The Color Orange and A Big Round Squash

Today I had a moment of creativity. I pulled out my construction paper, glue and scissors, brought my kids to the kitchen table where we started making jack-o-lanterns.

I started cutting out a bunch of shapes: triangles, squares, circles. I told the kids that we would be using shapes to make the pumpkin's face. Noah knows his shapes, but Clara really doesn't, so I thought this would be a fun way for her to start learning them. Even though does know them, it was still fun for him to see how you can create different things using shapes. We did use some ovals, which was a shape he didn't know very well, so he still learned something new.

As we made them, I'd ask Noah, "What shape do you want to do for the eyes? For the nose?" etc... One time I told him he didn't have to do the same shape for both eyes. He liked that idea and did a circle and a square. After that he started to get more creative.

Clara had fun rubbing the glue stick all over everything for a while, but her attention span quickly ran out, so I had to entertain her with some stickers. But Noah LOVED it! He loved gluing and creating, and he even cut some of the shapes (like, the huge stems). He made pumpkin after pumpkin, even getting really creative and doing a pink, a blue and a green pumpkin. Who cares that they don't exist in real life! Being a kid is about being imaginative. I loved watching him create a different jack-o-lantern each time. Each one was unique- just like him!

Here are some of our pumpkins we made. I love the green one and the one with the humongous stem.

When we finished cleaning up, Noah helped me hang up our pumpkins all around the house as part of our Halloween decor. I know displaying his artwork always makes him feel so good, and I love seeing them around. Every time I see them I feel warm and fuzzy all over.

When the activity was over I didn't really want to stop playing with my kids. I was having just as much fun. Plus, I wanted to do something that Clara would really enjoy, since she didn't get as into the pumpkin thing.

So, I found my Halloween CD and stuck it in the CD player. Clara immediately started dancing and kept saying "more" when a song would end. She loves music, and she loves dancing. She twirls, kicks, wiggles, bobs her head to the beat, shakes, and laughs. I had fun dancing too to all the silly kid-friendly Halloween songs.

After the kids had lunch, I grabbed some pumpkin/Halloween books to have a little story time to help wind them down for nap/rest time. As I was getting ready, I realized there was a theme emerging from all my last minute play time ideas. The pumpkins were orange, the leftover mac and cheese they had for lunch was orange, the blanket I grabbed for reading time was orange and came with a small round orange pillow that looks like a pumpkin, and the books I grabbed were all about orange pumpkins. I pointed this all out to Noah, asking him what color everything was. He was very excited to see the similarities in everything. And when we read our books, I let him hold the pumpkin pillow.

At the end of all this, Noah collapsed onto my lap. I told him how much fun I had, and he said, "Me too, but it made me tired." Mwuah-ha-ha! My evil planned worked!

National Tap Dance Day

Did you know that yesterday (May 25th) was National Tap Dance Day? I didn't until today. I took the kids to the library and had picked out a bag full of books. When I thought I had enough, the title of one more book caught my eye. It was "Rap A Tap Tap Here's Bojangles- Think of That!" by Leo and Diane Dillon. I grabbed it and on thumbing through the pages decided it would be a fun one to take home. I'm so glad I did! I sat down with Clara to read it and loved the short, rhythmic lines of each page, but I also loved the fun artwork.

When I came to the last page I found a biography of the real "Bojangles." I learned his real name was Bill Robinson (1878-1949) and he is known as the greatest tap dancer of all time; it was said "he talked with his feet"; his rhythms were so complex and fast it was impossible for other dancers to mimic some of them; he shared his wealth with less fortunate friends during the Great Depression; he performed on Broadway and several films, including four with Shirley Temple.

At the end of the biography I learned that on May 25, 1989, Congress declared that day (which was his birthday) as National Tap Dance Day in Bill Robinson's honor.

