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What will the online class look like? |
By Sasha Judelson on 21 March 2020 |
We love seeing you in class each week. We love making music with you in person each week. We know you love seeing each other and connecting with friends and your community. We all know we cannot meet in person, at least for now. With that in mind we have moved the Spring 2020 classes online. To register, click here. What will that look like?
What it won't look like:
We've priced the online session so that as many as possible can join, we know everyone is thinking of how this crisis will affect them financially. Our goal is to continue being able to provide high-quality eearly childhood music classes after this crisis is over and in the meantime continue to pay our teaching team whilst physical classes are on hold. We believe whole-heartedly in making music accessible to everyone, for everyone to share the numerous benefits, especially at a time like this. The session is $95, your downloads are included in that. To register for our onling Spring session, click here. |
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Stopping the Spread of Germs |
By Sasha Judelson on 6 March 2020 |
With a case of COVID19 reported in Waterloo Region, we felt it was important to let you know the precautions we take in our classes to prevent the spread of germs. We've always maintained a strict practice of disinfecting our tools and keeping our classrooms clean.
What you can do:
Waterloo Region Public Health & Emergency Services indicates that this confirmed case does not represent an increased risk to residents. If you'd like more information about our healthy classroom habits, please let us know! Get in touch by emailing us at info@greatlakesmusictogether.com. |
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Sasha's Top 10 (Musical) Holiday Gifts for Kids |
By Sasha Judelson on 26 November 2019 |
Choosing a meaningful gift for the holiday season can be a time-consuming undertaking for parents. But don’t fret! Our Director, Sasha Judelson, has done some of the leg work already and compiled her Top 10 (Musical) Holiday Gifts for Kids to inspire you.
Now over to you! What musical gifts have been much loved in your family? Comment below and let us know. |
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Connections through music |
By Sasha Judelson on 8 August 2018 |
You know that piece that played at your high school graduation, a birthday party or friend's wedding? Where every time you hear it you are right back at that event? It's no coincidence that this happens. Our brains connect music to whichever event you heard it at that is of most significance to you and new research is showing us that shared music making (singing and movement) can have profound effects on those feelings of connections. The data collected suggests that when music-making with others we each share a similar experience in neural connections, which leads to a shared sense of togetherness and sense of purpose.
Back to connecting music with an event, the unpressurised environment in class helps your baby or child to relax and enjoy themselves - there's a reason for our fostering this atmosphere in class! When any of us are enjoying ourselves we are making positive connections and building positive emotions towards the activity or song. |
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Making it look easy! |
By Sasha Judelson on 20 July 2018 |
Anyone who can sing in tune, find and keep the beat, and move with rhythm makes music-making look easy! Especially when they have a smile on their face whilst doing it!!! For anyone who has not quite reached that point in their musical aptitude it's far from easy because there's so much that needs to come together:
And that's to name but a few. To accomplish each of those takes a while, including steps through each stage. Whilst we, as adults are supporting a child's muscial development making it fun as well as easy is really the key. If it just looks easy and then the child discovers it isn't easy for them their most likely reaction is to shut down and not try at all: quite the reverse of what we want them to do! In fact, we want to present kids with ideas which become a springboard for them to use whilst they process and play, try it for themselves and expand upon those ideas. Do you remember when your baby was tiny and you were told that each of us are born with 8 intelligences? And perhaps you said to yourself that you'd do your best to support the development of those intelligences. One of our 8 intelligences is music and by supporting the development of that intelligence we are helping kids to become rounded |
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Singing whatever the weather |
By Sasha Judelson on 30 April 2018 |
Is it finally here? The all elusive warmer weather that is! Apparently we aren't doing spring this year but rather are going straight to sprummer!! It's tempting to abandon all inside activity having waited so long, so rest assured you don't need (or want) to think of music as an indoor activity. It's really important for children in the middle of developing their basic musical competence to continue having fun making music and all the development that entails.. Although from a practical point of view we can't hold the class outside There are lots of ways to use music outside, even if you don't fancy singing to the entire neighbourhood:
The possibilities are endless! You hear this in class but it's true, the more you sing, explore and develop the songs the more your child's spiral of learning will be open to the development opportunities in class. That means that they can use the class as a springboard for their ideas and will enjoy continuing their music-making outside as well as in and then they are fully using the window of opportunity to develop basic music competence. |
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Laughing, Learning, Doing |
By Sasha Judelson on 18 April 2018 |
In every class there's some magic that happens! Having the opportunity to make music with kids and the people who love them likely is the best job in the world, having the opportunity to witness your little people growing with, developing because of, and exploring the music is pretty special for you too. Kudos to you for nurturing your child (or children) at exactly the age when the window of opportunity is open. Our classes are informal though there's actually nothing casual about them! Every note and step is carefully planned and that's what ends up ensuring that we're tapping into your child's natural music aptitude, something which you continue to support all week long. Does this picture look familiar to you?
