Baby Birds

I received an email from a parent today - a link to pictures of baby hummingbirds! Get your kids and hunker down as you will want to share this with them. I don't think I've ever seen such detailed photos of any bird from egg to flight. You'll want to make sure you click "next page" at the bottom of each page. I believe there are 5 pages in all. I was amazed at the size comparison they did on the nest!

On the last page there is also a link to another page of photos from 2003.

Photos.

Thanks Jennifer!

The classes are coming, the classes are coming ...

You could earn $10 and more off your tuition . . .

How about a FREE Gift?

Have we tempted you yet?




It's almost time for our Fall 2006 schedule to be announced - keep checking back for that big announcement.

Kids are Awesome

Click here to listen to an NPR story about 6 year old Skyler Pia who decided to make a difference for his friend who struggles with cancer. He created a one-boy radio show on CD. Putumayo is the label and the proceeds go to Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Moms, Babies and Fitness

Kalamazoo area moms will soon be able to experience the newest thing in fitness . . . Stroller Strides is a stroller fitness class where mom can workout with her baby. It's a great way to get in shape, be with your baby and meet other moms! The classes consist of a Power Walk combined with body sculpting exercises using exercise tubing, the stroller and the environment. The classes are designed to accommodate all exercise levels.

FREE Grand Opening:

• Wednesday, June 28th
• 9:00am (please arrive by 8:45am)
• Portage Creek Bicentennial Park, Milham Avenue entrance
• Raffling off free gifts for baby and mom following class - you could win a Kindermusik tuition gift certificate

To RSVP or for more information on this program call Vicky at 269.584.0354 or email vickymergen@strollerstrides.net. For rain date check the website.

We've been Awarded!

I recently learned we don’t have just any Kindermusik program. We have an extraordinary program. A Maestro Program. One of the top 5% of Kindermusik programs Internationally.

Awarded annually, Kindermusik International has given us the title since 2002. For them, it means we have a program with integrity. It means that we have found a way to balance business and education. We have compassion. We set high goals and we reach them.

What does this mean for you? It means quality programing - curriculum and materials designed by leading early childhood experts. Licensed educators - caring for your families and ensuring that your children receive a quality early learning experience.

Thank you families - for your support of our programs!

Pilot Class

We are just finishing our last pilot class for Family Time Unit 3. I thought you might like to see what's been going on for the last 10 weeks. Participating children ranged from a few weeks old to 7 years. Number of children per family ranged from one to three. Both moms and dads participated - what a fun experience for the entire family!

It was an honor to be chosen to teach the pilot and we are excited to see the final curriculum when they are published. Thank you Kindermusik International, and pilot families! Special thanks to Lighthouse Community Church for the use of their facilities.

Visit our web site to see when the next Family Time unit is scheduled - we'd love to see you there!

Campfires & flashlights - could I have S'more?

June 24th is the 2nd Annual Great American Backyard Campout - what a great idea! The kids in our neighborhood have held campouts in the backyard occasionally - with games, food, tents, sleeping bags, bugs, and games of who can scare who the most. Lots of fun. Click on the picture to learn how you can register for this event.

You think your kids are too young for outdoor camping or you don't like the bugs and noises? You can still have a campout inside your home. We set up a children's sized tent in the basement. The kids love it and no one gets wet (unless a juice cup gets spilled). Pop popcorn and tell stories around a pretend campfire. Sing songs until sleep comes.

Can't get enough of camping and the outdoors? Join us at the Kalamazoo Nature Center for some Kindermusik Adventures fun. For more information click here.

Hangin' Out Music

I'm always looking for new music, especially children's music. I'm a little particular - ok VERY particular. The music we listen to needs to be child friendly, appealing to me and on long car trips appealing to Dad is a must. Disasterous if we had the wrong music. I was recently pointed in the direction of this fun CD. Remembering back on our diaper changing days I think we could have used this . . . click on the picture to hear a sample.

To order this CD click here.

ASL and Hearing Children

Do hearing children really need to sign?
Signing is a great way to bridge the communication gap between parents and children when the words just aren't there yet. In addition, hearing children who know signs learn language almost twice as fast. As early as 11-14 months old, hearing children exposed to sign language put little sentences together faster than non-signing children, who do not begin to combine words into short sentences, such as "Da-da car" until the average age of 20 months. Study conducted by Dr. Michelle Anthony and Dr. Reyna Lindert, Signing Smart program founders.

