/bigear.html

To Honor Beethoven's birthday!

How amazing that Beethoven composed his last and most monumental symphony at a time when he was completely deaf. He never heard a single note of his 9th Symphony (in which the chorus sings the famous "Ode to Joy"). Friends had to turn him around from conducting so that he could see the applause. When I tell this story to my Kindermusik Young Child students they are amazed. Then we do a little experiment. We sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star out loud first then silently. The children's eyes widen as they tell me they COULD hear it inside their head! Here's lot's more about Beethoven for the curious: www.lvbeethoven.com
Happy Birthday to one of my favorite composers.

Horn player

It's amazing that music is the common tie in humor, games, and dances that are understood and shared around the world....There may be varying complexities of rhythms and tonalities and timbres but there are elements that are common world wide. That's why when we laugh and then laugh again when we recognize the next tune. This sharing brings us together...all the 4 corners of the globe. Reminds me too of the old M*A*S*H* TV series (details are foggy) where the musician taught the Vietnamese to play Mozart's Clarinet Concerto. I think that was the first time I cried for a TV show...to think that music was a language, a healing language, that can be understood by everyone. Everyone.


Everyone.


God has done great things for us. Filled us with laughter and music. (Psalm 126)

Peace,Yvette

Brain Dance!

I worry, worry, worry about the babies who spend so much of their day in the carseat. In and out of the car, into the grocery cart, back in the house, back in the car, in church, out to lunch, back in the car, back in the house and never leaving the car seat except for a quick change. Does that sound even a little bit familiar?

"Movement is the key to learning! Movement and dance activities such as crawling, creeping, rolling, turning, walking, skipping, reaching, and swinging are essential for baby's brain development. These specific and intensive motor activities make full use of babys complicated nervous system and follow a plan. The nervous system of each new human being must go through a series of developmental stages before the brain can operate at its full potential. Using her whole body, her movements, and all her senses, the baby "programs" her motor/perceptual equipment, her nerves, and brain cells."

Please click on this link http://www.llli.org/NB/NBMarApr01p44.html and read the rest of this fascinating article! Author Anne Green Gilbert is a creative movement specialist consulted by Kindermusik for the creation of several units of curriculum. She explains the developmental stages and gives ideas for fundamental movement activities for baby. We are so mobile baby doesn't have a chance to do the floor work they need to develop. Their drive to move is constant, that is their need!

Sometimes we need a prescription for the simplest action for our health and well being and that of our children. Your perscription for babies newborn to 18 months: holland.kindermusik.net