Sunday, May 30, 2010

A Funny & Cute Video

I know this has nothing to do with music, but this girl is just so cute and funny that I'd like to share!

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Praise When Praise is Due

from http://childcareexchange.com/eed/issue.php?id=2344

Richard Weissbourd, writing in Work & Family Life (September 2009) observes that it matters how parents praise...

"Praising children in the service of happiness and self esteem has important benefits but it can become excessive. Children thrive on praise when it is sincere and connected to specific accomplishments, but they know when they've truly accomplished something. Too much praise connected to tiny accomplishments can make them wonder why adults need to always prop them up.

"Children who are praised too much also feel continually judged. Research by Carol Dweck, Ph.D., suggests that overly praised kids become more conscious of their image, more competitive, and more prone to cut others down. And too much praise can hook kids on it: they require higher and higher doses of compliments and feel like there's something wrong when they aren't being bombarded with kudos."

Friday, May 21, 2010

My Lovely Life

This is my cute student Michelle playing a piece she composed with the help of her Dad Alan. She's so adorable!



This is her composition:


Saturday, May 15, 2010

Music Lessons Provide a Workout For the Brain

from http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16767-music-lessons-provide-a-workout-for-the-brain

17:22 13 March 2009 by Andy Coghlan

Scans of the brains of child musicians before and after musical training have yielded compelling evidence that proficiency and skill relies on hard graft, not innate genius.


Earlier studies have shown that adult musicians have different brains to adult non-musicians. But the latest results settle arguments about whether the brain differences were there from birth, or developed through practice.


"This is the first paper showing differential brain development in children who learned and played a musical instrument versus those that did not," says Gottfried Schlaug of Harvard Medical School.


Schlaug's team tested musically untrained six-year-olds from the Boston area, 15 of whom then received weekly keyboard lessons for 15 months, and 16 of whom didn't. When they compared magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans taken before and after for both groups, they found that auditory and motor areas of the brain linked respectively with hearing and dexterity grew larger only in the trainee musicians. Continue reading...


Sunday, May 9, 2010

Why Arts Education Is Crucial, and Who's Doing It Best

from http://www.edutopia.org/arts-music-curriculum-child-development

Art and music are key to student development.

by Fran Smith


"Art does not solve problems, but makes us aware of their existence," sculptor Magdalena Abakanowicz has said. Arts education, on the other hand, does solve problems. Years of research show that it's closely linked to almost everything that we as a nation say we want for our children and demand from our schools: academic achievement, social and emotional development, civic engagement, and equitable opportunity.


Involvement in the arts is associated with gains in math, reading, cognitive ability, critical thinking, and verbal skill. Arts learning can also improve motivation, concentration, confidence, and teamwork. A 2005 report by the Rand Corporation about the visual arts argues that the intrinsic pleasures and stimulation of the art experience do more than sweeten an individual's life -- according to the report, they "can connect people more deeply to the world and open them to new ways of seeing," creating the foundation to forge social bonds and community cohesion. And strong arts programming in schools helps close a gap that has left many a child behind: From Mozart for babies to tutus for toddlers to family trips to the museum, the children of affluent, aspiring parents generally get exposed to the arts whether or not public schools provide them. Low-income children, often, do not. "Arts education enables those children from a financially challenged background to have a more level playing field with children who have had those enrichment experiences,'' says Eric Cooper, president and founder of the National Urban Alliance for Effective Education. Continue reading...


Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Summer Youth Group Piano 5-14 years

Arcadia Recreation
Days/ Dates: Thursday, 7/15-8/26 (no class 8/12)
Fee: $45+ $15 materials fee/ 6 weeks

Time: 4-4:50pm
Age: 5-6 years

Time: 5-5:50pm
Age: 7-14 years