Happy Chinese New Year!

Dear Parents,

I would like to thank you for choosing Kindermusik as the early childhood enrichment centre for your child/children.

Your support has made Kindermusik a household name for early childhood program in Asia.

Seeing our young clients benefit from our program is always a treat for us, and we look forward to an exciting year ahead.

First off, Family Time is back with two new timings on Thursday and Saturday, Secondly, we have set up a SMS system to improve our service to you and last but not least, we are delighted to announce our Kindermusik Asia fan page on Facebook!

Thank you again for choosing Kindermusik, and we look forward to seeing you with your little one(s).

To all our Chinese families, a prosperous Chinese New Year to you!

New Classes for 2010

Curricula	Day	Time	Target Start Date
	Mon	3.30PM	22 Feb 2010
	Wed	11.30AM	24 Feb 2010
	Wed	2.30PM	24 Feb 2010
	Thu	11.30AM	25 Feb 2010
	Thu	2.30PM	25 Feb 2010
	Fri	2 PM	26 Feb 2010
	Sun	1 PM	28 Jan 2010
	Mon	4.30 PM	22 Feb 2010
	Tue	4.30 PM	23 Feb 2010
	Wed	3.30 PM	24 Feb 2010
	Wed	4.30 PM	24 Feb 2010
	Wed	4.30 PM	7 Apr 2010

For enquiries, please call Kindermusik
163 Tanglin Road, #03-11B, Tanglin Mall, S’pore 247933
Tel: 6467 1789, Email : enquiries@kindermusik.com.sg

The family that laughs together…

A simple smile from you can improve your child’s self image and brain development. When your child sees you smile, it makes her feel good and also helps her brain to grow.

Smiling and laughter will strengthen the immune system, lower blood pressure, and reduce stress levels. And a healthy sense of humour can help a child handle problems as they grow into adults, as well as enhance the social skills they need to make friends.

Smiling is important because it: plays a part in the bonding and attachment processes helps your childfeel secure and safe helps your child develop and learn about the world A child uses their parents’ facial expressions as a guide for behaviour. The emotional experiences a child has with other people (especially experiences during the first years) help shape emotional responses throughout life, and it is through interaction with other minds that children develop their own minds and emotions. It’s worth remembering that a simple smile is one building block for your relationship with your child. Your face is where your child looks for reassuring, comforting responses and attention.

In addition to smiling, laughter is a naturally interesting sound to your toddler. As she’s getting ready to learn to talk, she needs help learning how to listen so she can distinguish one sound from another to form her first words. Play active listening games like “One ha-ha-happy family” below, and as you listen, exaggerate your body posture, lean into the sound, brighten your eyes, and model the body expressions of a good, active listener for a happy, talking toddler.

One ha-ha-happy family
Laugh out loud. Ask your toddler to make the sound back. Laugh lots of different ways to your toddler. Wait for her to copy you, and vice versa. Record the sound of your toddler laughing.

• Family tip: Make a recording of your family laughing together and all the different ways you can laugh. Keep adding to the recording as the years go and by and hear how the sound of your laughter changes.

As well as listening games, why not combine physical games with music to give your toddler something to laugh about, learn more words, and develop coordination.
When you’re a toddler, running equals funny. This new found physical control makes games like “Ring around the Rosy” a huge hit. Rosy can fall down or do the silly walk – have fun by exploring lots of ways Rosy can “all fall down” by doing other movements your toddler finds funny, like playing chase or running. Explore sound with your baby before bedtime. Put on your favorite lullaby (or sing it yourself) and play along gently with a musical instrument.

Matching music and ability

Musically, a preschooler can spot and keep a steady beat. That’s why it’s so important for her to have a wide variety of musical experiences, so when she gets older and starts selecting music on her own, she has a wide variety of music to choose from. Matching ability with the right activity is important to begin building your child’s self-esteem, providing instruments and ideas that are right for her

You’re in the kitchen doing dishes and she’s cross-legged on the floor, banging an upside down cake tins. Do you dash over and switch on the radio, sing along, or grab the video recorder?

For a child, making music is second nature, but it can be discouraging trying to do something her body is not quite ready to do. Matching ability with the right activity can be second nature for you, too. It begins by building your child’s self-esteem, providing instruments and ideas that are right for her, and making music.

Musically, a preschooler can spot and keep a steady beat. She has more control over her body and she is making decisions, beginning to shape her musical preferences. That’s why it’s so important for her to have a wide variety of musical experiences, so when she gets older and starts selecting music on her own, she has a wide variety of music to choose from.