Benefits for Your Child and You
Communicate with your child even before she can form the words. Ease a child's frustration by helping her communicate what she needs, speed language development, and enhance long-term learning abilities. Know when your child is most ready to interact and learn. Learn sign language teaching methods, such as making the sign on a child's body, on the floor, or hand over hand. Recognize and respond to your child's version of signs. Incidentally, the child in the picture is signing "father".

New! Kindermusik Sign & Sing
Sign language curriculum for parents with hearing children - a different approach from other sign language programs. Through songs, toys, and loving playtime between you and your child, Kindermusik Sign & Sing shows you more than 50 signs your child can use to communicate with you. Using research-proven methods shown to speed language development in hearing children, you'll see how sign language can ease frustration and enhance long-term learning abilities for your child.

Songs and fingerplays. Already accustomed to fingerplays and rhyme-songs—such as "This Little Piggy"—you'll easily substitute American Sign Language (ASL) signs in familiar songs, improving your child's language skills, fine motor skills, and strengthen fingers for zipping zippers and using scissors.

Learn when you play. You'll never have to memorize a list of signs. This curriculum gives you the ASL signs that are most useful to you, and most interesting to your child. So playtime and everyday items around the house—ball, bubbles, mom and dad—become the objects of learning in the classroom, and sign language becomes a natural, happy part of your child's day.

Enjoy the Journey All Week Long
Sign & Sing is much more than a weekly class. The At Home Materials you receive from your Educator help you to continue that one-of-a-kind experience at home. Family involvement in your child's learning is a fundamental cornerstone of the Kindermusik philosophy because we believe the parent is the child's most important teacher and the home is the most important place for a child's learning to take root and grow.

Sign & Sing At Home Materials
Family Activity Guide
DVD glossary showing 60 signs
Clip-on flashcards that feature photos of both children and adults using family-friendly American Sign Language signs

Developed by Signing Smart™

Click here for scheduling and registration information . . .

Why should I enroll my child in Adventures?

I get asked this question a lot from parents. This handout explains why Kindermusik Adventures is a good thing. Of course, I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have. Just give me a call - 269.808.7002.

From: How to Sing or Read

So when the night is come, and you have gone to bed,
All the songs you love to sing shall echo in your head.

--Robert Louis Stevenson

National Family Month

Mother’s Day to Father’s Day (May 14-June 18 in 2006) are the official dates of this year’s National Family Month®, a congressionally recognized celebration to raise awareness and underscore the importance of family—kids, parents, relatives and caregivers—and to provide an opportunity for families to share special time together, develop or renew relationships, identify or rediscover needs, and remind everyone of the importance of family involvement in raising healthy, confident kids for America's future.

Kindermusik Family Time - what a great way to spend any month together!

Check This Out!

For more info visit www.animusic.com - thanks Molly!

Family Time

Introducing a new musical learning program for families with children ages newborn and up—Family Time. The new curriculum, created by Kindermusik, is designed to apply musical and developmental learning in a multi-age, multi-child, family environment.

Family Time was created exclusively for Kindermusik by a team of music and child development experts. In a “one room schoolhouse” environment, Family Time helps children develop musical skills, as well as the social skills necessary to share, take turns, and strengthen the emotional bond among family members.

This is a great way for parents with children of various ages to spend time together, doing one activity as a family. The little ones watch the older ones, and learn from them.

Skin is waterproof - take a walk in the rain!

Rainy Day Activities

Save a Raindrop!

Half fill a pie plate or shallow pan with flour. Place it out in the rain until you have collected several drops. Bring the pan in and wait several hours for the drops to dry. Pour everything into a colander and shake the loose flour out into th egarbage can. The larger rain pellets you see are formed closest to the earth. The smallest fell the farthest to reach the earth.

Make Rain Paintings!

You will need:

• Poster or tempera paints
• Paintbrushes
• Watercolor paper (typing paper will work, too)

Paint shapes, scenes or rainbows on the paper with the paint. When finished, place the paintings outdoors on a rainy day. Then, watch it rain!

Your Ticket for Fun

Looking for a way to sample a Kindermusik class before committing? We offer preview classes at no charge - just click on the coupon and register today.

Finger Facts

Why do we spend so much time using our fingers and hands in Kindermusik? Learn more by reading the Spring 2006 issues of Tune In - Kindermusik International's informational newsletter.

