Leaving a washable mark on the belly, hand, toes

Photo and words by Kindermusik Educator Katie Henderson

It has become a weekly goodbye ritual to stamp the hands of each child at the end of class with an ink stamp whose picture coordinates specifically to some activity done that week. In NO way is this a symbol of a “job well done,” but, rather, it serves to create a ritual, and to trigger a tangible memory (at least until the next good bath) of special moments in the Kindermusik classroom.

Some children, typically the older ones (and “older” is broaching three in Kindermusik!) ask for more than one stamp, and, in one recent class, several children extended the request to arms, feet, legs and, well.... even bellies!

I wish you could have witnessed one such recent wee one, begging with sighs and toddler whines, for mom to unsnap her “onesie” so she, TOO, could receive a “belly stamp.”

Enjoy the attached picture, from the final day of fall semester, with many precious feet, orchestrated simultaneously and instinctively, in a sitting circle, to receive the semester end’s “KINDERMUSIK logo” a VERY special stamp.... and consider what indelible picture YOU want to leave on the hands, and in the hearts, of your child, and the children with which you come into contact today.