When I realized the special day was only just yesterday, I got to my feet and excitedly told the kids. They didn't find it near as exciting as I did, but I didn't care. I turned on a fun song so I could "tap dance" (in my flip flops) in the kitchen. Both the kids kinda looked at me like I was crazy, but I didn't let it get me down. I am no dancer, but I've always had great aspirations to be one. I know I looked silly but I was having fun. Eventually, however, Clara wanted to join in too. But Noah was still embarrassed to know me. I knew he'd love seeing real tap dancing, so I rummaged through our old videos to find my copy of "Singin' in the Rain". It would have been nice to have it on DVD because it took me forever to fast-forward and rewind my way through the movie to try and find some tap dancing. But, finally I found some really good dancing in "Good Mornin.'" Watching that kind of stuff can't help but make you smile. Noah was finally convinced that tap dancing was fun. He really enjoyed it and wanted to watch other fun dances. He LOVED "Make em' Laugh!" He probably would have loved Gene Kelly in "Singin' in the Rain," but he conked out from a fully day of playing, not out of boredom.

Anyway, it was a really fun, spontaneous moment (possibly more for me than the kids). I'll have to rent one of Bill "Bojangles" Robinson's movies so I can see the master in action. You can honor his special day too, and you could probably have even more fun with it than I did with a little more planning. Go check out this book and show your kids real tap dancing by him or any of the other masters like Gene Kelly or Fred Astaire (I really wanted to show Noah Fred Astaire dancing with firecrackers in "Holiday Inn" but I don't have that one). Then turn on some old music and be silly with your kids by showing off your own tap dancing skills.

Kindermusik

Okay, I am a huge music freak! I've sung and played the piano for as long as I can remember, and I graduated college with a Bachelor's in Music, so I love to sing and dance with my kids. And I have a firm belief that there is power in music.

I know I've mentioned Kindermusik before, but this post is dedicated entirely to the subject. I first heard of Kindermusik when my oldest sister certified to be a teacher. I learned from hearing her talk about it what fun the classes are, but I didn't understand just how fun and beneficial they are until I finally got my kids enrolled last fall. I can attest firsthand to the validity of this quote from the Kindermusik website:

"...All the research in the world can’t accurately capture the look of pure delight in your child’s eyes when she experiences the sights and sounds of Kindermusik, both in the classroom and at home."

Here are some reasons we love Kindermusik:

• they get fun CDs for home that they love to listen to. C lights up as soon as she hears the first note of the first song.
• they get fun instruments to play with at home
• as a Mom, I learn fun ways to teach my kids to use their ears and hear the music all around them
• the classes also suggest fun activities for parents to do with their kids at home
• the classes are fun learning and social experiences
• Kindermusik has greatly helped N with his speech issues
• C started when she was less than a year old, and it has made her very aware of the world around her. I really think it's made her smarter!
• I love how they encorporate music in everything. It's not JUST about music. N learned about cities this semester, and the semester before that they learned about weather. The kids learn how music is everywhere, like the sounds of a busy city or in the wind.

These are just some of the things we love about Kindermusik, but you really have to experience it because I think there's a magic about it that you have to see for yourself. That might sound cheesy, but I really do think it's magical.

I highly recommend Kindermusik, especially if you're not musical but you want your kids exposed to music. You can enroll kids as young as newborn all the way up to 7 years old. I could probably blab on and on about it, but I'll spare you. Instead, go to the Kindermusik website and you'll find answers to all your questions. You'll find info on classes, you can find a teacher near you, and you can also shop for instruments. But, if you decide to enroll your kids, you probably need to get in contact with a teacher ASAP because classes fill up fast. One last thing I will say is that you might think it a little expensive, but it is worth every single penny!

Also, N and C's teacher has a blog with some fun suggestions for activities and things. Click here if you're interested.

Have A Hoe-Down With Your Kids

Yesterday I was driving in the car with my kids and they started getting restless, which means N started bugging C to get a rise out of her. So, I turned on the radio to the classical station (89.1 FM around here) to distract them with music. I've found they do better when there's music playing, and I've also found that they love the classical station (Hmm...could that possibly be because I'm a big nerd and that's pretty much all I listen to?) To my delight, they were playing the final movement from Aaron Copland's Rodeo. Most of you will recognize this as the "Beef- it's what's for dinner" song from the commercials that used to be on T.V. It's one of those songs that makes you want to get up and dance and wish you lived in the 19th century American West.

