This year, Grandma, Grandpa, aunts, uncles, friends, or anyone, can give your little ones the gift of Kindermusik. I have Kindermusik gift certificates available in any denomination! Gift givers can get in touch with me by emailing kindersinger@yahoo.com, and I will provide simple instructions for purchasing a gift certificate to be applied toward Kindermusik tuition at Kindermusik with Sound Foundations! Gift certificates purchased before December 18 are sure to be delivered to you in class or by mail in plenty of time to find their way under the Christmas tree, into stockings, or get hand delivered with a hug.

(And don’t worry, we won’t tell your gift givers that this isn’t just a gift for the little ones—it’s also a gift for you! After all, you’re the one who gets to sit crossed-legged on the floor each week, enjoying that special time to bond with your child.)

Are you wondering if grandparents love giving Kindermusik as a gift? Just check out this video, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHIgylTX85U, of a Kindermusik grandma who has pledged to sponsor Kindermusik for any of her 17 grandchildren who want it!

If you have any questions about purchasing gift certificates, I’ll be happy to answer them for you.

Wishing you the happiest of holiday seasons!

Musically,

Miss Wendy

(UKPA) – Oct 16, 2011

Musical ability is biologically linked to literacy, a study has found.

Children who performed well in reading tests were also good at discerning rhythm and tone, say scientists.

They also did better than average in tests of verbal memory.

Music skill accounted for 38% of the variation in reading ability between children.

Literacy and musical aptitude shared a common origin in the brain, the study showed.

The results may help to explain previous research suggesting that musical training can improve word skills.

“Both musical ability and literacy correlated with enhanced electrical signals within the auditory brainstem,” said study leader Dr Nina Kraus, from Northwestern University in the US. “These results add weight to the argument that music and reading are related via common neural and cognitive mechanisms and suggests a mechanism for the improvements in literacy seen with musical training.”

A total of 42 children aged eight to 13 took part in the research. Of these, eight were classified as “good readers” and 21 as “poor readers”.

The children were tested on their ability to read and recognise words. Other tests looked at how well they could distinguish between different rhythms and tones. Electrical measurements showed the brains of poor readers were less able to respond to regular, rhythmic sounds than good readers.

Musical aptitude correlated with reading performance. When rhythm and tone responses were measured separately, rhythm had the greatest effect. But the link with reading was greatest when the scientists measured both kinds of musical response together.”

Copyright © 2011 The Press Association. All rights reserved.

Early music training can improve intelligence but the amount of parental involvement in the music training can greatly affect the amount of improvement, according to a study by three researchers at Sam Houston State University.

The conclusions of the study support the nurture side of the argument in the on-going debate over whether intelligence is solely DNA determined and static, or whether it can be enhanced through life experiences.

The study also showed that parental time spent with a child is a more important factor in predicting intelligence test success than such factors as single parent households, poverty, low parental education levels, and ethnic minority status.

The study was conducted between September 1997 and May 1998 by Terry D. Bilhartz, professor of history; Rick A. Bruhn, professor of education; and Judith E. Olson, director of the SHSU Learning Assistance Center.

A total of 66 children ages four to six years completed the study and were tested, half receiving no additional music instruction (called the control group) and the other half (called the experimental group) participating in a Kindermusik for the Young Child Year 1 Pilot Program.

One third of the children in both the control and the experimental groups attended Head Start Programs, while the remaining two-thirds in each group were pre-schoolers who lived in middle and upper income households.

After receiving a Stanford-Binet intelligence test and a musical skills assessment test, the experimental students were offered 75 minutes of music training per week for 30 weeks. In accordance with the Kindermusik curriculum guidelines, parents or guardians were asked to attend portions of the weekly lessons and to complete home assignments with their children. Children in both groups were re-tested at the end of the program.

The experimental group children who were active participants in the Kindermusik classes and whose parents helped them with the home musical activities showed significant gains on the areas of the Stanford-Binet subtests that measured abstract reasoning abilities. No significant changes during the treatment period were registered on the verbal intelligence test scores for either the experimental or the control group children.

The magnitude of improvement in abstract reasoning scores varied in proportion to the level of participation in the music curriculum. The researchers set compliance criteria to measure the degree of subject and caregiver participation in the Kindermusik program.

At the end of the study, children of parents or guardians who met “low” compliance standards improved the equivalent of an increase from the 50th percentile on a standardized intelligence test to above the 78th percentile. Students whose parents or guardians met “satisfactory” compliance standards jumped on the average from the 50th percentile to above the 87th percentile.

Strong correlations also were found between musical abilities in young children, particularly the ability to match vocal pitches and reproduce rhythmic patterns, and abstract reasoning abilities. These findings support the theories formulated by Gordon Shaw, Francis Rauscher and other researchers who have argued that early music instruction produces cognitive benefits in the area of spatial-temporal reasoning.

In addition to demonstrating the effect of early music instruction on cognitive development, the results of the study also underscore the importance of parental involvement in the intellectual formation of young children. Children who participated in the music activities with their parents at least 30 minutes a week scored significantly higher on both their intelligence and musical skills tests than the children who attended the Kindermusik classes but did not receive this level of parental assistance.

