Newborn through seven

You sing a baby lullabies and speak in nursery rhyme.

You clap and sing with toddlers.

You make up stories and songs with preschoolers.

You watch your big kid become her own person while she masters just a little bit of everything before she decides on what she loves.

Every step of the way, Kindermusik gives you the music you can share together, while you both figure it all out. And in the Teacher's Lounge, you can find the photo you see here, and more, to help parents understand why a Kindermusik style of learning is better for everything.

What would have happened ...

... if this man right here had a music teacher who told him he could only play an instrument one way?

Close your eyes. It's Beethoven's birthday.

Via Kindermusik of Holland.

"How amazing that Beethoven composed his last and most monumental symphony at a time when he was completely deaf. He never heard a single note of his 9th Symphony (in which the chorus sings the famous "Ode to Joy.") Friends had to turn him around from conducting so that he could see the applause. When I tell this story to my Kindermusik Young Child students they are amazed. Then we do a little experiment. We sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star out loud first then silently. The children's eyes widen as they tell me they COULD hear it inside their head! Here's lot's more about Beethoven for the curious: www.lvbeethoven.com. Happy Birthday to one of my favorite composers."

To you, from all of us

I cannot tell a lie. You've grown a whole foot.

I probably would've enjoyed numbers a little more with this Pinnocchio tape measurer. Only $6.

Elf Yourself

Upload your picture, or your child's picture, and watch "elformation."

All shined up

This was the favorite snapshot of Our Kind of Day At Home Materials for the Family Time class. Dan Halpern, our Senior Graphic Designer, shined it all up. It's now online in the new Educator Store.

And while you're clicking around www.kindermusik.com, take a look at the Teacher's Lounge. We recently uploaded this week's re-enrolling tip, and, we link you to re-enrolling messages of year's past.

Oh for cute

Psst. Hey. Kindermusik Educators. Look in the Teacher's Lounge tomorrow for this e-postcard sized graphic you can use to promote your free demonstration Kindermusik classes, storytimes, Family Time classes, or something simply to do between the fall and spring semesters.

Which one do you like?

Tell me your favorite shot and we'll upload it to the www.kindermusik.com

Thank goodness for Darcie because she's taught me so much about photography, including how to take a good head shot, and product shot. This afternoon was nice and sunny, so I took the Our Kind of Day At Home Materials outside and snapped these pics (we're employee-owned, honey. We save where we can. Plus, I like flexing the old shutter-finger).

Host your own 15 minute product photo shoot:

1. Across the street is a huge brick building. In the afternoon, the sun goes behind the building, so it's just the right mix of light and shade for a photo shoot.
2. I fastened my white-paper backdrop to a windowsill on the outside of the building, near the sidewalk. I used rocks to hold up the paper against the windowsill, and arranged the products on the white paper.
3. Then, I got down on the ground, real close to the products, and took pictures.
4. The only potential hazzard was a car driving by every once in a while. Thank goodness I spent all that time as a kid playing in the streets ... so I had the good sense to know when to get out of the way.
   

Flyer! I hardly know her.

Recently we sent out the "research-proven reason to re-enroll" flyer, and, turns out, many Educators couldn't even open the durned thing.

I'm sorry about that.

Hopefully, one or all of the following will make it easier to open attachments and special graphics:

• First, we made it a Web page instead of a cumbersome .pdf or .jpg attachment. Check it out.


• Next, you may want to install, for free, a newer version of Adobe.


• Finally, we'll start uploading these things in a more organized, findable way, soon, on the Teacher's Lounge. Major renovations are soon on the way. I'll keep you posted.

Finally, thanks for letting us know what doesn't work, so we can get it right.

Bright idea

Finally.

Just in time for the holidays, and for the first time ever, you can buy Do-Re-Me & You! products online in the Kindermusik store. Previously available only through home parties, you can now shop online without the small group-social anxiety at www.shopkindermusik.com.

All the marketing stuff and exclamations aside, I sincerely, from the bottom to the top of my heart, am excited about this. Ever since Do-Re-Me & You! first launched, I couldn't wait until the new products came out and I could listen to the new music and start writing copy for the new catalog. Only problem was that only the folks who could find a sitter, or find the energy after a long day at work, to attend a party were the ones who got to experience these thoughtfully integrated books and CD sets.

And it's not just some turn-em-and-burn-em collection of music; or some rock-star looking for a stroll down the revenue avenue that's growing in the Kindy genre. We've been doing this for over 25 years. And with the outstanding musicianship and percussive gifts of Jon Negus; the mind-blowing arranging talents of Barry Webb; and the amazing Berklee-grad duo who founded the Music Factory and cranked out some amazing cinematic and musical adventures with Aesop fables, and the Tortoise and the Hare.

And given that the imagination of a child has enough power to make even a spoken word story come alive, I can't imagine what's going to happen in a child's mind when he gets his imagination on some of these songs and stories. Seriously.

Some no brainer, great gifts. Check it out.

In a pinch?

I've never been a cheek pincher. I'm more apt to flick a child's ear lobes or pinch their elbow skin.

But look at these cheeks. Then take a look at all the other pictures tagged chubby cheeks in flickr.

Just another fascinating video from Darcie

Via Darcie Brown.

and I ran ... I ran so far away

I. am. so. proud. Within the last few days I've been getting emails from Kindermusik Educators who are filming, and uploading, video to You Tube. I've recently added their channels to my You Tube channel so I can stay updated.

This morning, Olivia Richardson sent a little something she taped at Convention: Just a few of us girls dancing with joy when convention was over. I thought I'd do a little Irish jig, and eventually, the "Running Man," which looks a little more like, "Clumsy Girl."

Walking the talk

It's one thing for a CEO to take a seat on a prestigious panel of speakers. Especially when the topic pertains to something like "social entreprenuership" at Stanford University's Center for Social Innovation.

It's another thing entirely to take a seat with a group of children who probably slept the night before at a homeless shelter; to take their picture, and to take them in your arms. That's exactly the talk, and the walk, that Kindermusik's CEO Michael Dougherty makes nearly every day.

Listen to Michael's thoughts on "social entrepreneurship" here.
You can watch him take the issue to heart in the video you see here, where Michael is visiting with a group of kids at a center located in one of Minneapolis Minnesota's toughest neighborhoods.

Rhymes like Ali

As you talk with parents about Kindermusik's whole child development, from head to toe, from cognitive to physical skills, consider how one of the greatest athletes in the world--Muhammed Ali--had a penchant for rhythm and rhyme as well. Photo via Insititue of Visual Arts

I done wrestled with an alligator, done tussled with a whale
I hancuffed lighting, thrown thunder in jail
Yesterday I injured a stone, hospitalized a brick
I’m so mean ... I make medicine sick.

Changing the world, one child at a time

This year, with Kindermusik's CEO, Michael Dougherty acting as the interviewer, and with myself acting as a documentary-filmmaker, we profiled the six Kindermusik Educators in the world who recieved the Maestro in Outreach award--Kindermusik's highest honor for the Educators working in their communities, with local resources, to reach children who need Kindermusik the most.