A Musical Week!

Hello everyone!

I wonder if you could think for a moment about what you did yesterday...and where music featured in it! Maybe you were listening to the radio in the car, maybe you sang to your baby as you put him or her to bed. Maybe you tested out one of our new songs from Tuesday's class & sang whilst chasing a ball around the lounge :)

A major philosophy behind Kindermusik is that you, the parent, is the child's first and most important teacher, and the home, not the classroom, is the best place for the child to learn! Our class only takes up 45 minutes of your week, but by using your home materials & finding the music in your home environment, the Kindermusik experience can be a part of every day :)

A favourite activity around our house this week has been 'I roll the ball to you' - after having so much fun using the big exercise ball on Tuesday, we've been chasing it around the house with great enthusiasm! Jarvis is still crazy about the Cock-a-doodle-Moo! book, which we read often. It has so many opportunities for vocal play - and he has started making 'brrrrrrrm' noises when he plays with his toy tractor which is a new development!

I really hope you're enjoying the special time you have with your child in class, life is so busy that it's nice to have 45 minutes when you don't have anything else you need to be doing except for enjoying music with your beautiful baby!

How have you been using your At Home Materials this week? Where have you found music in your day? We'd love to hear all about it!

Have a wonderful day :)

Kath & Jarvis

Ready for Reading!

A very belated post this week - who knew life would be so busy with a gorgeously curious little boy to play with!

Jarvis & I really really loved our first Kindermusik session for the term - welcome back to our friends from 2009, and a big welcome to our newest friends; Fiona & Taikorekore, and Jacquie, Jake & Bonnie. It's lovely having you as a part of our Kindermusik family in Gisborne!

A highlight of lesson one for us was sharing our new Kindermusik book with the class. Cock-a-doodle-Moo! is one of Jarvis's favourite things - not only favourite books, but favourite things overall! The bright colours, the cheery animals, and the endless potential for making ridiculously cool noises, make it number one around here.

Reading with your baby is such a wonderful thing to do, for so many reasons. Storytime is a perfect time for a cuddle, and reading in a cozy & happy environment will help baby associate reading with pleasure & fun. Another positive is that by exposing babies to a variety of vocal sounds, we're helping them learn about language! Every sound which you & your baby make is a learning experience :)

We're also sharing other useful tips when reading with our children, without even realising it - things like which way up to hold a book, which way we turn the pages when reading a story (in English anyhow!), and that what's written on the page is the same as what we're saying out loud. Obviously our babies using these examples is a fair way down the track, but all of these clues about literacy will build up over the years!

What's your favourite book to read with your baby? How does your baby respond to a favourite book? We'd love to hear about your experiences here :)

Have a musical Monday - and see you tomorrow to our Kindermusik friends!