Important Dates

For all of you that are confused, hopefully this will clarify:

Monday and Wednesday classes have now finished for Christmas.

There is one more Saturday class this week 13th Dec, to make up for the week missed due to illness.

Christmas Party 17th December 11 am - lunch provided; cost £5 per adult £2 per child - places still available

Jingle Bells - craft and music session for 4 - 7 yr olds 22nd December; places available

All classes resume w/c 5th January. The current courses finish in February.

If we don't see you before - have a lovely Christmas

Kate

On the second day of christmas my true love sent to me...

lots of coughs and sneezes....

Sorry to everyone who has been searching the blog this week to find home tips and to all of you who have been ringing and haven't received a reply. I have been poorly. I rather think I must have had some sort of infection, as has just about everyone I've spoken to. Poor Vicky has been poorly too and even had to cancel her class on Saturday.

I think it is a customary part of the festive season that everyone shares with those they love and so the bugs and beasties have to be shared too.

The thing that annoys me the most about being ill is that I can not go running. I hate not being able to run. A couple of years a go I would never have imagined myself saying that, but it has now become a drug like obsession of mine.

I am quite sure though that in my hectic mad life the illness is also a way of my body saying "and STOP". and so slowly I am learning that life needs to be played out at a much slower rate.

So I sympathise with all of you who have been poorly too. We have missed you all in class and we look forward to seeing you back soon.

Kate

Quote which rendered me silent again!

"Do not the most moving moments of our lives find us without words?"

Marcel Marceau

And in the silence I was recalling many times when I have seen the benefits of Music in children in my classes. I can see how they themselves delight in a familiar song or dance or when they are swung high or jiggled like jelly. I have noticed this too captured in the photographs taken by Cathy in recent classes. The lens never lies and they have really brought a smile to my face this week. And I thank YOU for that since without these small people how could we possibly do without being 'moved' every now and then!

VicXX

The Photographic Evidence and an Invitation

You will notice that Cathy has been in class snapping pictures again this week. She really does take some excellent shots many of which you can see on the website and this blog.

I love looking at the photos. For me it really shows how engaged the children are in the classes. Sometimes it's difficult to gauge the children's reactions when you are the teacher as you are so consumed by the job in hand. The photographs snap moments in time and allow reflection and give me great job satisfaction.

For parents who have not been present in a part of the class it will also give great insight. Sometimes I marvel at the chaos that ensues when parents and siblings return into the Young Child class. It's certainly a challenge for me to keep it all together. One parent who stayed to watch a session recently commented on how engaged the children were right up until the parents came in.

So for those of you who wish. I really would like to invite you to sit in and watch a session (though you will have to take it in turns). You may well be amazed at what your child is getting out of the session.

For the rest of you, have a look at Cathy's website and look at the evidence for yourselves.

Christmas Party

Come and join us for our annual Christmas Party at the Hythe Community Centre, Wed 17th Dec, 11am - 1pm. A buffet lunch will be provided. Cost £5 per adult, £2 per child.

Suitable for 0 - 5 year olds.

Young Child Week 8

We had great fun in class today with the homemade percussion instruments. Some very unique creations which the children all delighted in telling us about. We used the instruments in our stormy weather composition.

Did you parents notice how well the children sang goodbye today? You may not have realised it, but everyone sang so beautifully in tune. This really excited me as not all of us were singing in tune 8 weeks ago. It proves that we can all learn pitch.

This week at home have fun with your green rhythm cards. Clap and say the patterns on each one. You could also try playing the patterns with your rhythm sticks. Can you remember how many beats on each card? I wonder if you could teach someone else in your family to play the cards.

If you missed the class this week or fancy some additional patterns to play have a look at these.

http://www.kodaly.org.au/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=19&Itemid=74

Scroll down the page to rhythm set 1 and download. You will notice that these patterns have note heads on - other than that they are the same as the ones we have been using in class. Each line has 4 beats. Remember it's 'ta' and 'ti-ti'.

Also in class this week we listened to some bird song. See what birds you can hear this week and draw your favourite to bring back to class.

Making a Where Box

This week in Imagine That we asked you to create a Where Box at home. Your Home Book has lots of ideas on how to construct this and what actvities you can do together with your box. Have fun

COOKIES

In our last few sessions before christmas, we are encouraging all Our Time families to bake some cookies at home together. If you are brave enough you might also want to bring in your creations to share with us in class.

I am sure many of you will already have a favourite cookie recipie, but if not you might want to try one of those in the Home book. These recipies use cups which are great for young children. Just in case you are wondering what 'sweet butter' is, that's the unsalted variety.