I cranked the volume, and we had our own little hoe-down in the car (don't worry- my driving was fine). The kids LOVED it! I looked in my rear view mirror and saw big smiles on their faces, and when it was over C clapped her hands to show her approval. N wanted me to play it again, which I would have gladly done if I could have.

I decided that Copland's Rodeo is a definite must to my classical music collection. Not only is it wonderful music, but it's great for kids. If you're interested in adding it to your collection I found a very good and inexpensive recording on Amazon that also includes Copland's Billy the Kid. Your kids will love it.

Book Recommendation

My book recommendation today is:

Mole Music by David McPhail

My sister showed this book to me, and I loved it immediately- so much so that I just had to buy it for my own library. It's about a mole who feels like there's something missing in his life. Every day he digs tunnels and watches the television at night. One day he hears a man playing the violin on the T.V. and decides to order a violin and learn to play. After years of practicing he becomes better than the man on T.V. and imagines playing for large audiences and wonders how his music might affect them. He laughs at this idea, but little does he know the impact his music has on the world above.

This is a sweet story all about the power in music. It can change people's lives. This is a must for your library!

Inhibitory Control

One of the many things I've learned from Kindermusik is the importance of inhibitory control. Kids are great at wiggling around, especially when they're told to, but something they're not always so great at is stopping the wiggling. This comes easier to some than others. N is one of those others. When he first strarted going to Kindermusik classes I noticed he was often the last child to stop doing an activity. I'd never thought about the need to teach him inhibitory control (Yeah, I'm the world's greatest Mom. Good job, Marianne), but I learned it is an important step in learning how to sit still, among other things (Hmmm, maybe that's why he has a hard time at church?). Kids need to learn to control their physical bodies.

The way they teach this at Kindermusik is they'll play stop and go games. These are easy things to do at home. If you're dancing around with your kids, say STOP and have your kids freeze in place until you say GO. Or, if you're dancing to actual music, hit the pause button so your kids learn to stop when they hear the music stop too. That's good for their aural skills too. Basically, you can do this with any physical or musical activity. My kids love it. N is so much better at controlling himself. Sometimes he starts moving again before I say go, but we're working on it. C loves these kinds of games- they always make her smile. Hopefully learning this now it will help her not have ants in her pants when she's N's age.

So, if you have a wild child like mine who can't sit still for more than two seconds at a time, this would be a good activity for you. Anything to help you not go crazy, right? God speed.

5 Ways to Fill Your Home with Music

1. Cut Loose. Ditch your inhibitions by starting music play with a wild kitchen dance or some loosey-goosey movement.

2. Sing Out. Anywhere, anyhow, anytime. Kids learn by repetition, so incorporate songs into your daily routine.

3. Feel the Rhythm. To help pre-walkers (and even older kids) catch the beat, gently bounce or tap your child's body while you sing or listen to music.

4. Shake, Rattle, and Roll. Keep a basket of shakers, whistles, bells, tambourines, drums, harmonicas, and xylophones on hand. And take them out of the basket — often. (Here are a couple of sites where you can buy musical instruments: mindysmuskids and kindermusik or you can check out your local music store) *Also, I'd like to add that ANYTHING can be a musical instrument, as we've all learned as we watch our kids play drums with pots and pans. Let your kids explore different timbres, tempos, and dynamics.

5. Give Them an Earful. Expose kids to the sounds you love — not just children's music.

*The original article can be found at wondertime.go.com

A Smorgasbord of Fun

So, I haven't posted much lately because, frankly, I don't have many ideas, hence the reason for creating this blog- to force me to be more creative and fun with my kids. I have done a few things lately that were fun. They're pretty simple, but maybe they'll be fun for you too. Sorry, this post is going to be long.

I went to Utah Idaho Supply (something I should have done a long time ago- what a cool store!) and bought a couple activity books for N. One was more geared for things like tracing, matching, recognition, numbers, etc. We've only worked out of it once, but N seemed to like it. The other is a Halloween activity book with puzzles, coloring pages, crafts, etc. The other day we made a spider bracelet. N had fun because he likes to cut and glue things. He didn't wear it long. It went straight to the refrigerator. Here are the instructions:

Fold a sheet of black construction paper in half.

Place four fingers along the fold and trace them with a white crayon.

Cut out and unfold. This is a spider with a eight legs.

