Miss Jessica

We love Miss Jessica! Here is a picture of our lovely administrative assistant and her two extremely cute kids, Thing 1 and Thing 2. (Names have been changed to protect the innocent.)



They love this book. It's in French. They understand it because they're really smart, and because it has pictures. Spoiler alert: the "beast" eats everything she sees, including the sun! We make munching noises on almost every page. Munching noises are our "raison d'être ."
For more information on Miss Jessica, visit our website.

Bad Blogger, Cute Pictures

I am a bad blogger. It's okay, I know it. You can tell me without hurting my feelings. I only posted one blog post in the month of June. Travesty. However, I will try to make up for it with the following really cute pictures from class:

I like to call this photo, "Eating Bubbles." It's okay - they're non-toxic. They actually taste pretty good, but you're not supposed to eat them, really. The kids don't know that. We don't tell them because watching toddlers try to eat bubbles is too funny!

5 Little Seashells. The kids do a great job waiting for their turns to "swish" away the seashells. We don't let them eat the seashells. I have a really big seashell for the kids

who can't be trusted not to try to eat them. So far, so good.

Many kids like to sing hello this way. This practice keeps my chiropractor in business. Email me if you'd like a referral.

Happy clapping! We just love our class! How could we not with kids this cute? (Note to the studious reader: Please refer to the research referenced in my April blog, "Does Kindermusik Really Make You Cuter?", for more information on the correlation between Kindermusik attendance and cuteness.)

Thank you very much to Sharon for sharing these pictures with me, and to everyone in the class for giving me permission to share them with you!

ASL, Anyone???

Miss Lindy, who, unlike "Miss" Lindsay, does not need braces.

Look at that smile!

Miss Lindy, our Dublin teacher, is absolutely fabulous! I was privileged to watch her teach our Dublin Village class today, and her confident enthusiasm and playful spirit lit up the entire room. The babies in particular were enthralled, vocalizing more than ever before and hitting some very high notes!

Lindy is teaching one of the only Sign & Sing classes in the entire Bay Area this summer in Dublin and is uniquely qualified for the job. Lindy has studied American Sign Language (ASL) for several years and is currently pursuing a certificate in ASL. Moreover, she has been a certified Signing Smart instructor for several years. (Signing Smart is the company which, along with Kindermusik, created the Sign & Sing curriculum.) To register for Lindy's Sign & Sing class, call the City of Dublin at (925) 556-4500, or visit www.eastbaykindermusik.com/SignSing.html for more information on the class.

The Cow Book

So, it is well-known amongst the Kindermusik crowd that children love books about cows. The kids routinely ask for "The Cow Book" (Look Who's Talking on the Farm, by Danny Tepper, below, not to be confused with Cock-a-Doodle-MOO!, above, which is also about farm animals).

Other favorites include "The Pink Book" (Shiny Dinah), "The Train Book" (also Shiny Dinah), "The French Book" (Le ventre de la bête), and "The Boat Book" (confusing because we have a lot of boat books, and I never know which one the kids are asking for). The children never ask for "The Cricket Book," but since they always seem to find it riveting, I assume that they are simply hoping that I will be smart enough to interpret their silence as a request for The Very Quiet Cricket...or maybe "cricket" is just harder to say than "cow," "pink," "train," or "boat".

Why read in a music class? Well, I don't want to give away any Kindermusik trade secrets, but most people probably innately realize that music and literature have a lot in common. Both art forms involve expression, phrasing, cadences, and structure. From a young age, children sing the alphabet to the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle," and reading music requires one to be familiar with the fundamentals of reading language. I guess that's why story time is so often our favorite part of class. Visit this site to learn more about reading to your child at home -- the most important learning environment of all!

We're a Musical Family!

Can you guess how many of the children in this Family Time photo are related?

A former mentor once said, "Never reject a child," and I take this mandate very seriously. Hence, my lap is more or less open to however many children can manage to pile on. Luckily, I have a lot of room.

Sweetest Little Baby

Mama, Mama told me-o

I'm the sweetest little baby in the country-o

I looked in the mirror and found it so,

Just as Mama told me-o!

Jordan's baby cheeks and playful smile light up her Kindermusik class every week, and mom loves to sing and sign "Sweetest Little Baby" to her daughter. The sheer joy expressed in this picture is typical of Jordan's approach to life. Wouldn't it be great if we all felt that way about our place in the world?

Happy Mother's Day!!!

To give due credit, I must admit that this post came from a longer version on Merri's blog. Read Merri's blog to learn about the origins of these wonderful snippets on motherhood.

Some final thoughts from me: Whether you have five children or one, and whether you are currently coasting through motherhood or wrestling with its many challenges, know that you are doing the hardest yet most important job in the world, and that you are valued, appreciated, and loved.