If anyone want a larger selction of recipies to choose from try this website: http://www.popularcookierecipes.com/

and my favourite chef Hugh: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/chocolatechipcookies_82401.shtml

happy baking

Village Class

This week you could explore the different sounds of water with your babes. At bathtime or any other time with a small plastic bowl and half a cup of warm water in it (and plenty of towels on standby). With your babe, listen to drops of water running off your fingers. How about pouring water or squeezing it out of a small sponge... let them explore the sounds and sensations too.

Splishy Splashy Splishy Splashy! Have safe fun!

VicXX

Thank you for your VOICES

Our Time and Village classes on Saturday have to be acknowledged here... You were GREAT at singing last week! My voice is almost back to full fettle. I know the Dad's appreciated the lower keys but I'm afraid to say I should be back to normal and hitting those highs again!

No... please... come back ;-)

VicXX

Quote by Antoine de Saint-Exupery - French Writer

'Grown-ups never understand anything for themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.'

I laughed quite heartily at this one though having given it some thought there is an element of honesty in this. It isn't just them who ask 'Why?' all the time. It seems we are all striving to understand each other and it is, at times, intensely frustrating for both parent and/or grown-up and child.

We need not only to listen to our children but also hear what they are trying to tell us even though their behaviour may not be appropriate at the time. Skills in communication are learned through our example... we are obviously very good at it then!

I could be babbling there but it's gone midnight and I'm getting all philosophical and it's far too late to be getting into all of that so I leave you to just simply enjoy the quote.

VicXX

Village Class - Sense of Self

An individual's identity is based upon his sense of self. "Self-hood first comes about as babies learn that they have a personal physical identity. They obtain this knowledge by exploring their own bodies, and then experiencing their bodies in interaction with objects and other people... Opportunities (for exploration and play) help the baby develop his skills and thereby increase his independence... expanding his understanding of himself."

Claire Kopp Ph.D., in Baby Steps

Young Child - Week 7

We had enormous fun composing our own musical storm today. We spent some time sorting percusion instruments into groups; those that make long sounds and those that make short sounds. After this we were able to select the instruments we felt created the rigth sounds for our composition.

Our fun game 'Farmer, Farmer', which the children play with much enthusiasum is a very subtle ploy to encourge the children into solo singing. I have been amazed at how eagerly the children have taken to singing and have seen a marked improvement since the beginning of the semester in their pitching of the notes.

This week at home we are making percussion instruments. We have learned that a percussion instrument must be struck or shaken. The following may be of some help:
http://familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts/specialfeature/musical_instruments/

Imagine That - Nov 10th

What a great time we had in today's lesson dancing and singing in the rain. We shared our home made rain shakers and played them while we sang our rain song. All the while without really realising it we have been learning about staccato (short detached sounds), and we have begun to use a basic form of musical notation. We are also continuing to learn and devlop our understanding of pulse a crucial foundation skill for our musical development, but also of great benefit to our coordination skills and general learning.

The children's singing is really flourishing too. I noticed particularly this week how well we are singing, pitching the notes acurately and joining in much more.

Next week we continue our rain dancing and singing. The chidlren have been asked to make rain hats at home. you can construct your hats however you like and the home book will give you lots of ideas.

If you are after a quick hat idea have a look at these 60 second hats.
http://www.makingfriends.com/d_60sechats.htm

Milk and Cookies - Home Activity

This week at home why not make some play dough. Home made play dough is incredibly easy to make and your toddler can even help with the mixing. Allow them to choose a favourite colour and perhaps add glitter to make it extra special.

Remind your child of the rhyme which we are reading in class as you roll out the dough. Find some cookie cutters and cut shapes.

These shapes can be baked in a cool oven if you wish, and if you remember to make a small hole in the top of each one (before you bake) you will find yourself with a set of unique and rather lovely christmas tree decorations.

Play Dough Recipe

2 cups of Plain Flour

1 cup of table salt

1 cup of water

OPTIONAL

1 tablespoon of vegetable oil (makes it a little easier to knead)

1 tablespoon of wallpaper paste (gives the mixture more elasticity)

1 tablespoon of lemon juice (makes the finished product harder)

DRYING

Drying can either be done naturally in the open air, or in an oven, no hotter than 100C (200F Gas Mark 1/4). The average time for natural drying is 30-48 hours, or 3-4 hours in an oven. Both sides must be dried out. When your model is dry, turn off the oven and leave it inside to cool down.

Quote by A A Milne

"Very young children have an artless beauty, an innocent grace, an unstudied abandon of movement."

I can picture now how my daughters express themselves around the home and how all the babies and children in my Village and Our Time classes do too. It links entirely with this quote.