It looks like we're just having a great deal of fun right? And it is! With all of that, in this one activity, your child is learning:
And, they are bonding with the adult they know and love, all at the same time!! Who knew that so much could come out of a lap song? Next time you have the chance take a |
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So, does music really make you smarter? |
By Sasha Judelson on 7 February 2018 |
Every single week I am amazed by the power of music to bring joy, laughter, connections, happiness, silliness, comfort and much more into our lives. Music has the ability to deeply move people and touch souls in the way that few other things are able to. And yes, making music uses many different faculties. It is definitely a multi-modal activity. And, you have heard us explain in class how particular activities are supporting your child's musical development as well as supporting their spatial awareness, cognitive and emotional learning, small and large motor skills and helping them understand sociability. It's probably because music uses so many differing skills that we are drawn to be curious as to what broader effects music has. And making music accurately requires a lot of practise, in fact,
So what is it about music? Is it the practise which requires tenacity and patience? Is it because it's best to start building the musical foundation right from infancy? Or the fact that you can also connect with people while you make music? Or perhaps it's having to develop auditory and visual skills which in turns helps kids to learn to perservere? Maybe! There's a study which took place in Bridgeport, Connecticut which you may be interested in, (more details here) where children who were enrolled in a Music Together pre-school class showed significant gains in areas which are typically measured in young children. These gains were seen in: cognitive development, self-esteem, physical development, self-confidence, and language development. Impressive!!! This is exactly what we're referring to when in class we take a moment to mention the reason we're doing something for music development and what impact that has on the other pieces of development your child is working on. (Don't panic though, everyone learns at their own pace and some of these developments are more easily seen than others.) But yes, it's exactly what we mean when we say that music learning is supporting all learning.
Looking at it from a different angle, the connections, joy and comfort that music brings to all of us are also part of what makes us peoplekind. It is because music is a universal language that it removes barriers and provides accessibility. It is rewarding for them and you in so many different ways. And, it's wonderful too that music supports so very many other pieces of early childhood development
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Keeping the circle going |
By Sasha Judelson on 19 January 2018 |
As some of you may know, I (Sasha) spend Thursday afternoons with a different wonderful group of people leading and facilitating an intergenerational choir for people living with dementia, their care partners and local high school students. Although its certainly different to a room full of kids 5 years old and less there are some notable similarities and parallels!
So, you should celebrate for sure that you are giving your child a gift which will keep on giving to them throughout their lives. The Circle of Music very recently received a $500 gift from The Grand River Hospital as part of their way of thanking Dr Gagan Sarkaria, their lead geriatician, for his multiple contributions to the board of The Grand River Hospital. Dr Sarkaria chose to ask for this gift to come to us because, in his words "I believe that activities such as music and integrating with people of all ages is very beneficial for people living with Alzheimer's and dementia. Thanks for all the great work with older adults in our community." I absolutely love teaching Music Together and I know that Pam and Lorena love teaching all of you too and it's especially significant to realise that this work comes full circle to help and support people of all ages. |
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Building supports the Growing! |
By Sasha Judelson on 12 January 2018 |
If you've ever taken a Music Together class you will be familiar with the phrase "what else shall we add to the song?". This short phrase is in fact, one of the single most important pieces that can help to support the development of your child's musical journey! Encouraging your child to explore the music in any way in which they are comfortable is very much part of the plan! When a child changes the words, even the actions they are not only developing their imaginative play, their literacy and motor skills they are also making the music their own and that builds a comfort level for them which supports the development of their basic musical competence. Basic musical competence is the ability to sing in tune and move with rhythm. The first thing for your child to see is that we will add almost anything to the song, including ideas which seem way out there. We aren't looking for logic here but instead for each child to see that playing with the music is fun. Each child needs to feel they can play with music before they start to make music. As adults, we And, although not everything that your child adds or does with the music will feel accurate, part of what they are learning is that not everything will work! It's important for them to know that we can add dinosaurs, trucks, things from outer space and visits to grandma's and equally important for them to see that sometimes we have to change or adapt their suggestions just a little to fit the music. (The "we" here is your teacher!!) Eventually your child will come to recognise that the teacher has made a small change and they'll begin to try making changes themselves so that their suggestions fit more easily into the space and time available in the song - for most kids that's a long way down the line! By giving children the opportunity to play, add and explore the songs in the way that springs to their mind we are building their musical experiences and that's something which is absolutely crucial on the road to basic music competence. Just as you pull skates on to your toddler in order for them to learn to skate, rather than sit them down to watch skating, playing with the music allows the opportunity to begin that energetic and thriving bond with music which can last a lifetime! Next time your baby is bouncing to music or your toddler is adding all the dinosaur names they know to a song or your 5 year old is singing their made up story, smile, sit back, add to the ideas yourself so that your are stimulating the spiral of learning and enjoy all the growing which is happening through play!! |
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