Can you clap to it?
Develop your preschooler’s musicality by playing a game around the house or during the day. Point out objects with and without a steady beat. You can test whether something keeps a steady beat by asking the question, “Can you clap to it?”
With a steady beat: kitchen clock windshield wipers music on the radio heartbeat marching bands
Without a steady beat: ringing telephone whistling kettle car horn police sirens

Make a music journal
Your child’s musical experiences may not bring her to formal music instruction. But the one-on-one time spent with you, playing music and exploring ideas, can provide the confidence she needs to be and do anything. Plus, she begins to associate fun with learning a new skill. Start keeping a music journal—something that you, or she, can add to and expand on for many years.

Journal ideas: Write down what kind of music she likes Where is her favourite place to sing? What songs does she sing? Sit down together and write a song and record the lyrics in the journal

Her favourite instrument

• Her first album

First concert or music experience

Learning to share

Sharing is one of the hardest lessons your child learns, and as a parent, one of the best ways to teach sharing is to remember how hard it is to do.

Learn some tips to help your child ease into the transition of sharing…

Sharing is one of the hardest lessons your child learns, and as a parent, one of the best ways to teach sharing is to remember how hard it is to do. Why is it so hard? This “one for me, one for you” pro-social behavior counters almost everything a child knows in the first ego-centric years of her life. If she’s standing in a room with 50 red balls, she really believes they all belong to her. So if you come in and want to play with one, it’s just as hard for her to let go of one of those 50, as it is to let go of the only ball she’s ever had. That’s not fun and it’s not easy.

Only gradually, around three years old, with more life experiences does she drop her ego-centric point of view, and grasp sharing. When she shares, she shows that she’s reaching out to the world. The first reach is to the parent, the baby-sitter, grandparents, and siblings then she expands to include friends and schoolmates. Still, as the parent, you can help your child ease into the transition with the tips below: ·

Distract the sharing tantrum.

• The time to talk about sharing isn’t in the middle of a toy tug-of-war.
• It’s also best not to walk in and take the toy away. Choose something else, say, “Oh, look at the bird outside.”
• There will be other opportunities to talk about sharing when the situation isn’t so dramatic. ·
• If she’s having friends over, remove things that you know your child cares about: a favourite blanket, a special toy.
• Put things out of sight, so there isn’t that dilemma of sharing. ·
• Recognise it, reinforce sharing. If your child hands another toy to a friend, you can say, “That’s nice. You’re sharing.” ·
• The concept of “sharing” is abstract.
• It helps to make the concept more concrete, or real, when you bring attention to sharing moments by labelling them for your child.

Try this game of Musical Hula-Hoops at home to put a fun spin on sharing. It’s like musical chairs where you take one away when the music stops, but no one gets eliminated and everybody wins! The idea is to get everyone to share the same small space and learn how to laugh and work with each other. For this game, choose music that’s lively, but soothing. The children will likely be excited when playing this game, so choosing the right music can help them stay focused to play, and learn from the game. Musical Hula-Hoops · On the ground, place about one hula-hoop per every two or three children. ·

Play your favourite CD, and as the music plays, ask the children to walk around the hula-hoops, stepping from one hoop to the next. · When the music stops, everybody must have both feet inside a hoop. · Take one hoop away. · Start the music again. · Keep repeating until there is only one hoop left and all the children must find a way to fit inside!

NEW CLASSES AT THE STUDIO

Curriculum	Age	Theme	Commencing Date	Day	Time
	0~1.5mths	Dew Drops	Target Start 14 Sep	Monday	9.30am
	1.5mth~3yrs	AWG	Target Start 7 Sep	Monday	10.30am
	1.5mth~3yrs	AWG	Target Start 22 Sep	Tuesday	4.30pm
	0~1.5mths	Dew Drops	Target Start 16 Sep	Wednesday	2.30pm
	3yrs ~ 5yrs	Toys I Make	Target Start 14 Sep	Monday	3.30pm

Limited vacancies, please call our Tanglin Mall Studio for more information

Tel : 6467 1789 Or email : enquiries@kindermusik.com.sg

Additions To The Kindermusik Family

We welcome the following new partners to our Kindermusik community

NTUC First Campus My First Skool Yishun St 61 Yishun Ring Rd Kang Ching Rd Havelock Rd Woodlands St 82 Woodlands Ave 3 Wellington Circle Toa Payoh

SUNFLOWER BAMBINI CHILDCARE LLP No.3 Jalan Kakatua, Singapore 598523 Tel: 6468-7790 Email: info@sunflowermon.com.sg

CHARACTER MONTESSORI ( Ang Mo Kio Center) Blk 161 Ang Mo Kio Ave 4 #01-502 Singapore 560161 Tel : 6457 0032

Make your own “GuitART”

You can help your big kid to make his very own guitar and then decorates it his favorite designs.