However, I can also see Phoebe in one episode (couldn't tell you which series) from the sitcom 'Friends' when she abandons an adult style of running in favour of running like a child with all limbs flailing around and not a straight line in sight! Had me in fits of giggles again. I love how these quotes evoke such emotions... bizarre as the link maybe.

Young Child - Week 6

This weeks home work is all about rests. A rest can otherwise be described as a musical pause or silence. Measured silence in music is very important. We learn to mark a silence my saying "sh".

At home explore drawing rests together and remember to say zig-zag-zig.

Practise reading and clapping with the beat and rest cards given out in class last week. Try playing them with the rhythm sticks too.



In case you missed the session here are some patterns for you to try at home:

You could even try drawing your own patterns if you want something a little more difficult.

Imagine That - Home Activity 5

This week our home work is to make a shaker instrument. We have been exploring rain sounds in class and we have been using shaker instruments to make rainy sounding music.

Just in case you are short of ideas here are some links which might help

http://www.expertvillage.com/video/9851_kids-music-rainstick.htm

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/music/rainstick/

http://www.craftymusicteachers.com/otherinstruments/rainstick.html

Be sure to bring your shaker instrument to class next week.

Thoughts...

Finding space and solitude outside the franticness of life is often so difficult. How crowded our lives have become in this modern life. We fill our days with meanigful tasks, work and play and before long we find that once again we have neglected ourselves.

Taking time for ourselves is so very important, whatever that means for you. I am learning how important it is for me to step back from the buzz and find that space.

We often worry about what others think of us and when we have children this is heightend as we worry about what others might think about our parenting, our values and our standards.

In our classes we strive to create a non-conformist environment. You will notice that it is OK for one child to wander and another to sit and rock. You will soon learn that there is no one correct way to play those rhythm sticks but a whole array of different ideas. You will realise that we do not seek to control but rather to bend and move to accomodate all the beautiful differences that walk in through our doors.

Whether you are struggling with the constraints that life brings or full of new enthusisum for it, there is a part for you to play and we value your participation for what it brigns to the mix.

Zoom Buggy Home Journal

Apparently I am not supposed to provide a link to the Zoom Buggy home journal as it should only be available to those on the course. If you are enrolled in Village and would like to access a copy please let me know and I will send you the link. Unfortunately I can't send by email as the attachment is too big.

Another 'pause for thought' moment...

After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music. Aldous Huxley 1894 to 1963 - English Writer.

I love this quote... it rendered me silent for a few minutes! So that's saying something, huh!

I like this...

"Children think not of what is past, nor what is to come; but enjoy the present time, which few of us do."

Jean de la Bruyere

Quote/s of the Week!

OK. So I got a little carried away this week... here are two for you! I have in fact just run out of printing paper though it is a tad Greener this way!

What children take from us, they give…We become people who feel more deeply, question more deeply, hurt more deeply, and love more deeply.

Sonia Taitz ~ Author

And on another note... this one did make me giggle:

Parents were invented to make children happy by giving them something to ignore.

Ogden Nash ~ Poet

I am spoiling you and also exhausting my source. I look forward to seeing Our Timers and little-Village-people on Saturday.

VicXX

Scaffolding on the Beach

Scaffolding is something we often engage in during an Our Time class. The children are encouraged to explore an object or an instrument in their own way in what ever way they feel best. The parent or carer watches the child and for the most part imitates the child.

Entering the world of a child in this way can become totally absorbing and strangely relaxing. As we engage in this play with our children we too begin to play and explore alongside our child perhaps suggesting new ways to play in partnership with them, but never dictating that there is a right or wrong way to do something.

During our recent family holiday to Devon, Isaac and I were on the beach playing on the body board in the waves. After a few tumbles head first into very salty water, Isaac headed off to play in the wet sand. He engrossed himself in construction work building up mounds of sand and rock into structures to see if they could withstand the quickly approaching sea making its way up the beach. At first I was frustrated, we had come to play in the waves and I wanted him to come and join me.

In that moment I thought about the way we encourage play in class and I went over and started to build alongside Isaac. Within moments I had become absorbed into his world. Focusing on a single simple activity with no agenda is so relaxing. Together we built bigger and better structures, running up and down the beach to collect rocks. We laughed heartily when the waves smashed into them and sent them flying and we had the most amazing fun.

I learnt how important it is for our children's self esteem to be enthusiastically involved with their little projects however small, and for us to find again our lust for the simple things in life that we wondered at as children.

