Everyone, Please Chime In!

We can all agree that the unofficial theme for Home Sweet Home 2011-2012 is "Making Beautiful Music Together". To continue developing our learning community, families are asked to partner to create the playground Music Garden Chime Frame. This is a Home-to-School Connection assignment for parents to facilitate over Spring Break or subsequent weekends.

Project: Two-three children from two-three families will make or purchase one set of chimes.

Exploring: Consciously listening to chime sounds to understand what individuals enjoy hearing.

Community: Gathering materials or purchasing chimes within our community empowers children to understand they have choices as a consumer.

Partnering: Families holding time and space to partner strengthens our larger preschool family - our choices are co-selected, co-owned, and appreciated by all.

Location: The children will present their choice at Sharing, explaining their decision. Chimes will then be hung on the shade frame outside.

Due Date: April 30, 2011

The Fiddler in the Subway

"The poet Billy Collins once laughingly observed that all babies are born with a knowledge of poetry, because the lub-dub of the mother's heart is in iambic meter. Then, Collins said, life slowly starts to choke the poetry out of us. It may be true with music, too."

The Fiddler in the Subway by pulitzer prize winning journalist Gene Weingarten explores the idea of would we recognize genius out of context. His essay reports on a real experiment facilitated in Washington DC when Joshua Bell performed the Charconne from Bach's Partita No.2 in D Minor outside of a subway for 45 minutes disguised in old clothes. He made $37. If a great musician plays great music and nobody hears. . .was he really any good? What is beauty? Is it a fact? Is it an opinion? Is it a little of each, but informed by the state of mind of the observer? Weingarten observed: "Every single time a child walked past, he or she tried to stop and watch. And every single time, a parent scooted the kid away."

This passage especially impacted me:
"One biologically intriguing fact about Bell is that he got his first music lessons when he was a four year old in Bloomington Indiana. His parents, both psychologists, decided formal training might be a good idea after they saw that their son had strung rubber bands across his dresser drawers and was replicating classical tunes by ear, plucking the strings and moving the drawers out to vary the pitch>" My reflection piece as a parent and an educator is do I give children the time, space and loose parts necessary to experiment on this level? Not that I need my child to be the best musician in the world (although that would be cool), but do they have opportunity to discover their unique genius independent of my understanding, or even my adult agenda?

It is interesting to consider how the current vogue and pervasive use of gadgets (ipods, phones, etc.) impacts our ability to connect in real time and intentionally with the world around us. How does the constant barrage of stimulation actually cocoon us from broadening experiences?

One of the intentional teaching strategies at Home Sweet Home is conscious listening. Taking time outside of and within routine and schedule to actively hear. What might this skill mastered in Early Childhood support for young learners developing competencies? What might these strategies look like and how can we further enhance this? Adults turning off visual and audio distractions and laying next to a child, eyes open or closed, and simply being for 15 minutes. What emerges when we are quiet with our thoughts and open to the environment?

Music as Curriculum

Beautiful events have blessed our Home Sweet Home preschool. The strong initiative to explore Music has created relationships and partnerships, strengthening our learning community. Many thanks to each individual who has performed, on stage and behind the scenes, and who fills their heart and carries our song forward.

HSH welcomes photos from all site and community happenings, including Joy Through Music and independent caroling - we love to see our families in action! HOME TO SCHOOL CONNECTION HOMEWORK: each family is asked to create a flat paper star 7"-10" in length/width and place in it a recent photograph of their HSH child engaged with music. Parents can borrow an HSH stapler and with their child position the star on the board in the hallway in January. This star will border our family boards this Winter, illuminating our PAC information. Please spread the word to your friends, so we can enjoys a twinkling border in the new year!


The following offering came from Early Childhood Exchange, December 20, 2010: "Early Brain Development Research Review and Update," Pam Schiller

"Linguists, psychologists, and neuro-scientists have recently changed their long held opinion about the relationship between speaking and singing. The latest data show that music and language are so intertwined that an awareness of music is critical to a baby’s language development. As children grow, music fosters their communication skills. Our sense of song helps us learn to talk, read, and even make friends.

"Brain areas governing music and language overlap. Music and language have much in common. Both are governed by rules and basic elements (word and notes). In language, words make phrases, which combine to make larg er phrases and eventually sentences. In music, notes combine and grow to form a melody.

"The neurological ties between music and language go both ways; a person’s native tongue influences the way he perceives music. The same progression of notes may sound different depending on the language the listener learned growing up. Speakers of tonal languages (most Asian languages) are much more likely than Westerners to have perfect pitch. All languages have a melody that is unique. Infants echo the inherent melodies of their native language when they cry, long before they speak."

Winter Celebrations

The Home Sweet Home community will be celebrating the winter holidays and honoring family traditions throughout the month of December. Parents are encouraged to share family holiday/seasonal traditions with the children by bringing in books or orchestrating cooking or craft projects that reflect cultural holiday traditions important to their families. This could be as simple as reading a story to the group at circle time or as elaborate as baking Challah. Grandparents and extended family are invited to participate as well. Please communicate your availability to teachers so that your share can go on the calendar.

On Friday, December 17th at 10:00am the Home Sweet Home community is invited to the “Joy Through Music” holiday party. This will be a joint effort between the Special Events committee and parent musicians. The theme is “Stars: a Light in the Darkness”. The teachers will be exploring the concept of stars in Nature during the month of December and the children will be performing some star related songs as a group at the party. We will be treated to performances from our talented parent musicians and interested children are encouraged to choose and practice at home, a star-themed piece such as a song or a poem to perform solo or with friends or family . For example, Jasper wants to sing a song with his Grandma (perhaps the stage fright will settle in and we will be treated to just Grandma). Parents are invited to help their children create a star/light costume for to wear on this day. This could be a costume that represents light within their holiday tradition or, for the aspiring astrophysicist, a solar system headpiece. There will be a potluck immediately following the performances. We will post a food sign-up sheet in the next few weeks. The Big Friends will be creating an Evite for all current families and alumni. Extended family members are encouraged to attend as well.

On a personal note, I wanted to acknowledge that December can be a really busy month for working parents. I had to miss the last two years of special events at Home Sweet Home because of work commitments and I always felt pretty bummed out that I couldn’t be there. If you can’t make it it’s not the end of the world. We are going to tape it so that all parents can share in what will probably be a very sweet party. If you don’t have time to make a costume, please let me know and I can help you out. If you don’t have time to do a parent share, no big deal. If you want to become more involved with this event, we will be having a Special Events committee meeting on Wednesday December 1st at 5pm.

Cheers!

Heather (Jasper’s Mom)

Making Sweet Music

The Music Committee met again this morning and mapped out a curriculum called "Instrument of the Month". The goal will be for children to engage with a musician and learn about an instrument each month (or more frequently.) Parents are invited to sign up for their speciality and/or volunteer a friend with this talent.

2011

January - Paul (Emmett's dad) fretted instruments

February - Dina (Cosmo's mom) viola

March - Clark (Cosmo's dad) accordian (date tentative)

As a specific day and time are nailed down, we invite all our Home Sweet Home children to join in for this special celebration. Parents, please feel free to drop-in for the music event with your child even if this is not your regular attendance day.

The Joy Through Music event is Friday, December 17, 2010 from 10:00AM - 12:00PM. There will be more details released by parent leadership. We appreciate that not all parents can join us at this time, so we are trying to film the event and release to parents on dvd.