Category: News
Holidays have begun…
Hi everyone! Can you believe we are in December? OH MY GOSH!!
We are quickly coming upon the end of our Fall session, and I feel so blessed to be a part of such a magical program fill with amazing teachers, children, parents and caregivers!
I want to wish those that celebrate, a VERY Happy Hanukkah
(The Miracle of Lights)! Have you been singing Hanukkah songs to your little ones? Dreidel song, Chanukkah oh Chanukkah, and of course the candle prayer! Why not use this opportunity to put on some music and do a circle dance!! We have many Israeli dances and songs in our Kindermusik curriculum such as Hava Nagilah, Shalom Haverim, and Tants Tants Yidelich. Let Hanukkah be a time for EVERYONE to sing, dance and celebrate the little miracles that you have in your life, your family! Also having done my research, also want to say, Happy Bodhi Day on Dec. 8th as well. :)
We have been taking in registrations for Spring session each day, and are up to 51 enrollments at this exact moment, which is about 1/3 of our total spaces available! If you have been thinking about joining our program, don’t wait. We limit class size to 12 children and accept on first come first serve basis. Completed forms and payment guarantees your spot!
Everyone have a PERFECT weekend, and we hope to talk with or see you soon!
All the very best,
Holly
Musical thanksgiving…
SPRING REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!
Hello everyone!
All our new information is up on the website now. We have opened up registration for Spring 2008. We fill classes on a first come, first serve basis. So many classes to choose from! Click here to view the classes page and Spring calendar. We hope to see you for our next session!!
All the best,
Holly
Spring 2008 – Sneak Preview!
Hi everyone,
I can’t believe it’s registration time again!!! I’m currently working on Spring 2008 registration. All the details and calendar will soon be up on the website under the classes page. It takes time because I would hate to make any typos!!
You can get started though!! I just uploaded the Spring 2008 registration form and release form if anyone reading wants to secure their spots(s) early. You can secure your spot(s) before our big email is sent to out! If you would like to view our registration and release form then click here!! You can fax to 407-281-9255, mail to 4133 Stonefield Drive, Orlando, FL 32826, or scan in/email to . If you are enrolled in a Fall class currently, you will receive a re-enrollment gift when you register!
More information coming VERY soon here and on the website!
Best,
Holly
Ta’s, Tee Tee’s and SHHHH!
I am just amazed at how much the children are learning in Young Child. They are sharpening thier listening skills, which of course is key in learning music, but wow — also VERY important in LIFE as well! They are learning note values in the form of TEE TEE, or TA, or SHHH for rest. Now they are learning to listen as notes go up and down. As they sing, they are visually seeing the music going up and down, along with the rhythms. I’m SO impressed by this curriculum!!!! I captured this picture yesterday of Anna and Benjamin with their rhythm cards. They were mixing and matching to create new rhythms.
Young Child class – Rhythm cards
Miss Elizabeth is doing an amazing job with this class. The kids love her, and they are learning SO much!!!
Have a perfect weekend everyone!
Best,
Holly
Sign and Sing : Some Questions Answered
Hi everyone!
I am currently accepting enrollments for our next Sign and Sing workshop which begins on Wednesday, November 14th and thought, this would be a PERFECT time and place to address some questions and concerns that parents sometimes have about babysigning in general. I am approaching my 7th time teaching this workshop. At the beginning of my journey with Sign and Sing, I was even a bit skeptical. I wondered if it really works or does it delay a child’s speech? As a parent of two, I didn’t use babysigning with my daughter Anna, who is now 6. She was an early talker, so I didn’t even think it was a topic that pertained to our situation. My son Aiden however, is taking his time talking. He is currently 2 1/2 and even now most people aren’t sure what he is saying. His words aren’t quite clear yet, even though he is talking. Both of my children fall into the “normal” developmental range for the onset of talking. Every baby crawls, talks, walks, etc. in their own time. Over the course of my Sign and Sing journey so far, I have learned that if I had done babysigning with Anna, it would have only helped her speech and giving her an opportunity for long term learning. For Aiden it was AMAZING! I started teaching this course at JUST the right time because I could use Aiden as my “practice baby”. My husband embraced it as well, as did Anna, and our household starting signing. Boy did we eliminate lots of tantrums with Aiden. He was able to tell us when he was “all done”, or if he wanted “more” without crying or yelling. All babies are going to communicate. Before they can talk, the only way for them to express their needs is to cry, yell, tantrum. Well, Signing is a nice, calm and quiet alternative to all of that!!
