Full Time Focus

"I was a French horn player and a vocalist, but my focus was really in music education, teaching children," says Matthew Burns, Kindermusik Educator.

And for once, it's good to hear that a community isn't cutting its arts programs. The city of Clarksville in Tennessee will expand its creative reach, and has asked Kindermusik Educator Matthew Burns to lead the effort.

The former schoolteacher was recently tapped as the new coordinator for the Community School of the Arts at Austin Peay State University.

"The Community School is ready to take the next big step," Burns said of the changes he will make.

We think it's a good beginning for many great things to come for Clarksville and the arts.

Read more about the center and Brian's work there in the Clarksville Leaf.

What the Mahler 9 taught me about active listening

Photo by The Inhabitant

Can you hear me? Rub the outer edge of your ears. 

Will your cell phone ring while you're reading this? If so, can you turn it off?

In Kindermusik Educator training, we learn that focused listening is an active experience. It's a learned skill, and it's one of most critical lessons in early childhood. Recent events in the news remind me that listening is also an ongoing lesson - it doesn't stop in childhood. And we may be living in an era when the simple act of listening is one of the most distracting parts of our day.

If you haven't heard the recent story, the twitter version goes like this:  "Concertus interruptus: unsilenced cell phone brings a New York Philharmonic performance to a halt." During Gustav Mahler's Ninth Symphony" -- a haunting piece some say the composer wrote as he faced his own death -- a cell phone started ringing in the audience," according the story in cnn.com.

"New York Philharmonic conductor Alan Gilbert reacted to the intrusion by stopping the music. He didn't melodramatically fling his arms down; rather, he merely dropped his hands, which alerted the musicians to stop playing, according to Jo. 

Then, the only sound in the great room was the "Marimba" ringtone of the cell phone, Jo said. 

Gilbert turned his attention to the owner of the phone, who was seated on the front row, and asked, "Are you finished?" 

When there was no reply, Gilbert said, "Fine, we'll wait," and placed his baton on his music stand, according to Jo."

I loved Gilbert's calm reaction and focused listening as he waited for someone to turn off the cell phone. As Kindermusik Educators and musicians we have a unique opportunity to help families practice the art of listening - even in the midst of unnerving interruption. We learn in Kindermusik training to model active listening behaviors - to rub your ears, bend closer to the listener, and model the "your turn, my turn" response. We help families learn how music literally helps little ones "tune in" to the sounds we want to hear, and don't want to hear. 

We also have a chance to help parents learn the simple act of turning off their phones for some focused listening in class. It could become the one hour a day when a child isn't interrupted by a parent's ringing cell phone.  

Here are a few ways we could introduce the concept in the classroom. 

1. Make it a part of your class routine. In class we learn to take off our shoes before Kindermusik, include the reminder to turn off your cell phones, too, as a part of the class ritual.

2. Remind families that listening is a learned skill. Children learn "focused listening" by watching adults model appropriate listening behaviors. When they see adults take action to listen - by showing them how we're turning off our phones to completely focus and listen to the child - we're showing them how we value what they have to say, and that we want to hear them without interruption.

3. Slip in the reminder during the "rub your ears" reminder during class. Remember to ask questions: "Is your cell phone off? Are you ready to listen?"

The idea is to learn how to live with technology - not complain about the problems. In your classrooms you have a unique opportunity to help parents learn how to better model active listening among modern day distractions. A reminder that might activate just before they go into a movie theater or to a concert symphony hall.

Can you hear me now?

Still thinking about teaching Kindermusik?

Kindermusik Educator Alana Cummings in Branson, MO explains how Kindermusik helps children develop skills for a lifetime of learning.

Great job Alana!

Introducing Brian Belin

“I believe in the education of the entire individual,” said Brian Belin, educator, musician, and newly licensed Kindermusik Educator. “That is why I have chosen to use the Kindermusik system with young children.”

Belin is the owner and director of VP Music Studios and soloist at Tryon Congregational Church. He has more than 10 years teaching and performi ng experience. He graduated from Coker College with a B.A in vocal performance and has participated in the graduate certificate program at the University of South Carolina – Columbia.

In 2007, Belin was invited to study and perform in Spain as well as the Rome Festival of 2011. He has taught voice, music theory and music fundamentals in general, not only in the Western North Carolina area but also in various places throughout South Carolina.

In addition to currently pursuing his master of music degree in performance from Converse College, he has also participated in studies from Boston University’s MM Music Education program. He sings as a bass-baritone concert soloist, Sunday soloist and choral section leader in the Western North Carolina area for various churches and organizations, including the Congregational Church of Tryon, Blue Ridge Sacred Chorale and Asheville Lyric Opera. He was a featured soloist at Tryon Fine Arts Center’s 2011 Do-It-Yourself “Messiah.”


