Toys, Toys, Everywhere

A child's toys just seem to multiply on their own, don't they?! In our family, we have made a conscious decision over the past few years to request alternate gifts from family members here and there, just to keep the number of toys in our house to a manageable quantity. And with our family of three being on a fairly limited budget, it allows us to give our son some experiences he couldn't otherwise have.

I have noticed this trend in the past couple of years with our Kindermusik program, as well. More and more grandparents are giving the gift of Kindermusik to their grandchildren for Christmas or birthdays. Instead of handing over just another toy to be added into the already-cluttered toy room, grandparents know that Kindermusik is a gift that will be enjoyed for a very long time. . .and it will make a positive impact on that child's development in so many ways! (And as a bonus, they can enjoy the fun right along with their grandchild!) I would estimate that at least 25% of our program's students are able to come to class because their grandparent gave it as a gift--wow! You may want to consider asking for a Kindermusik gift certificate this year, yourself.

Now back to those toys that keep multiplying. . .let me tell you what has worked for us!

Several months ago I discovered a system that has really helped our family keep the clutter down while keeping the toys fresh and interesting to our 3 year old. I got four large Sterilite storage tubs and grouped all of the toys into categories, such as cars & trucks, puppets/action figures, puzzles/games, Little People accessories, large play items, etc. (My husband took my son out for the afternoon so I could do this without "help"!) Then I divied the toys up into the four tubs, making sure to put two or three puzzles and at least one bigger truck into each tub. I chose one or two large toys (like a see-saw motorcycle, a Duplo wagon, etc.) to pair with each tub, as well. (Obviously those items wouldn't fit inside.) I kept certain things together in the same tub, such as his train set, his puppet show supplies, his Little People buildings, etc., as made sense. When I finished, I numbered each tub 1-4 and kept tub #1 out. The other 3 tubs went into storage downstairs.

After a week, he started losing interest in those toys, so we put them all back into tub #1 and got tub #2 out. Ronan played with the "new" toys enthusiastically for another week. Then out came tub #3. You get the idea. We have continued to do this toy rotation for about 3 months now, and he still is excited to see his "new" old toys each time they come out. I think having less of them to wade through all at once is also helpful to him--it's much less overwhelming.

This system is also helping us purge toys from the collection regularly (since there are always more coming in, it seems!). As we pack up a tub's contents at the end of the week, we can easily tell which toys were at the bottom of the pecking order. If he's not interested in playing with something anymore, it gets a free ride into the yard sale box!

So what tips would YOU offer for toy management?

And the Beat Goes On

Learning how to keep a steady beat is, I believe, the most basic element of musicianship. (It is also, for many people, an elusive skill!) In Kindermusik, a large number of our activities help to solidify this skill, whether it is the primary focus or a secondary benefit.

In Village classes, we help the babies internalize what a steady beat feels like by patting their legs, clapping their hands, helping them shake bells, or dancing purposefully with them. I love doing the chant, "DID-dle diddle DUM-pling, MY son JOHN..." while we exercise the babies' limbs or bounce them on each beat. And doing this with a cross-lateral movement (touching hand and opposite foot together) adds another level of benefits, as it helps train the two sides of the brain to work together.

Once little ones have internalized the steady beat, they are ready to begin to match an external sound source in Our Time. Toddlers hear the music on the CD player or the teacher's singing voice and move their legs and arms slowly when the music is slow and quickly when the music is fast. While most of them won't be able to tap a true steady beat along with the music at this age, they can probably identify whether the beats are fast or slow and then play their instrument or dance accordingly. We have a lot of fun using the sandblocks to swish and tap along to the song "Milk & Cookies", which has a nice strong beat!

Preschoolers in Imagine That! learn to listen intently so they can tap their sticks in time to the music. By this time, many of them have developed their sense of rhythm to the point where they can accurately match an external sound source. Preschoolers may not have the patience to clap the steady beat throughout an entire song on the radio, but they will probably delight in clapping or tapping during the chorus. I love working on this skill during our rain activities! Pit-ter pat-ter pit-ter pat-ter, I can hear the rain...