Roll the legs around a pencil to make them curl down, and glue on googly eyes.

Staple a 1" wide strip of black paper around your wrist, big enough so it can be slipped on and off

Accordion fold a small strip of paper and glue one end to the top of the bracelet.

Glue the spider to the other end of the folded paper.

Make the spider creep and crawl with a back and forth rocking motion of the wrist.

After we made the spider bracelet N wanted to make a cat out of pink construction paper. I did most of the cutting, but he did all the gluing. He used so much glue that when we put it on the fridge, well, see for yourself.

• N loves Hide and Seek. He watch The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (like 10 million times) and that got him hooked. I know this is a classic game that's been played for hundred of years I'm sure, but sometimes I forget about the simple games. Once it was introduced to N He loved it! Something they do at Kindermusik, which I'll talk more about later, is they pretend to be missing roosters. The person looking walks around crowing like a rooster. Your child is supposed to echo the rooster sound. Deliberately take a long time to find the lost rooster, and when you do, delight in making rooster sounds together. It's a fun addition to the game that N really likes.


• Here's a game we played once that N really liked. I cut up strips of paper and on each one I put something to imitate- an animal, a flower growing, etc. I put the papers in a cup and each paper N would draw out we would imitate the animal or thing on it. He had a lot of fun, and I was really impressed with his flower impression. I think I might have gotten the idea for that game from the book The Toddler's Busy Book by Trish Kuffner.


• You can also use the above idea and apply it to singing time. I put the names of songs on pieces of paper and each song we draw from the cup we sing.


• Kindermusik! It's great! N loves it! C will start it soon, and I'm sure she'll love it too. If you don't know what it is, it's kind of like a music preschool. You can find out more about it on their website. In N's class they're teaching musical concepts through the weather. Right now they're talking about the rain. Last week the kids made rainmakers. You can make one using an interesting container and fill it with small items, like paper clips, beans, rice, marbles, etc. You can tell stories using your rainmakers- "I woke up to the sound of thunder...boom! boom! (stomp your feet). I felt the wind on my face, and it started to rain (when you say "rain" have them use their rainmaker)" You can make up whatever story you want. You can talk about temp by saying it rained fast and have them shake their instrument or say it rained slow.


• More music stuff: C likes music too. Yesterday we had some fun. The three of us all had a musical instrument: N had the classic wooden spoon and pan drum set, C had a rainmaker, and I had a small hand shaker I bought at the music store and some jingle bells. We sat down on the living room floor making music together. I talked about tempo, making fast or slow music, and we talked about dynamics, making quiet music growing into loud music. It was really fun, and all three of us had fun. C was so dang cute, I'm not going to lie!


• Again, more music stuff (have you guessed that I'm a music nerd yet?): This is similar to the rainmaker, but we made a kind of tambourine. I remembered doing this in elementary school, you might too. N and I each had two paper plates, and we colored each one on the backside. Then we turned one right side up and put dried corn (you could use beans, or rice or whatever) inside. Then we glued (you could probably also use staples) the two sides together. We ended up with our very own tambourines. We used them in singing time for a while.


• Last but not least, is there anything better than taking your kids to the park? N LOVES it, as I'm sure all kids do, and C is old enough now that she likes it too. She loves going down the slide, and she loves it when I help her climb things- it makes her feel so big. Today she sat in a swing and had so much fun. All three of us were swinging together, and I had a blast. I love doing things with my kids that are fun for ALL of us. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy doing fun things, like all the things I've talked about in this post, but sometimes those things stress me out. You know what I mean? Some activities require a lot of effort from Mom to make them fun and entertaining to a 4 year old, and that can be mentally exhausting. That's why I love doing things where I can sit back and just enjoy the moment. So, don't let this post, or this blog for that matter, fool you into thinking that I'm a mother who spends every waking moment of my day entertaining and teaching my children. If I were I would go insane. I feel pretty good about life if at the end of the day I have succeeded in not losing my patience with N, there was a somewhat smooth routine followed, I laughed with my kids, I sat down and played with them a few times, they were fed, were read some stories, and go to bed happy. Trust me, that's not an every day occurrence, but each day that is the goal. I just have to learn to not beat myself up for when my day doesn't turn out the way I hoped. Just make the best of things, I guess. Anyway...I digressed a little. Uh, parks...they're fun aren't they. Yay for parks...and children.