Kindermusik with Debbie Long, LLC

Serving Kalamazoo, Michigan and surrounding areas.

Debbie Long
Program Director, Licensed Educator

Phone: 269.808.7002
Email: musik4kids_kzo@sbcglobal.net
Web: http://musik4kids.kindermusik.net

Classes are suitable for children of all abilities. New this year are programs incorporating ASL (American Sign Language) and classes for the entire family. Returning are core curriculum, summer camps and classes/camps including Senior Citizens. Like to see what we do? Visit our website for a FREE PREVIEW coupon!

Children at Play: Development Continues Through the Summer with Kindermusik!

All children play. Whether it’s a child playing alone with an imaginary friend or groups of children playing favorite games such as “hide and seek,” all children engage in some type of play every day. But play isn’t purely for fun and entertainment – it serves numerous roles in the development of children.

Play involves diverse activity where a broad range of learning can thrive and flourish. Children use play to test ideas, discover relationships, extract information, express their feelings and ideas, define themselves, and develop peer relationships.

Play is incorporated into all of the Kindermusik curricula. Through music and movement activities, instrument exploration, and story time, children experience different types of play that nurture their cognitive, social, physical and emotional development and allow them to explore, discover and express in a variety of ways.

It’s easy to identify familiar elements of play in the Kindermusik Adventures™ camp series, that is offered in the summertime. What better time to experiment with play activities than in the summer when both children and parents are more relaxed and open to new experiences?

Kindermusik Adventures camps are for children ages birth to 7 years old and incorporate interactive arts and crafts and snack time as well as music and movement into every class. Play is a central focus and is incorporated into every music and movement activity.

Through music, movement, storytelling, playing “dress-up,” and instrument exploration, children birth through 18 months will experience how fun it can be to play Peek-A-Boo games or go about their Busy Day. Bubbles and bells are just a couple of fun things we use in these camps.

Children 18 months to 3 years old will discover “creatures” living in their own backyard or at the ocean in Kindermusik Adventures camp. They will even be able to visit the Binder Park Zoo with Zoo Train. Toddlers may imitate a crab walk, pretend to play in the ocean with sheet-simulated waves or jump through “rain puddles” made with hula-hoops. Sounds and movements of animals, sea creatures and the ocean are explored through lively music, active listening and instruments such as one-bell jingles and seashell handled castanets for dramatic and creative play. Creatures in My Backyard is held at the Kalamazoo Nature Center!

Children 3 to 5 years old will relish the festive celebration and fun they discover as they play along with a host of characters like Monkey, Giraffe, Elephant, Clown and Pony. Each week in Adventures camp, children use their own imagination as they actively participate in Story Time about the amazing adventures of Monkey and his friends. The 3-to 5-year-old’s curiosity is inspired and encouraged through instrument play-alongs, chants, poems with movement and pretend play with dress-up. OR - take your Adventure On The Road and join us at the Kalamazoo Nature Center.

Older children will delight in their own Adventure when “traveling” to different cultures and environments. Lively music accompanied by dance and drama will spark 5-to-7-year-olds’ imagination. Children will have lots of opportunities to explore and express as they pretend to visit other countries such as Japan or Germany and participate in customs native to each country such as decorating a den-den drum and performing a German polka dance, or as they discover different locales such as the arctic regions, mountains, meadows, rain forest, and ocean where they will pretend to build an ice house like an Eskimo and jump like a monkey in the jungle. NEW this Summer is Tell Me A Tale. Through storytelling, your child will develop an early awareness of rhythm, movement, singing, and drama. Each lesson features a new tale from around the world, explored through multi-instrument and multi-cultural elements. All told, it's an around-the-imagination adventure of the greatest stories from Europe, Malaysia, South Africa, and more.

Also new this Summer are Sign & Sing (birth to 3 years), and Family Time (birth to 7 years) camps! What a great way to spend time together learning how to interact as a family unit, whether it's using ASL signs or learning how to make musical experiences together.

Summer experiences like Kindermusik Adventures camps are wonderfully unique opportunities for your child to grow, discover and learn through creative play. Most importantly, encourage and reward your child’s imagination as she plays at home and feel confident in knowing that play is the heart of her learning. Visit http://musik4kids.kindermusik.net, email musik4kids_kzo@sbcglobal.net or call 269.808.7002 for registration information.