In Kindermusik for the Young Child, all of this development really begins to show! Not only can most children at this age match a steady beat, but they are beginning to produce that steady beat all on their own! We work on this from the first day of semester 1 when we sing, "I like to play the sticks." (tap tap tap tap) I like to play the sticks." (tap tap tap tap) Adding dynamics (how loudly or quietly we play) makes things even more fun--and challenging!

So why is it important to be able to keep a steady beat? Well, if you want your child to play an instrument or sing in a choir when he/she gets older, this skill is obviously crucial to their success. But what about those who don't think music lessons will be in the plan? The ability to keep a steady beat is important in learning to cut with scissors, dribble a basketball, pedal a bike, and even type well on a keyboard!

How will YOU help your child feel the beat this week?

Back in Full Swing!

Ahhhh. . .classes started again last week, and it feels great to be back into my "regular" schedule! Of course I love summer and all that goes with it, but there is just something comforting about having a predictable schedule each week.

And it's so FUN to see my Kindermusik friends after being away from most of them over the past few months! Everybody seems to be a foot taller, and--more importantly--I am seeing how so many have matured in both small and big ways over the summer!

How exciting it was to see Ryan stride into class, confident as can be! Having graduated out of Our Time at the end of the semester last year, this was his first time attending class without his mom. When he first started Our Time as a little guy, he was often shy and reserved. Now not only was he completely at ease, he even chattered excitedly throughout our classtime!

And what a change in Walker! Last year it was so hard for him to put the bells or sticks away at the end of an activity, but this year he does it with no problem at all. Madison is talking a blue streak now. Xavier has developed a thoughtful, more purposeful way of listening. And Trevor, who has tended to be the quiet one in the group, just lit up as he told our class about his summer. But I think my proudest moment of this past week was seeing Bridget go into her first big-kid class, confident and self-assured.

I could probably go on and on about the changes I saw in all of our returning students. . .and I'm sure I will--in future posts! I can't wait to see what exciting changes are just around the corner for not only our returning students, but also our brand-new ones!

Thank you, Kindermusik parents, for letting me have the best job in the world! :-)

Get Out the Vote!

Tomorrow is another election day. I would guess that I'm in the minority when I say that I actually look forward to each election day! However, I think I have a pretty good reason.

For about two years now I have worked as an election inspector at a precinct fairly close to my home. Although it is a LONG workday (6:00 AM to about 8:45 PM), I find it to be a nice little one-day vacation from my everyday life. I bring in my crossword puzzle books and Games magazines, which every other day of the year get rather neglected. In my former life I was a retail manager, so getting the opportunity to do some face-to-face customer service a few times a year is also very fun for me. But there is yet a bigger reason that I love election days.

I love them because I get to catch a glimpse of our next generation of voters! It is absolutely wonderful to see the number of parents who bring their children and teenagers with them to the polls. I was a history minor in college, with a focus on women's history, so I have a deep appreciation for what millions of people had to go through in order to gain the right to vote. It is easy for so many of us to just take that right for granted. Bringing children to the polls, as my parents did with me, helps them learn that this is something we do as active citizens of our community and of our world. Not only do we have the right to vote, we have been blessed with the privilege of voting, from those who went before us.

It's no surprise to me that many of the parents who bring their children into the precinct I work at are also Kindermusik parents, despite the fact that our precinct is located way over on the west side of Grand Rapids. Kindermusik parents tend to realize how important early-childhood development and learning are, so it makes sense that they would also place value on helping their children develop into contributing members of society.

So consider tomorrow, and November 4, and other future election days "Bring Your Children to Vote Day"! Talk with them about why you are there and what you will do while you are there. Show them the different facets of the polling place: the sign-in table, the actual ballot, the voting booth, the tabulator, etc. Explain to them (in the car) why you voted for whom and for what. Talk about what is at stake for each race or proposition.

And be sure to stop by the sticker table to get them an "I Voted" sticker! I know I will have several ready for my "regulars" tomorrow. See you at the polls!

Birthday Boy

Wow. Today my little guy turned 3 years old. It's hard to remember what life was like before him, and at the same time I can't believe he's already so old! I recall so vividly the events of that day three years ago, the day we met this child that we waited for so long. Pacing expectantly by the phone for days. . .and then finally receiving the call that he had been born. Our hearts racing during the long drive to the hospital. Our nerves and emotions as we talked with his birth-family.