Welcome, Brian. 


source: Tyron Daily Bulletin

Grow your business from home, build with heart

Congratulations Sarah Hames. The Kindermusik Educator has been licensed and teaching since 2001 and the Friendswood.com story talks about how Sarah grew the business from her home studio, to a brick and mortar space in Friendswood, Texas. Take a look. For one Kindermusik teacher, giggles and hugs are just part of the job.

Connie Faria is blogging and teaching Kindermusik in the Middle East.

Connie holds a python. Yes. A python.

Connie Faria is putting away the GPS. For good. She's relied on the navigational device "far too much" to get around her new hometown in Abu Dhabi -- about an hour and a half from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

The GPS is in the glovebox and the new intuitive Faria Positioning System -- or FPS -- will get her to the grocery store, to the library for story time, to her kid's new playgroups, and to teach Kindermusik.

It's easy to understand why Connie would need a little extra navigational help this year. It's her first time out of the United States. And the first time she's held a python snake (you can watch it here).

"The things I do for my kids!" Connie writes on her blog about the python experience, The Faria Five.

Once the family was settled in their new home, Connie says, she started getting a little antsy. That's one reason she started teaching Kindermusik again.

We talked with Connie, the blogger, mother, and Kindermusik Educator about how she got started teaching, and why she's coming back.

When did you start teaching Kindermusik?

I started taking classes in 2003 when my first child was 5 weeks old and loved it. After two years of classes (all the Village classes and starting on Our Time) - I decided that I could do it too.  I had mentioned it to the Educator and I became a Kindermusik Educator that year. I loved it!

I was teaching out of my home and loved the teaching part, I just didn’t like the marketing and drumming up business part. Teaching at a Montessori School fell in my lap and I taught there until December 2010, until they had some budget cuts and had to reluctantly let me go, which ended up working out since we found out about our move the Middle East in January and life got crazy for a while.

My husband works for the US Government and is currently working at the US Embassy. This is our first time overseas and my first time out of the country.

Musical background

I took piano lessons for 6 years as a child and sang in school choirs but never had any education/training beyond.  I volunteered as a Toddler and Preschool Storytime leader at our local library for 6 years and it was filled with song/rhymes and stories.  I really enjoyed that too, and I am actually starting storytimes at my children’s school in December (we don’t have public libraries here, but their school has a good library that school families can visit).  I have also volunteered in the classroom with both of my children since Kindergarten. But, no formal education/training in teaching (although my mom is a teacher).

Teaching Kindermusik again

After we moved to Abu Dhabi (about 1.5 hours from Dubai) I was busy with getting settled and figuring out how to live in a new country.  Then…I started getting antsy.  I made some inquries about Kindermusik and found a local educator (www.paradise-music.com) and approached her about teaching.

I am teaching at preschool and my classes are ages 2-4 with several kids that barely understand English, but they respond well to music.  I need to modify actions for songs or some of what I say.  We might talk about Yummy Hummus or Yummy Lamb, as opposed to Yummy Apples and Yummy Peanut Butter.  I need to find ways to make things relevant for my audience.

I have taught the same class three times now and it’s always fun to see the kids come out of their shell a little more each time.  The teachers and aides LOVE the class and asked for copies of the lyrics last time so they could learn all the words.

Welcome back to Kindermusik Connie!

Natural Science

Patricia Kuhl is in the news again. The leading expert on language and author of "The Scientist in the Crib" received a French award for her work using highly scientific approaches to understand the highly scientific process babies use to learn language.

Kuhl talks more about it -- in her own endearing words -- in the above TEDTalks video.

Kuhl is a frequent speaker and internationally-recognized expert on the topic (she has her own wiki page for crying out loud). She has a way of making science sensible and relatable. Even still, every time I read a new research report, or discover another story about a scientific breakthrough on child development or parenting, something inside me goes, "Well, duh. Yea."

Some scientists literally go around the world to discover something that in the end, seems like common sense -- in retrospect. Hindsight is 20/20, right? Science and scientists use their intuitive skills to uncover the mystery of intuition.

In Kindermusik training, we learn about the science driving a parent's natural instinct to care for their baby. We also learn about the child's developmental process, so we can match the right activities to nurture and challenge those developmental milestones.

Kindermusik makes the science of parenting, sensible. Natural.

Photo by Motorito

The result for Educators is a deeper understanding of what's happening between a care-giver and a child. It's a beautiful thing to watch grandpa play "Got your nose" with his grandson. And in Kindermusik training, we learn the natural science behind this endearing moment: Grandpa has just doubled the child's chances of learning the word "nose" because he said the word when he grabbed that cute little nose. And sitting in the arms of a loving grandfather, the chances of a child remembering that word just rose exponentially.

Not duh, but "awe." As in "awww, isn't that cute?" And "awe," as in amazing.

Some parents have a "knowing" about their parenting. Some parents want more information. In Kindermusik classes, we nurture both. We can speak to both types of learning parents.

It's a natural science.