We’d love to hear what you have to say about why you use a baby wrap? or Why don’t you use the baby wrap? What tasks or situations do you find the baby wrap most useful? Does Daddy enjoy the baby wrap?

Daddy's can be wrappers and dishwashers, too!

Basic Wrap Installation

Infant Hug Hold

Nursing in a Wrap

Oh Baby!

This post brought to you by Jenny Leggett who missed out on the wraps with her own babies, but loves to wrap her baby nieces whenever she can!

Babies, like Carson, enjoying a Village Class

At Carson’s 15-month-old check-up, he wasn’t pointing, he wasn’t clapping very much and he rarely waved goodbye. He had his dozen words but that was about it for him, verbally. He was walking on his first birthday and I knew his was extremely strong. While teaching my Village classes, I observed a 15-month-old who knew her animal sounds, plus plenty of babies who could point to body parts and wave. This was the first time I started thinking about ‘the spectrum’. Thoughts of Autism and Aspergers came into my mind. Do I need to get some help and if so, how soon? We talk about how kids are all over the spectrum developmentally – some walking at 9 months and some not until 18 months. Every child develops at his or her own rate and will learn when he or she is ready. That was ok for every other child, but for MY second child, I became extremely concerned. The doctor reassured me that it was ok and that we would check for the same indicators at 18 months.  I was the mama hawk and watched – no, analyzed – his every move. Then at 17 months when he climbed up the playground apparatus that most kids don’t attempt until after 2, I knew we were onto something. You see, Carson was busy building his gross motor skills – climbing and wrestling and jumping on the trampoline. Those other skills were secondary. I worried a lot and talked about it often but it wasn’t too long before I shut those thoughts out. I knew the answer was simple. The best therapy for him was Kindermusik. I would be able to see how he lined up socially, cognitively, verbally, and physically.  I thought, ‘Just keep him in a Kindermusik class and I’ll start to see changes’. So that’s what I did.

This fall as we enrolled in Our Time, I was so excited about the new activities we would get to share together – dancing, instruments, circle dances, exploration. He was going to sit in my lap during the hello song and gently gather instruments for us at the appropriate time – or so I thought. My first child achieved that under my instruction, why wouldn’t the second?! Since Carson came out of the womb, he was loud and energetic. It wasn’t long before I realized I had a kin-esthetic learner. For him, that means in order to learn, he must be moving. While I knew that from my Kindermusik teaching experience, I had never seen it so lived out. This child was constantly moving and was extremely happy when he was doing so. He was ‘the runner’ in the class. Thank goodness it was a small class! I could now empathize with those mothers of runners that were in my classes in years past. My eyes were opened and I could not judge. It has nothing to do with whether I’m a good mom or not but has everything to do with his learning style. So Kindermusik was the perfect place for him. I decided that semester that I wouldn’t be dressing up for class. No, it was workout clothes or sweats because that’s exactly what we would be doing. When it came time for instrument exploration, he didn’t ‘get 2 for you and 2 for your grown-up’,  like I’d been teaching all the other children for the past 6 years. He just liked to shuffle them in the basket. Gathering 4 of the instruments didn’t come until the beginning of our 2nd semester. He didn’t tap high and low or copy my example. He wanted to explore cause & effect by ‘releasing’ the sticks. And again, it wasn’t until the 2nd semester when he started tapping them together. So I’ve learned yet again, in another area of life that my timing isn’t always his. The important thing is not when he did it but that he did it.

In the last few weeks, Carson has learned the song, “Head, Shoulders, knees & toes” and I’m happy to report he now points to all those body parts. But it wasn’t until he was moving while singing that song, that he was able to label each part. He has also added, “Winkle Winkle wittle ar” to his repertoire and it wasn’t until he voiced that song, that he was able to string four words together. I love the power of music in our children’s lives and it is one of the greatest joys I’ve experienced as a mother. Kindermusik has grown Carson and helped him develop in every area, but it has also grown his mommy. Our time together has taught me to love him where he is, be patient to see where he is going, and to just keep singing.

Tonight, as his big brother and Daddy were leaving, Carson waved from the front porch, belly sticking out, and in a very happy, loud voice screamed ‘bye bye!’ as if he’d been doing that all his life.

This post brought to you by Miss Jennifer, who loves her job loving your children.

Kazoot Fun Pack by Kindermusik

CONGRATULATIONS!

• Natalie Morris
• Tricia Awbrey
• Amanda Mueller
• Melanie Conner
• Nicole Rangel
• Kate Peden

You all won a Kindermusik “Kazoot” Fun Pack on the SoundSteps Valentine’s blog contest! Contact Miss Lisa to redeem your prize!

Gold and diamonds pale in comparison to paper hearts with “I Love Mommy” or heart stickers stuck on the back of pudgy, little hands.

Remember the shoe boxes decorated and placed on your school desk, ready to receive the little valentines, suckers and boxes of conversation hearts? Learning how to fold the construction paper, trace the half-heart and cutting it out and opening it to a perfectly symmetrical heart shape?

Well, today and tomorrow we want to celebrate the love with a little GIVEAWAY! Leave a comment about Valentine’s Day. One you remember as a child? What you’re doing today with the kids? Romantic plans with a special someone? A Valentine’s Day Fail that you can (only now) laugh at?

We want to know! Leave your stories and recollections below in the comments section. Ten lucky winners will receive a fun pack of Kindermusik goodies! Share the love! We want more fun friends to know about Kindermusik!