And, most of all, I remember that incredible moment when we got to go in to meet him for the first time. I literally asked the nurse, "Him? This one is ours?!" because he was so gorgeous I could hardly believe it. I had drilled it into my husband that the baby would probably look blotchy and cone-headed, and yet here he was with beautiful, even skin, a perfectly round head, and the most darling features I had ever seen on a newborn. It was nothing short of love at first sight.

I can't help but reminisce a bit on this anniversary of his birth, but I also find myself looking ahead at what his future might bring. He is only a little over two years from starting kindergarten--which really blows my mind--and I have a feeling that life will really start to play in fast-forward when he starts school. So today I am reminding myself that while it is perfectly fine to recall where he's been, and also to look ahead to where he will soon be, I need to remember to take the time to enjoy right now with him. He will be 3 years, 1 day old for tomorrow only, so I need to make the most of that special day, as well as each and every day after that.

Happy birthday, Ronan! It's been an amazing three years.

Louder Than Words

I just finished Jenny McCarthy's book Louder Than Words, which is the story of how she helped pull her son from the intense clutches of autism. Although I have never cared much for her public persona, I was interested to read this because of some of the similarities that exist between autism and Sensory Processing Disorder (which my son has). I tend to be a fast reader, so I almost always prefer to get a "hard copy" and read the book at my own pace. However, we mistakenly reserved the Book-on-CD version from the library, so I ended up listening to this story instead.

Overall, I thought that it was a worthwhile book, but I actually do wish that I'd read it instead of listened to it. I shouldn't have been surprised, but she put a fair number of expletives in her writing (particularly the f-bomb), and it made me a tad uncomfortable to hear the narrator throwing those words out there so often! There are also some stretches where she seems to repeat herself a lot, and I would have just skimmed over those parts, had I had the book in my hands. She has a somewhat childlike way of writing (lots of simple sentences), which was magnified by being read out loud, so--again--it probably would come off better on paper than on audio.

Aside from these criticisms, it was definitely heartbreaking, and mildly inspirational, to hear what their family went through, as well as oddly comforting to note the similarities in places to some of the issues we've faced with our own son. It raises some VERY interesting points regarding diet and overall health, which I think--for many reasons--needs to be examined much more thoroughly by the general public (but I'll save my soapbox speech on that for another post!). I think that the impact of her story would have been much stronger if she had reigned in her compulsion to pat herself excessively on the back. I did really appreciate all of the resources that were listed at the end of the book, and I intend to check out the hard copy of the book from the library at some point, in order to look into those websites, etc.

Have YOU read it? What did you think? Leave a comment and tell us! Here's what I thought:

Story: B

Writing Style: C

Ease of Read: A-

Appropriate for Children?: NO

Overall Grade: B-

When It's Time to Change. . .

I love those lyrics in the song that they sang on the. . .ahem. . . Brady Bunch: "When it's time to change, you've got to rearrange...", with Peter squawking each "change" with his new adolescent voice. Funny moment in the show, but truly an apropos theme song for parents of young children!

Through a symbiotic combination of my 2 1/2 year old son's Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) and his, well, age of 2 1/2 years old, he doesn't do well with transitions these days. Actually it was several months ago that he started to fall apart when we would announce that it was time to _____ (fill in the blank with any number of things) instead of continuing to _______ (fill in the blank with any number of things). It didn't really matter if what we were suggesting was way more fun than what he was currently doing; just the mere idea of change was too daunting for him. (Hmmm, sounds a bit like some adults I know. . .myself included, sometimes.)

To be fair, his SPD does make things complicated in this regard. For instance, we know that he LOVES his "school" (his speech/sensory group that meets once a week at a nearby Grand Rapids school). However, he can't immediately reconcile what he loves about it with the idea of leaving home to go there. Too many things are difficult about the journey, such as having to be buckled in a tight car seat, possible disconcerting noises along the way, blinding sunlight streaming through the windshield. And even more once we get there: other children who make sudden movements and loud sounds, lots of adults who may talk too fast, activities that challenge him out of his comfort zone, and class that is far too short and far too long for him all at the same time. It takes a lot of effort for him to keep his body under control while he's out in the public eye, and that can outweigh all of the positives that he has tucked away in his heart and mind.

