Music Tip - The song of a child

I was touched today, when I heard this story, told by one of the speakers at my church's conference.

During the earthquake in Haiti, a distraught father and mother ran from work to their apartment building to check on their 3 children, only to see that the whole building had collapsed and was in ruins.

There could not possibly be any survivors.  As they wept and mourned with others around them, suddenly the sound of a baby crying was heard.  Under the rubble a baby was found alive--their baby.  Then they heard singing--a child was singing--unbelievably their son!  He said he knew if he sang, his father would find him.  And then they found their third child alive as well.  A miracle! 

A child singing as he lay amid broken walls and bricks, trapped and waiting to be found.

 MUSIC.   

What power there is in music.  Power to calm our souls as we wait in the dark, power to reach out to others, power to join our love with others.

It is a gift.  Let us use this gift to bring love, laughter and healing into our homes and families.   

Thanks for reading,
Cathy
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Parenting Tip - Create a Marble Run!

When I took my grandchildren to the Phoenix Children’s Museum after Christmas, one of the things they were enthralled with was the marble runs.  I came across this great idea of how to make one on this blog, and of course I had to try and make it.

 

I happened to have some plastic tubes I bought at the dollar tree a long time ago that I don’t use anymore, so I cut them up, glued on the magnets and took them with me when I went to babysit my grandson.  He's only 18  months old, and he liked them, but I think I had more fun than he did.  He’s still a little young to know how to change the tubes around to get different tracks.   AND marbles are not the safest toy for an 18 month old.   AND he started to pull the magnets off the back of the tubes.  Darn hot glue—it doesn’t stick very good.  So I tried gorilla glue.  Nope-won’t stick good to plastic.  I guess I’ll have to go back to the basic toilet tube marble run.  And I bought some bright colored little balls to roll down them instead of marbles (actually I cut up a cheap bead necklace).

 

 

Creating a marble run is a great idea for preschoolers and older children.  There are lots of ideas out there.  Here are a few to look at to get you and your children's creative juices going:

 http://www.frugalfamilyfunblog.com/2011/08/boredom-buster-marble-run.html

http://creativeconnectionsforkids.com/2012/01/fun-with-a-marble-run/ 

 

Thanks for reading,

Cathy

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Parenting Tip - Declare a Family Read-a-thon Day!

 On Tuesday one of my piano students came to piano lessons in his pajamas.  Actually, his mother did too!  But she quickly explained that it was their family's read-a-thon day.  They stay in their pjs all day long, take the phone off the hook and read, read, read.  

Their piano lesson was at 2:00 in the afternoon and she had been reading outloud to her kids all morning long.  So far they had read over 80 books that morning!  She has stacks and stacks of books and loves to find them at garage sales.  When her husband gets home from work, he gets to read outloud for a while too.

Hmmm....I'm definitely thinking of adopting their read-a-thon idea.  I'll just make my own holiday, cancel all my teaching, buy a lot of chocolate, and read, read, read.  Thanks for the idea Kimmie and Stanton!

 

Here's a picture of all the books they read.  Click here to read Kimmie's blog.

Here's some fun places my grandchildren found to read when they came to visit one time:

Happy Reading!

Cathy

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Music Tip - Hand Clapping Games

I love hand clapping games.  They are so fun.  Even as an adult I love them.  Of course there are more benefits than just having fun that are connected with hand clapping games. A  study conducted at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel (BGU), “has found that young children who engage in hand-clapping songs and games show an increase in the development of a range of cognitive abilities including social integration, spelling and handwriting as well as a reduction in rates of dyslexia and dyscalculia.”  

Other research  shows that rhythm and a sense of timing has an effect on our brain and body functions.  Children diagnosed with dyslexia may be deficient in their sense of timing.  Brain training using a metronome is helping children with their reading fluency and language processing.

Babies usually learn to clap by age one.  By playing and singing clapping games with your toddler you are helping him develop his eye hand coordination. Songs like Pat a Cake and If You’re Happy involve simple clapping that you can do with your child.

I’ve been teaching clapping games to my 3-6^th graders at school. They are loving it.  I found some really fun routines on you tube but they looked so complicated, I wondered if I could learn them myself, so I could teach them.  But the two girls doing them on you tube, slowed the patterns down and it was surprisingly easy.  In fact, there was a trick.  You only sing 3 words and each word has a different movement.  So all you have to do is learn 3 movements, then figure out the pattern.

I pointed the pattern out to my students and even wrote it on the board.  I really believe in helping my visual learners by writing patterns on the board.  I’m a visual learner and I need to see something before I can learn it. 

Here’s the pattern of part A (do it twice)

Bim   Bum   Bim   Bum                         Bum           Bum                      Bum    Bim   Bum

(clap) (snap) (clap) (snap)

                                          Biddy biddy           Biddy          Biddy biddy

                                            (pat legs 2x)

              

Part B  (2xs)

Bim            Bum                         Bum           Bum                      Bum    Bim   Bum

(clap)         (snap)

                               Biddy biddy           Biddy          Biddy biddy

                             (pat legs 2x)

So go have some fun.  Do the hand clapping games with your family.  Have a contest to see who can do it the fastest.  Can you beat Dad? 

And if you want more fun, look up Boom, Snap Clap.  It's a really fun one too!

Thanks for reading,
Cathy

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