I knew that I wanted to post something for Mother’s Day, but I hadn’t yet decided quite what to do when I received a lovely email from my friend, Patti, who also teaches the preschool choir for me at our church.  I thought it was so cute that I wanted to share. 

I’m always careful to try and find authors and sources in order to correctly attribute what I post, but Patti didn’t know where it came from, other than a “Fwd” from another friend.  This was one of those ubiquitous “Fwd” we all find in our inboxes and spam folders, and most frequently just delete. 

I still wanted to share it here.  I don’t know who the author/creator is, but I did note a reference on one panel to 123greetings.com.  I’ve searched their files, but this must be something from a previous year.  In any case, I want to share this with all moms everywhere, whether by blood, marriage, adoption, or just plain friend.  Happy Mother’s Day to you all! 

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Many times I am asked by parents for suggestions of supplementary music for their children other than Kindermusik.  There is a lot of stuff out there - a lot of it simply noise, in my opinion.  And while there is some good recorded music available for children, many of it doesn’t interest the adults in the family.  It’s seen as strictly something for the kids. 

I have been fortunate in the past few years to find some artists that cross over and entertain not only the kiddos, but also adults - not only parents, but aunts, uncles, grandparents, godparents, you name it! 

One of the first was Elizabeth Mitchell - still probably my absolute favorite child’s recording artist, an acoustical genius.  I own all of her albums and frequently have them on in my classroom while setting up for class. 

Then there was Chris Karabas and the Kids Table Band as well as Suzi Shelton, both enjoyable, although geared strongly toward the listening audience of children. 

Imagine my surprise recently when I learned that an alternative rock group I’ve enjoyed listening to over the years, Barenaked Ladies, or BNL for short, was releasing their first children’s album.  They were asking for listeners who would be interested in receiving an advance copy for review.  I was curious enough to submit my name. 

Why a children’s album?  Well, I’m sure that the collective number of eleven children within the group’s members had something to do with it.  Either that or many nights of walking the floor with a cranky baby, singing it back to sleep!  Sleep deprivation can do crazy things to the psyche!

Here’s the answer straight from the BNL website:

“Our collective kids now outnumber the band more than 2 to 1,” explains vocalist/guitarist Ed Robertson. “We set out to make a record that would be entertaining for them…not strictly a children’s record, but a record that children would really enjoy. Our kids are in to all kinds of music. They love the They Might Be Giants kids records, but they also love The Beatles, Fountains of Wayne, Randy Newman, Black Eyed Peas and Green Day. Making the focus about what our kids like was a truly liberating process and fun for the whole band.”

 Snacktime is one of those albums that will definitely entertain the kids while grabbing the parents’ attention as well.  Stylistically, there is a variety of music included - some that will definitely get your toes tapping.  There is enough silliness to satisfy any child with enough broad humor…..wink, wink….. to make mom and dad laugh as well. 

This album reminds me very strongly of the early “Muppet Shows” (by genius Jim Henson) back in the early ’80’s that we watched every Saturday night with our firstborn, ostensibly for *his* enjoyment, but also because my husband and I both enjoyed the wackiness and adult humor there that went completely over the kids’ heads.  We recently watched it again on DVD and had the same reaction.  Snacktime will be one of those classics as well- enjoyed by children and adults alike.

I really have a hard time picking just one or two favorites on this album.  They’re all good and you can tell that these guys write from personal experience of being real  parents of real children.  It’s refreshing and very enjoyable. 

Pushed to name which ones I listened to more than others, the first one I’d nominate is 7 8 9. (Click the arrow below to download and listen.)

Once your child gets the point of this song, you’ll be hearing, “7… 8…9, get it, Mom?  Get it, Dad? 7…8….9!”   I admit I’ve caught myself singing it as well. 

A Word For That (Album Version) will make you laugh, and, if you’ve got a child with severe allergies like we do, Allergies (Album Version) states very clearly how you feel, trying to cope with all that entails.  My 17yo daughter, Bekah, grinned and shouted “YES!” right out loud when she first heard this track.  Coldplay and The Fray, step aside; Bekah’s discovered BNL. 

Crazy ABC’s will catch your attention, then make you laugh out loud.  How they found all those words is beyond me!  And, yes, I think they *did* have too much time on their hands at that point. 