Singing Helps

I discovered this book a few months ago at Deseret Book. It's called "Super Little Singers" by Mary H. Ross. I was wanting some fun visual aids for teaching my kids primary songs and other fun songs. This is perfect. It is filled with full-color, ready-to-use visuals and activities for a wide array of songs, from "My Heavenly Father Loves Me" to "The Wheels On the Bus." What you do is cut out the pictures, glue them on to card stock or poster paper and then laminate them. It's a lot of work, but it's worth it. If you do one song at a time, pretty soon you'll have a pile of visuals that your kids will love (having Kinkos laminate everything for you will get expensive very fast, so it's more economical to do it yourself). One of the visuals I've done so far is so much fun. It's a tree with lots of little birds (those took a while to cut out) that are separate from the tree. I put a song on the back of each bird, tape the birds all around the living room, and have N go find them all. We sing the song written on each bird and then he puts the bird back home in its tree. He loves it.

The book also includes suggested actions for songs. I'm not always very good at coming up with actions, so that's very helpful. It also has singing motivators, like the birds and the tree I already mentioned. It's a really helpful book.N likes to sing, but he doesn't always like to learn new songs. It helps him when he has something to look at. The only drawback is it takes some time to cut everything out and stuff. I've cut my songs out when my kids are in bed, and I can just watch a movie and cut.

Anybody else have a resource they love for teaching songs? Any great ideas for teaching kids new songs? I'm all ears!

Here Come the 1, 2, 3s

We have a new favorite thing at our house. I didn't have any fun educational kids music, so I got on Amazon and did some browsing. I found a CD made by They Might Be Giants called "Here Come the 1, 2, 3s." It got great reviews by everyone. I like the band, so I thought I'd give it a try. Plus, it was a good deal because it came with a DVD too.

First, we tried out the CD on a long drive. It was an immediate hit for me because the songs have a fun beat and the words are clever and funny (kind of random but that's how that band tends to be).

Then, we tried out the DVD, and it was an even bigger hit with all of us! It's just plain fun, and some of the songs are down right hilarious. My son really likes it. In fact, a couple days ago I was having singing time with him and he requested we sing the "Zero Song." And, after watching the movie and hearing the songs only a handful of times, my son is already better at his numbers. I highly recommend this CD/DVD. They also have one that's called "Here Come the ABCs," which I'm sure is equally great.

For those of you that watch the Disney Channel (we're kind of in the dark ages- we only use TV for movies) you might already know about these songs. I think that's where they originate from. At any rate, they're really fun and a good educational resource.

Teaching Kids to Love Music

Growing up, my parents listened to nothing else but classical music. My dad's favorites are Rachmaninoff and Debussy. I can remember dancing around the room like a ballerina while my dad listened to Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. From my infancy, I was exposed to Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, Debussy, Rachmaninoff, Copland, etc. My parents never pushed it on me. They didn't force me to sit and listen. They just had it on at home or in the car while we went about our daily activities. By doing that simple thing, I grew to love that music as much or more than they did.

So, I decided I would do the same in my home. I don't play music constantly (sometimes silence is nice too), but now and then, I'll put on a classical CD. Not only am I exposing them to good music, but it also helps our home feel more peaceful. The other day we were driving around, and I put in a CD of Strauss Waltzes. Pretty soon my 4 year old started talking about a movie, and I realized he was talking about the Baby Neptune movie by Baby Einstein where the duck dances in the water to the music of Beautiful Danube. He also made other connections with other songs on the CD. I thought that was interesting that he would be able to recognize the music that quickly. That tells me that kids listen better than we think they do, and they learn quicker than we think too.

I don't have that big of a classical collection. So, I decided that every month I'd buy a new CD. I went on Amazon and found some CDs by some of the greats and put them on wish list. If you'd like to start building your collection but you don't know where to start, here are some of my favorites: Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Debussy, Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Copland, Tchaikovsky. You could start by getting a compilation CD with the artist's greatest works. Hope this helps!

If you have anything to add please share in the comments!