A regression analysis of the data indicates that the time of parental involvement in the music exercises was a stronger predictor of child test performance than other “at risk” factors such as single parent households, poverty, low parental education levels, and ethnic minority status.

According to Bilhartz, “A number of studies have shown that low socio-economic class is a predictor of poor academic performance, but often these studies are unable to identify what it is about socio-economic class that contributes to low performance.

“This study, which documents the relationships between certain well known at risk factors and cognitive outcomes, suggests that low test scores among children living in disadvantageous environments can largely be explained as a consequence of lower levels of child-parent interactions.”

Additional study needs to be done to determine the optimal times for introducing young children to the benefits of music, said Bilhartz, who sees both positives and negatives in his first study.

“The results of the study are both encouraging and discouraging,” said Bilhartz. “It is good to know that we can help our children grow intellectually by exposing them to age appropriate early musical experiences and by spending instructional time with them.

“Unfortunately, children who live in poverty and who live in households with low parental education levels are less likely than privileged children in higher educated households to receive adequate hours of parental involvement. The good news, however, is that parenting choices can make a difference even among those who live in academically at risk environments.”

An article on the research group’s findings has been accepted for publication in a future issue of the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology.

The research was supported by grants from Sam Houston State University and Kindermusik International, Inc.

Drums

o Tape the top securely on an oatmeal box, or a margarine container.
o Cut the ends off a large can, cover both ends with rubber inner tubing and lace the tubing together, or use a plastic snap-on lid on each end.
o The end of any cylinder-shaped container can be covered with construction paper or fabric scraps.
o Try any surface that is available. Compare the differences in the sounds they make.
o Drumsticks can be your hands, spoons, pencils, dowels, or sticks. You may want to wrap one end of the dowel or stick with cloth, or tie cotton on it to make a different sound.

Tambourines

o Remove corks from bottle caps. Flatten the caps, and punch holes in them. Make sure there are no sharp edges. Tie caps to the edges of aluminum pie pans or paper plates.
o Lace two paper plates together and tie small bells to the edges.
o Put bottlecaps, buttons, or stones in an aluminum pie pan. Place another pie pan face-down over it. Punch evenly spaced holes around the rim and lace together tightly.

Shakers

o Use film containers, plastic eggs, baking powder cans, oatmeal boxes, or boxes with lids. Experiment with different sounds by putting dry beans, macaroni, rice, buttons, stones, etc., in them. Tape together securely. Little children like to put things in their mouths, so be sure they can not get to the contents of the shaker.
o Staple paper plates together with something that rattles inside. Use fairly large objects inside, and place the staples very close together so the contents will not fall out. Place tape over staples, or whip edges with yarn after holes are punched. Attach tie strings for musical hats.

Rhythm Sticks

o Use dowel rods or bamboo fishing poles. Cut them 12 to 15 inches long. Paint or shellac gives them a different sound.
o Chopsticks, spoons, or rungs from old chairs can be used.

Swish or Sandpaper Blocks

o Glue sandpaper to one side of 2-by 2-by 1-inch wooden blocks, rough side up. Rub sandpapered sides of the two blocks together for sound effects. Be sure the blocks are smooth and do not have splinters.

Cymbals and Bells

o Make cymbals from jar lids, saucepan covers or aluminum plates. A spool may be attached as a handle.
o Finger cymbals can be made by punching two holes in the center of two matching jar lids, large buttons or bottle caps. Fold a fat rubber band in half and push each end through the holes. Put your thumb and forefinger through the loops and clack away.
o Sew small sleigh bells to elastic and make a wrist band of bells.

Kazoos and Horns

o Tape waxed paper over one end of a cardboard tube (from paper towels or toilet paper). Hum into the open end with your mouth open a little. This may take a little practice. A different sound is made if you make three holes in the tube with a pencil. The waxed paper can be held in place with a rubber band.
o Use different sized empty soda bottles and blow across the mouth of the bottle. Different sizes give different tones.

Banjos and Guitars

o Cut a large hole in the middle of a shoe box lid and a piece out of the end of the lid and box. Cut slit in cardboard tube, and fit into place. Stretch rubber bands around the box. Space them far enough apart to get your fingers between them. Slide a pencil or short piece of cardboard tube under them. “Tune” the banjo by using different sized rubber bands. Stretch rubber bands of different sizes around the partially opened box. How can you make the sound change?

Water Chimes

o Put water in eight glasses. Start with an almost full glass on the left, and end with a small amount of water in the eighth glass. The tone of the full glass will be deep and clear. Add or pour water from the other glasses until you have the eight musical notes of a scale. Tap the glasses gently with a spoon, a pencil, or your fingernail. If you want a short note, put your finger on the rim of the glass, and the sound will stop.
o Fill a number of glass containers with different amounts of water. By carefully striking the sides of the containers with different utensils, they will ring out with varying degrees of sound.