Raisins (Album Version) and Eraser (Album Version) (reminiscent of Veggie Tales) are both a lot of fun.  And anyone who’s ever worn a hand-me-down will relish My Big Sister (Album Version).  

For those of you who have had one of those days, or who has had a child with one of those days and in desperate need of a pity party, listen to Bad Day (Album Version).” 

Tracks include:

1. 7 8 9
2. The Ninjas
3. Pollywog In a Bog
4. Raisins
5. Eraser
6. I Can Sing
7. Louis Loon
8. Food Party
9. The Canadian Snacktime Trilogy :Snacktime
10. Popcorn
11. Vegetable Town
12. Drawing
13. Humongous Tree
14. My Big Sister
15. Allergies
16. I Don’t Like
17. What a Wild Tune
18. Bad Day
19. Things
20. Curious
21. A Word for That
22. Wishing
23. Crazy ABCs
24. Here Comes the Geese

Wondering how you will explain some of the humor in these songs to your kids?  Look no further than Youtube for an animated version of 7 8 9.  It’s a western version that explains why 6 is afraid of 7. 

Check Snacktime out for the kids, buy it for yourself!

Join us this summer as we celebrate all kinds of fun in our Kindermusik classes!  With multiple offerings of different days and times, you can have your music and your summer, too!  There’s something for everyone this summer!

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Village - ages newborn to 18 months

Busy Days!

Set your baby’s day to classical music. With a little more Tchaikovsky in your “Twinkle, Twinkle” repertoire, you’ll discover new ways your baby benefits from the classics as you both develop an appreciation for the world’s most respected music. Each lesson features new activities and songs you can sing for all the places you go together-the store, the playground, the doctor, and more.  Each weekly class lasts 45 minutes.  Home Materials include: Book, CD, Village Cage Bell, and Poster.

For class schedules and registration, please visit our website here.

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Our Time - ages 1.5 years to 3.5 years

Zoo Train!

Your toddler and the train make a natural match—always on the move. Tag along this summer with a traveling zoo train. Bring your own stuffed animals for the petting zoo. Wear long white socks on your hands for polar bear paws and learn about real animals in the zoo. Sing songs for clapping time, and use music to help toddlers regulate emotions. Each weekly class lasts 45 minutes.  Home Materials include: Book, CD, Animal Shaker, and Poster.

For class schedules and registration, please visit our website here.

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Imagine That! - ages 3.5 - 5 years

Drums, Drums, Drums!

This session your child will experience the concept of fractions through hearing and playing quarter and eighth notes. In class we’ll do “call and response” activities to the rhythmic sounds of African music. Meanwhile, your child will sharpen listening and attention skills, as well as fine tune you’re her ear to finding patterns. Play together the activities in your Home Kit, and you’ll help your preschooler develop a strong foundation in math, rhythm and coordination, and critical listening.  Each weekly class lasts 45 minutes with the parent joining class in the final 10 minutes.  The “Drums, Drums, Drums” Home Kit includes Home CD and Magazine-style Family Guide, a 15″ mini-djembe (student instrument) and Book, “Drum Circle“.

For class schedules and registration, please visit our website here.

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Young Child - ages 5 - 7 years

Around the World!

Take an imaginary trip—exploring the exotic cultures of Germany, Japan, Africa, England, and Mexico. Play the native instruments. Drape sheets over cardboard boxes and sing over the German mountain tops. Toss peanuts on the floor and bring good luck to one’s home in this Japanese custom. Send messages in Nigeria with “talking drums.” Each weekly class lasts 90 minutes with the parent joining class in the final 15 minutes.  Home Materials include: CD, Arts and Craft materials,Picture Folder set, and Travel Bag.

For class schedules and registration, please visit our website here.

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Family Time  - ages newborn - 7 years

Zoo Train!

Your toddler and the train make a natural match—always on the move. Tag along this summer with a traveling zoo train. Bring your own stuffed animals for the petting zoo. Wear long white socks on your hands for polar bear paws and learn about real animals in the zoo. Sing songs for clapping time, and use music to help toddlers regulate emotions. Each weekly class lasts 45 minutes.  Home Materials include: Book, CD, Animal Shaker, and Poster. Each sibling will receive their own individual animal shaker.

