Sing Peace Around the World

My 5 year old daughter has been singing a beautiful song about peace that she learned at school (Lakeland Montessori).  From the teacher’s weekly email, I followed a link to find all the words, and found a lot more than that.  This song travelled the world in 24 hours – on the International Day of [...]

Build Connections and Peace through Music

In so many ways, music allows us to connect, within ourselves, our family, our community, and our world.  That’s why I do what I do.  See my philosophy for creating Music Connections .   My “Summer Series” blog postings will feature unique ways to connect to through music  – for everyone.  The tab at the top [...]

What matters most

Recent experiences have created sort of a LIFE SHIFT for me.  I know most people re-evaluate at the beginning of each year, set new goals.  I was just too overwhelmed during the last few months. (Thus the lack of blog postings – sorry!)  It has led me to be guided a little differently.  Instead of writing [...]

Why MUSIC works to help children learn.

I am frequently asked why music works so well with children.  As a music therapist, Kindermusik educator, and mother of two, there are just so many ways to answer that question, citing research etc.  But in my OWN words, THIS is a short version of why I believe so strongly in the power of music – for it’s innate responses [...]

Music & the Developing Brain

I love the way Julee Kowalis describes how a child’s brain works, and how music can be such a powerful influence.  Catch this part:  As a child participates in a stimulating activity, it establishes new neural connections.  Each time they repeat the activity, it strengthens this connection.  These neural connections include ALL kinds of development.   Musical activities engage [...]

Molly McGuinn – “I AM Kindermusik”

At the last Kindermusik Conference, I was fortunate to meet Molly McGuinn, one of the staff at Kindermusik International.  I just want to share with you the kind of philosophy and commitment that is prevalent at the headquarters of this company.            http://mollyskindermusik.blogspot.com  Molly has her own BLOG, which I frequent regularly, as it is [...]

Music and Movement – Why we move to learn

Kindermusik for Young Child  Semester 4 – Wk 8   In Kindermusik we cover a large amount of material concerning music terminology, pitches, songs, composers, playing instruments, etc. Meanwhile, we never forget the importance of movement! Just today we continued to dance while singing “Bow Wow Wow” and also incorporated a fun movement game into [...]

STOPPING is FUN vs. Redirecting Innappropriate Behavior

“STOPPING” is FUN! Remember that we want to build the idea that stopping can be a wonderfully fun thing. Use the sign for “stop” (as shown in class), as well as the word, as part of your movement activities to indicate the time to stop moving.  It is really fun to watch the toddlers catch [...]

Helping children follow instructions

As a parent, I try very hard to set my children up for success.  This is especially difficult when I want them to do something that I know they might not want to do at the time.  Several families have asked me about this lately, AND I have found an excellent resource lately, so I wanted [...]

John Rosemund’s references to Kindermusik

My mom showed me a Q&A article in today’s Lakeland Ledger with Family Psychologist John Rosemond. A parent asked if child enrichment programs such as Dance, sports, gymnastics, and even Kindermusik were a waste of money.   He replied that only status-seeking parents enroll in such programs to create what he calls a “Trophy Child.” First, let me start by [...]