Basic instructions:

1. Take a shoebox and cut a hole in the top.
2. Place several large rubber bands of various widths around the box to make a guitar.
3. Keep in mind: Plucking of the rubber bands causes them to vibrate producing various sounds. The thicker the band, the lower the note. The thinner the band, the higher the note.

More fun

Materials and Tools:

• shoebox or tissue box
• brown paper bag
• scissors
• craft knife
• fax-paper rolls
• hot glue
• pencil or chopstick
• 4 rubber bands of various widths

All you need for a homemade guitar is a shoebox, paper bag, tubing and a rubber band.

Guitar

Steps:

1. Wrap a shoebox or tissue box with a brown paper bag.

2. Draw wavy lines to represent the wood grain.

3. Cut a hole in the center with a craft knife.

Figure A

4. On one end of the box, make three or four Xs with the knife. On one end of the box, make three or four Xs with the knife.

5. Insert fax-paper rolls into the Xs. Glue into place.

Figure B

6. Hot-glue a pencil or chopstick in the right length above and below the hole.

7. Position four rubber bands of various thickness around the box and between the rolls. (Wider rubber bands have a deeper tone when plucked than narrow ones.)

Dulcimer

Materials and Tools:

• tissue box
• paint
• chopstick
• 4 rubber bands of various widths

Figure C

Steps:

1. Paint a tissue box.

2. Glue a chopstick above and below the hole in the box.

3. Place four rubber bands of various thickness around the length of the box so that they cross the hole.

Fill bottles with various amounts of colored water to use as a xylophone.

Xylophone

Materials and Tools:

• 6 to 8 glass bottles
• food coloring
• chopsticks

Steps:

1. Gather six to eight glass bottles. If you want more control of pitch, they should all be the same shape.

2. Fill the bottles with various colors of water from full to almost empty. The more water a bottle holds, the deeper the tone. Play the instrument with chopsticks.
Variation

3. Instead of filling bottles with water, simply hang empty bottles of varying sizes from a clothes-drying rack so that they hang free. Each bottle will have a different tone. You can line them up from low to high, if desired.

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• HGTV.com provides directions for a guitar and a xylophone.

Dive in and draw to the music!

With a preschooler’s increasingly abstract reasoning skills, his imagination is soaring. He’s also more physically coordinated and able to hold a pencil, crayons, and scissors with greater control. And while he enjoys being to able to draw more geometric shapes, much of the preschooler’s choice of color, is emotional, according to Robert Schirrmacher in Art and Creative Development for Young Children.

What does the music look like?

The emotional aspect of music, combined with tempo and rhythm, make “drawing to music” a perfect activity for this age.

• Pick out some music and ask your preschooler to “draw out the music.” Ask him if this is blue music or red music. What would purple sound like?
• Use the paper for wall art or wrap ping paper. Glue it to bookmarks and give them to grandma and grandpa.

Toddler Art: the Potato People have arrived!

The development of your toddler’s drawing ability begins when the scribbling stage is over. Sometime between the ages of 12 and 18 months, your toddler will probably attempt to “write” by making marks on paper, and at about 18 to 24 months she may surprise you by drawing vertical and horizontal lines or a circle, according to Art and Creative Development for Young Children by Robert Schirrmacher.

The toddler years also mark the start of the “Potato Person,” phase, drawings that feature wide bodies with stick figure legs and arms. Since your toddler spent so much time looking at your face as a baby, much of what he draws in the first year will be faces like these. Plenty of time with paper and crayon will help him develop this emerging ability.

To nurture your toddler’s development beyond the potato person, allow your toddler to explore with a variety of art materials.

One Kindermusik teacher suggests your toddler play with fabrics.

For a colorful activity, paint with tissue paper:

• Cut the tissue paper into strips, or squares and put a very small amount of water into shallow bowls.
• Show your toddler how to scrunch up the tissue and dip into the water to create a watercolor effect.
• Encourage your toddler to tell you all about his creations. Talk about the colors, ask him about the shapes, is there a story he was telling? Point and label—as you do with everything else in your toddler’s world, right?