For class schedules and registration, please visit our website here.

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Sign and  Sing! - ages 6 months - 2 years

Session A

Playtime and everyday items around the house—such as a ball, bubbles, and family members—are learning themes in this introduction to American Sign Language for a child and caregiver. Experienced signers will benefit from the session’s four, research-proven strategies shown to speed language development in hearing children, developed by the child development and sign language experts Signing Smart™. With the DVD’s visual dictionary showing parents and children making over 60 signs, plus a pocket-sized set of flashcards of the pictures and the words of the signs, you’ll easily incorporate sign language into your daily routines, favorite nursery rhymes, and stories.

Home materials include:

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1, 2, 3…….Read with Me!

Ages newborn to 5 years

Create your own Kindermusik Adventure Camp with our weekly 45-minute musical story-times, offered each Wednesday morning at 10AM.  Choosing from eight different themes, you can pick which 5 weeks you attend and which you don’t!  Want to attend more than five?  Choose 6, 7, or 8 and receive a break on the price!

June 4th - Bugs, Birds & Critters - all the fun and excitement of our outside summer friends!

June 11th - Animals All ‘Round the World - including Po the Panda from “Kung Fu Panda”!

June 25th - Beach Bash -  Surf’s up! We’re heading for the beach!

July 2 - Gizmos and Gadgets - celebrating robots and “WALL-E”!

July 9 - Down on the Farm - We’ll be going on a hay-ride as we travel to the farm and visit the animals!

July 16 - Rumble in the Jungle - Come join us as we dance the “Animal Hokey Pokey”with our jungle friends!

July 23 - Blast Off! - Journey through the stars with the “Space Chimps” and enjoy the fun of space travel!

July 30 - Marvelous Me! - Watch as your child discovers the wonder of who he is and how marvelously his body works!

To register for 1, 2, 3……Read with Me, please visit our website here.

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This summer at Masterworks Studio we really and truly do offer something for everyone! If your vacation falls on one of our class days, you can switch to another class of the same age curricula and make it up at another time in another week with no additional charges!  Beat the high cost of gas and travel this summer by taking an adventure with us in Kindermusik!

After my surgery, one of my daughters sent this to me to cheer me up.  I still enjoy it and hope it gives you 55 seconds of healthy, blood-pressure lowering laughter, too!  Enjoy!

For your viewing pleasure, the next Survivor series:

Six married men will be dropped on an island with one car and 3 kids each for six weeks.

Each kid will play two sports and either take music or dance classes

There is no fast food.

Each man must take care of his 3 kids; keep his assigned house clean, correct all homework, and complete science projects, cook, do laundry, and pay a list of ‘pretend’ bills with not enough money.

In addition, each man will have to budget in money for groceries each week.

Each man must remember the birthdays of all their friends and relatives, and send cards out on time.

Each man must also take each child to a doctor’s appointment, a dentist appointment and a haircut appointment.

He must make one unscheduled and inconvenient visit per child to the Urgent Care.

He must also make cookies or cupcakes for a social function.

Each man will be responsible for decorating his own assigned house, planting flowers outside and keeping it presentable at all times.

The men will only have access to television when the kids are asleep and all chores are done.

The men must shave their legs, wear makeup daily, adorn himself with jewelry, wear uncomfortable yet stylish shoes, keep fingernails polished and eyebrows groomed.

During one of the six weeks, the men will have to endure severe abdominal cramps, back aches, and have extreme, unexplained mood swings but never once complain or slow down from other duties.

They must attend weekly school meetings, church, and find time at least once to spend the afternoon at the park or a similar setting.

They will need to read a book and then pray with the children each night and in the morning, feed them, dress them, brush their teeth and comb their hair by 7:00 am.

A test will be given at the end of the six weeks, and each father will be required to know all of the following information: each child’s birthday, height, weight, shoe size, clothes size and doctor’s name. Also the child’s weight at birth, length, time of birth, and length of labor, each child’s favorite color, middle name, favorite snack, favorite song, favorite drink, favorite toy, biggest fear and what they want to be when they grow up.

