The Joy of Sharing Music!

How much fun are they having sharing their joy in music?

The Value of Early Childhood Music Class

Are you considering private lessons sometime in your child’s future? Kindermusik can help pave the way to success! Check out this article…and visit us for a free preview class to see what we’re all about!

Don’t Play With Your Food – or Maybe You Should

Hearing Patterns

When children drum along to the rhythms in a song or to their own name, they practice careful listening and pattern recognition. This is one way children hear sounds in words – a skill necessary for word recognition, speaking, reading, and writing (adapted from “Show and Tell”).
LEARN AT HOME! Have your child focus on listening to you as you say, shake, or drum a rhythmic pattern. Then, model active listening by letting your child attempt to copy you. The result may or may not be the same pattern you modeled; remember that there are no “wrong” answers, as we are focusing on process, not performance! If your child responded with a different pattern, echo the new pattern back to her. If your child responded with the same pattern you modeled, try modeling a new pattern the next time.

Summer Schedule!

Summer Schedule is up and ready. Classes start June 1. Choose from:

Sign Language

Baby Class

Family Class

Piano Class or Lessons

Neuroscientist: Think twice about cutting music in schools | ScienceBlog.com

“Playing an instrument may help youngsters better process speech in noisy classrooms and more accurately interpret the nuances of language that are conveyed by subtle changes in the human voice,” says Nina Kraus, Hugh Knowles Professor of Neurobiology, Physiology and Communication Sciences at Northwestern University.

“Cash-strapped school districts are making a mistake when they cut music from the K-12 curriculum,” says Kraus, director of the Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory in Northwestern’s School of Communication.

Kraus will present her own research and the research of other neuroscientists suggesting music education can be an effective strategy in helping typically developing children as well as children with developmental dyslexia or autism more accurately encode speech.

“People’s hearing systems are fine-tuned by the experiences they’ve had with sound throughout their lives,” says Kraus. “Music training is not only beneficial for processing music stimuli. We’ve found that years of music training may also improve how sounds are processed for language and emotion.”

Read the full article:

Neuroscientist: Think twice about cutting music in schools | ScienceBlog.com.

Is My Baby Too Young?

No, your baby is never too young to be aware of the things that are happening around them and we know that kids get the most out of Kindermusik the younger they start. Right now your baby’s brain is soaking up everything — and did you know that music is the ONLY activity that stimulates all areas of your baby’s brain at the same time? Getting started in KM now is a really smart thing to do.
Studio record: Youngest child to come to class – 48 hours old.

News: House passes NEA funding in Economic Recovery Package

Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed their version of the Economic Recovery Package by a vote of 244 to 188 which successfully included $50 million in supplemental grants funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)! 

This provision was threatened throughout the House process by opponents of the NEA who questioned its effectiveness in providing economic stimulus. Today, the NEA offered the following statement, “the arts and culture industry is a sector of the economy just like any other with workers who pay taxes, mortgages, rent and contribute in other ways to the economy; and that the National Endowment for the Arts is uniquely positioned to assist in job stimulation for that industry.”

Thanks to the thousands of advocates who contacted their Members of Congress and let them know the importance of maintaining funding for the NEA!
However, our work is not finished yet as the U.S. Senate starts their debate on the bill tomorrow and continues through next week.  The Senate Appropriations Committee did not include an arts jobs funding provision in their version of the bill, but advocates still have an opportunity to change the final outcome.

Please take two minutes to take action and ask your Member of Congress and Senators to support the arts in this legislation.  Americans for the Arts has supplied you with fresh research and key quotes that support this funding — your help in communicating this information to your Member of Congress is critical. 
Please help us continue this important work by becoming an official member of the Arts Action Fund.  Play your part by joining the Arts Action Fund today – it’s free and simple.

New Class Schedule Ready

The winter class schedule is up on the website. The online registration should be working also.

Before You Vote on Tuesday…

Before you vote on Tuesday be sure you know where your favored candidate stands on funding for the arts. The Americans for the Arts Action Fund PAC has produced the 2008 Congressional Arts Report Card to help you make arts-informed decisions at the ballot box. The report contains carefully evaluated legislative benchmarks that form a detailed arts record, including a numerical score and letter grade, for each Member of the House based on numerous arts and arts education issues. You can read additional analysis of Congressional arts-related votes, including state rankings and trends in their press release.

When people think Louis Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon, there’s not enough art in our schools. Art. Ask for more.