New Beginnings

Autumn for me is all about new beginnings. I think that the memory of getting ready for a new school term has always lived with me. There is an air of excitement and perhaps apprehension as we start a new term. We look forward to making new friends and learning new things.
All around us nature is getting ready for something new too, as it prepares for growth in the spring.
Over the last few years I have come to view music as being vitally important for our children’s growth and development. Indeed, research supports the fact that every area of a child’s development is enhanced through regular musical activity. Research also concludes that parental participation is crucial.In our Kindermusik classes we quite simply have a lot of fun and I just can’t think of a better way to enjoy regular music together. Not only that, with your home pack you get to continue music at home all week long.
So whether you are new to our classes, or back again with your 2nd or even your 3rd child, welcome to our new semester.
Kate x

Inspiration

'Kids:They dance before they learn
there is anything that isn’t music.'

I have meditated on William Staffords words for a good few weeks now. How true they are. It worries me that so much in our society tries to make us conform and from such an early age. Let us learn again how to sing how to dance from watching the experts, our children :)

Now on Facebook

Join our new facebook group.

Music Madness

"What did you enjoy most today? I liked it when we put the balloons on the parachute. What did you enjoy least? Nothing!"

Feedback from a little girl at Loughton today where I had been invited to facilitate two music workshops.

I love working with children, they are so full of life and energy. If you want an honest opinion ask a child, they will definitely let you know if they didn't enjoy it. So to hear a resounding "nothing" and to see a big smiling face in front of me was quite simply, the best.

I really can not think of a better thing to do for a living. Today I made drums which sounded like the sea; went on an imaginary picnic and danced with balloons to Tchaikovsky.

Fantastic!

Make an Ocean Drum

If you missed our Summer classes then why not try some musical summer craft together at home. In class we made some ocean drums - when you rock these gently back and forth it sounds a bit like the sea.

I found this idea to vamp up the humble paper plate version on another blog it's not so eco friendly though :(

Materials: Rice, beans or coloured beads perhaps; Ocean Stickers; Strong craft glue

Ask your child to place the stickers inside one of the plates. This will be the bottom of your wave drum. Place rice/beans inside the plate and secure the top plate using strong craft glue. Let dry.

A new experience

Today was a bit of a first for me. Vicky was at the end of her last summer class and invited me along to take part with her daughter Hettie.

Athough I have been teaching Kindermusik for 7 years now I have only once taken part in a class as a parent. When I was first interested in teaching I took my daughter Ellie to visit Jan's classes in Burgess Hill. Since then I have had no opportuntiy to see things from the other side.

What a fantastic experience today was. I had totally underestimated how totally absorbed you can become in a class and how focused you are forced to be on your child. It was truely lovely, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

I think it has made me even more enthusiatic about Kindermusik. It is a rare opportunity these days to step back from the rush and simply enjoy our children for who they are.

So thankyou Vicky and Hettie for giving me a rich and wonderful experience today.

A Summer of Music

We’ve been having a great summer. Our holiday sessions for 4 – 6 year olds were fantastic fun. The children spent 3 mornings doing music related craft and making lots of music. We looked specifically at stringed instruments and different types of dance. The children practiced bowing techniques, learnt about the treble and bass clefs, strummed a guitar and ukulele, danced and clapped 2/4 and 3 / 4 rhythms and generally had a great time. They got to take home the t shirts they had painted, and their own hand made ocean drum and elastic band guitar. I am always amazed how well these little ones respond to pitch – it really shows me that given the right start anyone can sing. Even the more hesitant ones were singing out solo phrases by the last day. I always incorporate Kodaly pitch training into these classes which helps develop a good ear and accurate pitching.

On Tuesday next week I am in Epping doing some holiday workshops for Epping County Council. The event is called Music Madness and there are two sessions one for 3 – 5 yrs and one for 5 – 7 yrs. I am looking forward to working at this new venue.

Next Friday is our singers workshop for children from 7 years old up. I keep these sessions small so that the children can really benefit from the tuition. Again we will be focusing on Kodaly singing training exploring part singing and engaging in some challenging rhythm activities. I run these sessions throughout the year. Friday’s session is now full, but let us know if you want to be included in the next one.

On to Autumn which is fast approaching. Some of our Autumn sessions are already beginning to fill up, so please get back your registration forms a.s.a.p.. our current schedule can be found here http://www.musikate.co.uk/timetable_dates_venues.htm

Our Young Child class is restarting in September too after a 2 year break. The young child class is an excellent way for children to grasp foundational music skills before starting formal music lessons. We use Kodaly singing training and Suzuki ear training. See more about the course here http://www.musikate.co.uk/kindermusik_ABC.htm

Please let us know if we can answer any of your questions we are always happy to talk and give advice. We are passionate about music and believe it to be crucial to development.