The kids vote them off the island based on performance. The last man wins only if…he still has enough energy to be intimate with his spouse at a moment’s notice.

If the last man does win, he can play the game over and over and over again for the next 18-25 years eventually earning the right to be called MOM!

Thanks, Jeanne!

Looking for something to do as a family this weekend?  Look no further than the Square in Decatur!

Every Saturday night in May from 7 - 9:30PM, you and your family can enjoy an evening of musical entertainment in the Square in Decatur.  Come early and find just the right spot to spread your blanket near the community bandstand.  Decatur is a very  family-friendly town with lots to offer not only the kids, but mom and dad, too!  See you there!

to my Kindermusik and studio families for their patience and understanding while I underwent surgery last week.  I’ve been forced to slow down and take things easy for a few days, but plan on being back in the classroom this Thursday, May 1st.  

Our summer schedule will also be up and available for online registration later this week.  We will be spending “Busy Days” with our youngest set in Village classes, visiting the zoo in “Zoo Train” in Our Time and Family Time, playing all kinds of African drums in “Drums, Drums, Drums” for Imagine That classes, and literally traveling “Around the World” for our oldest age group, Young Child.  “Sign and Sing” will also be available as well.  Check back in for detailed information later this week!

This will definitely not be a post like you’re anticipating.  While I wholeheartedly agree with the premise of a clean, safe environment now and for the future, I never had the opportunity to support it with my five children when they were infants as today’s young parents do.  Meet the gDiaper - the breathable diaper you can flush or even compost!

While I have to confess to a very healthy skepticism to a lot of advertisment PR about a company’s “green”-ness (I am a child of the ’60’s, after all!), in reading and viewing information on the gDiapers.com website, I was amazed and thrilled at what I found. 

This company has successfully found a way for your baby to have a disposable, flushable,  environmentally-friendly diaper that is actually comfortable, absorbent, and easy to use. 

From their website:

gDiapers consist of a washable, cotton outer pant and a plastic free flushable refill.  They are made of breathable material just like sports clothing.  So, babies stay dry and happy and are far less likely to get diaper rash.

Can’t flush?  It’s ok to toss flushable refills because they’re plastic-free.  Or garden compost the wet ones.  They’ll break down in 50-150 days.

I checked further in their website and found that gDiapers are available here locally at Sevananda Natural Foods in the Little Five Points area as well as Whole Foods Markets.  Prices surprisingly are very comparable to brand-name disposable diapers.  Now, if only I had a baby to diaper!

Many times in our Village classes (for infants 0 - 18 months), during our exercise time, I will often tell the parents that by providing the cross-lateral movements between opposing hand and foot, they are stimulating the corpus callosum which contains the nerve pathways between the two hemispheres in the brain.  This area is also linked to future academic success, such as learning to read, being able to write, and eye-hand coordination.    Recently published findings now indicate that the consistent, faithful practice of a musical instrument also provides further lifelong benefits. 

In ScienceNOW Daily News, an article entitled “Music Builds Bridges in the Brain“ by Greg Miller was published this past Wednesday, and gives even more weight to those parental reminders “Have you practiced your music today?”  It documents the release of a study by neuroscientists at Harvard Medical College and Boston College who studied 31 children from the age of 6 to 9 who had all been involved in musical instruction at some time during the course of the study or were continuing in their ongoing musical studies. 

Detailed magnetic resonance images (MRI’s) were taken of the children at ages 6 and 9.  Of the original thirty-one, six children were faithful to practice each week, averaging at least 2.5 hours weekly in the time between scans.  (Side note here: this is the same amount of time I require of all of my beginners - one half hour for five days each week.) 

In these children, “a region of the corpus callosum that connects movement-planning regions on the two sides of the brain grew about 25% relative to the overall size of the brain.”  Those children who practiced less than this or dropped their instrument entirely showed no growth.  Consistent, faithful practice doesn’t just improve your playing; it also strengthens and builds your brain! 

All of these children involved in the study did study an instrument which involved the use of two hands, such as the piano or violin.  (Possibly even flute? )  We will have exciting news about our piano studio up in the next few days, so stay tuned! 

Two good friends making music together on *one* guitar - enjoy!

Thanks, Lori!