Now to maybe clarify some myths that are out there!
The assumption that babysigning will DELAY speech is a complete myth.
A parent once asked….“so I would think talking to them and encouraging them to speak (reading to them consistently is proven to build language), would be more beneficial to them then encouraging them to sign instead”. Parents with hearing children are NEVER encouraged to sign INSTEAD of speaking. It is SO important to note that. What we do is encourage parents to speak WHILE signing. That is why, in our Sign and Sing class, we sing our songs, while we sign. The children then associate the speech to the signs. By doing this, we are giving them another form of communicating. In no way are we discouraging speaking! All babies need to express their needs. Most babies and toddlers are not able to do this specifically with speech for quite a long time, so their instinctual response is to scream, cry or tantrum. The biggest reason for meltdowns and tantrums in toddlers are simply because the child cannot communicate their needs properly. As Dr. Greene says, “Their ideas far outstrip their language skills. The “terrible twos” are less terrible the more children learn how to get across their intense and conflicting thoughts. Baby signs are a wonderful way to do this. Shaking the head or moving the hand is far easier to learn than the intricate manipulation of the lips, jaw, and tongue necessary for each new word. Large muscle coordination is learned before small muscle coordination – at about the same time kids want to express themselves.”
Compared to developmental norms, Signing Smart children have enriched language and communication skills:
- While the average 8 month old will have no spoken words, the average Signing Smart child will have 5 signs and 1 word.
- While the average 12 month old will have 3-5 spoken words, the average Signing Smart child will have 25 signs and 16 words
- At 18 months, the average child will have 10-50 spoken words. In contrast, the average Signing Smart child will have 79 signs and 105 words.
- In addition, a majority of Signing Smart children begin combining signs and words or signs and signs together to form little sentences at 11-14 months. Compare this to non-signers, who do not begin to combine words into short sentences (e.g., “Da-da car”) until 20 months old on average!
These results indicate that ASL signs, used in combination with Signing Smart strategies, facilitate both overall communicative abilities as well as spoken language skills in hearing infants and toddlers.
Here are some links to answer even more questions:
Halloween Happenings…
What a fun week we are having! We hope you all had a very happy and safe Halloween. I can’t believe it’s November. How can it be? My kids both loved trick or treating this year. Here’s a picture of them, just because I couldn’t resist!!
Here are some Kindermusik pictures from the past 2 days….TONS of fun!
A Kindermusik hoop tunnel in costume…
An Our Time class in costume
Toddler Art pumpkin
Have a GREAT rest of the week.
Best,
Holly
Party Like a Rock Star!
Hi everyone!
We had a great time this past Saturday with our Family Time class. This class meets once per month. Rachael and I teach it together and we just love seeing all the daddies come along, which we don’t see much of during the week! We encouraged parents to dress up their kids. This is an adorable rock star, just ready to “rock out” at Kindermusik!!
After our class we held a free play for all families enrolled in our program. It’s a GREAT perk to joining one of our classes. You can just come and explore ALL our instruments and props for an hour with all members of the family (even unenrolled ones!). A couple little girls decided to cover up one of the mommies with as many scarves as they could. I guess she is a colorful ghost for Halloween! :)
Scarf Ghost
Hope everyone has a very happy and safe Halloween!!
Until next time….
Holly
How exciting!!
Hi Everyone!
Magical Moments
What a great week of classes so far! Since we now have this blog, I was much more motivated to take out my camera today. I think the following pictures really capture the joy everyone has when they come to class.
The first picture was taken at my Toddler Art and Book Time class. The first few weeks for this little girl have been a bit shaky. She was a bit intimidated by glue and paint. BUT… today it just CLICKED! Maybe it was the pumpkin. Maybe it was that she was well rested. But, I believe it was the power of repetition. We always explain to parents and caregivers that it takes a few weeks for children to feel SAFE in their environment. Until they feel safe, why would they want to participate right? Well, today was week #3 in this class, and voila, she was excited, calm and ready to paint!!
Pumpkin Party
Today was extra special as we had invited the children to come dressed in their Halloween costumes. I snapped this picture right before class started. At the end of class, I gave all the children some Halloween bubbles to take home!
Costumes!
Finally, this is a picture of Miss Elizabeth’s Young Child class. This is such an amazing group of kids. They are learning SO much about rhythms and musical cues. They were enjoying a game of “Here Comes a Bluebird” and I just had to capture the fun that everyone was having!
Young Child class
Hope you enjoyed!
Until next time….