It's hard to know what goes through his mind when we tell him that it's time to go to school. Or eat dinner. Or leave the park. Or go upstairs for a bath. Or stop playing "horsey" after the 25th repetition because Mom's spine is going to get stuck in an unnatural diagonal. All we do know is the reaction we used to get: a total meltdown, far more often than not. Even the best-intended verbal preparations ("Ronan, after we eat breakfast we are going to put our shoes on and go to school") wouldn't prevent the shrieking, head-banging, limb-flailing episodes we became so familiar with.

UNTIL. . .my husband had a brilliant idea. Use the timer. Yep. That little white box. Let me tell you, that thing has made our job soooooo much easier over the past few months. Our timer gives a little "beep beep, beep beep" at the 5-minute warning, which has worked out most beautifully. We set the timer for 6 or 7 minutes and say, "Ronan, when the timer goes off, we are going to ____". Then when it gives its 5-minute warning, we say to Ronan pointedly, "five minutes" and we make him repeat it back to us so we know that he heard it. (Most of the time now he beats us to it.) Then when the time is up and the timer goes off, he dutifully gives up his current activity and moves on to the next. No kidding, this works ALL THE TIME with him. It's as if the role of bad guy has been taken from us and handed to the little white box. . .and he knows he can't argue with a gadget.

Let's see. . .we use the timer when we want to turn off a video, when it's time to go outside to play, when it's time to get in the car, when it's time to leave the park, when it's time to go upstairs for a bath, when it's time to get OUT of the bath, and probably a dozen other times in a given week.

What an amazing, simple discovery. What a smart man I married. And what glorious harmony in our household when we can make transitions more bearable for our sweet little boy!

Kicking Off Summer!

Ahhhh, summer is here! It's a great feeling, diving into the season! I am spending much more time with my almost-3-year-old son (Ronan), I've made great progress in landscaping our yard, and I'm finally taking care of some of those pesky projects that I've been meaning to get to for awhile. And I'm looking forward to the upcoming events I have planned with our extended family in the next couple of months. So life is pretty good, right? Of course! But there is something missing. . .

Since I'm in the process of moving our studio to its new location this summer, I'm not teaching any Kindermusik classes right now. AND I REALLY MISS IT!! At any given time I find myself thinking about my students, wondering what kinds of things they are up to this summer.

Perhaps some of them are spending time at a nature center, like Ronan and I did this morning. We live just minutes from Blandford Nature Center, so I decided to take him over there for our morning activity. It's so fun to listen to the many wildlife sounds, run around the meadow, look for animals, and hike the trails.

Well, we got more than we (at least I) bargained for today! The two of us leaned over a huge log to watch a caterpillar up close, and as I stood up, I realized that there was a long, black snake circling Ronan's legs. Being that I (even as a consummate animal lover) do not care for the company of snakes AND, coincidently, I had just seen a news story earlier this morning about a black snake that cozied up around the legs of a 7-month-old in her crib, I did what any normal person would do: shrieked loudly and hoisted all 40.2 pounds of my son into the air!

As the snake slithered away, I became acutely aware of what that experience may have been like for my son. In the two-tenths of a second that it took me to realize that the snake was there, Ronan was simply looking curiously at what was tickling his feet [inadvertent shudder!]. I fervently want him to grow up with a great respect for animals (and all of nature, really), so perhaps my reaction was not the best way to accomplish this! I quickly covered by telling him that it just "surprised" Mommy. Apparently it was OK because he then proceeded to mimic my shriek and then say, "Mama surprise!" all the way home. (Great. . .my terror is his hilarity!)

So what does this have to do with music? Well, it occurs to me that one of the things that makes Kindermusik so great is its constant opportunity to let kids experience music without bias or prior mental programming. When we get out the sticks, for example, we aren't looking for the children to play them in a prescribed manner; they get to explore with them and create new ways to use them. Perhaps they come from a home with parents who listen only to jazz music or classical. In Kindermusik, children experience both of those but also so much more, regardless of the preferences that their parents came in the door with.

Ronan may decide at some point that he, also, shrieks at the sight of a snake and would rather have every one of them far, far away from his path. But I hope to let him discover that based on his own feelings--not mine--just as I look forward to finding out what instrument he wants to play in the school band or what his favorite songs are as he grows up.

I can't wait to see everyone in September and discover new things together! :-)