Here in Texas, only the brave go against the grain and opt out of an SUV. Call me subversive because I don’t even have children and I drive a minivan! (I think there are only three of us in the world).

Now mind you, the minivan craving caught me totally off guard. I loved my little SUV and thought minivans were bulky and cheesy, that was until I started helping with carpool—loading and unloading preschoolers at The Children’s Center (where I taught Bodyrhythmics for 9 years).

It was there that I discovered…aaah…the magic door. For those who have missed out on this secret, the long doors and the rear liftgate of most minivans open automatically with the simple touch of a button. Kids can literally jump in and out with no help (no lifting required). With a nice low entry, even the littlest ones can get themselves in and out of the car (yes, it does have to be in park and yes, it does have super duper sensors if something is in the way).

I happened to drive a minivan as a rental on a fluke and fell in love with the “controls,” reminiscent of the Starship Enterprise. I felt like Captain Kirk and since Mr. Lisa (aka, Robert) is a huge fan of Mr. Spock, we were sold on the Nissan Quest.

Robert wanted me to get a white one but since the van is a tad bulky, I thought that might look like an ambulance. I opted for black using the logic we women try with black clothing–It makes you look slimmer, right? The van is still huge and it just looks like an over-sized hearse. I nicknamed it Darth Vader.

Robert rightfully claims that since a car depreciates as soon as you drive it off the lot so we should get a slightly used van still under warranty. Silly Mr. Lisa! Don’t you know that a used minivan includes pre-squished raisins in the seats, ground up goldfish in the crevices, and who-knows-what in the carpet? Alas, I know too much. A fresh new van it would be.

At the time (6 years ago, I’ll drive it ‘til it dies), the Nissan was the hippest of the vans. At that time, it was the only one that offered rear radar and a backup camera. Some would argue that’s a huge safety feature for families with toys and little ones in the driveway. Robert, on the other hand, found it a must-have for me, since I once backed straight into our closed garage door–doh! (It was cold and it got stuck, ok.)

But really, it’s actually easier to back into a parking spot at Target using the backup camera and guide lines. You just line ‘em up with the parking slot and back into it. No 10-point turns required.

I must add that I also love the Quest’s sunroof-type windows that span the entire length of the van. I’m all about natural light.

But my main reason for the Nissan was the seat configuration. My minivan is the official Kindermusik “cargo van” so I needed a middle row that folded nearly flat and the Quest did this best. The passenger seats in my van don’t haul children, but I keep the middle row folded down for hauling all the wonderful different precious cargo: hula hoops, jingle bells, drums, scarves, sticks, books, shakers… for my precious little ones in Kindermusik.

This post brought to you by Miss Lisa, who you know is pumpin’ up the tunes as she cruises in her minivan.

When we read this article about practical tips that can help prepare kids academically and socially, Miss Lisa and I lit up with a thousand follow-up thoughts, aggressive head-nods and out-loud exclamations of agreement! After-all, it’s not as if you’ve never heard some of these things spelled out on this very blog.

• We’ve talked about the benefits of reading with your children.
• We’ve talked about how important it is to talk to your babies and toddlers.
• In the post, Behavior 101, we stood back and took a look at how children learn basics like sharing and taking turns.
• Creative play is a cornerstone of Kindermusik and we love to encourage it every chance we get.
• Miss Lisa shared her thoughts on choosing a preschool here.
• We took a month of Mondays to talk about the importance of less screen time.

At the risk of being redundant, we just want you to have as much information as you can to understand and be encouraged that the job you’re doing is important and valuable and don’t let anyone ever look down on you for what you’re doing and the intentional choices you make for your children on a daily basis!! It’s daily! It’s monotonous! Not everything works everyday! But, it matters. And you are your child’s best advocate.

Happy Monday! Make it a great week!

This post brought to you by Jenny Leggett, who would high-five each and every one of you if she could.

Insert husband and children rolling their eyes here, because this was and still is my crazy idea from start to finish. It came about seven years ago when my children were seven, four and one-years old. To be honest, it was probably more for me than anyone! Blogs and Facebook were my time-suckers then. Our kids weren’t on the computer very much, we didn’t have smart phones, there were no iPads, we even just had basic cable, so the most popular channel was PBS! I had pretty much adhered to the “no screens before age two” rule for the most part, although, you know how subsequent babies are exposed to all kinds of spillover exposures like TV, having to sleep through a sibling’s melt-down, etc. But, I still felt like computers, TV shows and movies had somehow inched their way into our lives in such a way that made all of us more dependent on them and made transitions away from them more and more difficult. One episode of Word World turned into two hours of back-to-back shows. I started to see that on the days that involved a lot of screens, asking them to do the next thing (clean up, snack time, errand time, nap time) resulted in some sort of non-compliant response AKA classic toddler throw-down. Now that they are older I see that play out in different ways. This is my own interpretation, but I think that when they get in the habit of clicking a button and getting an instant response, they expect that in their surrounding people, too. When they do not get the desired response, they are easily frustrated and forget how to solve human problems with human solutions. Maybe I do, too! We become good at what we practice, and our daily interactions are not immune.

Screen-Free February is one month where we hit the reset button and go cold-turkey with all screens used for recreation and entertainment. My husband and I will restrict our use of the computer to work-related email correspondence. All three of my children have occasional computer-related homework that is required and allowed. But, no Facebook, no iPad Monopoly, no Words with Friends for us. No Lego.com, no Wii, no Nintendo DS, no My Horse, no Disney/Nickelodeon/Cartoon Network for the kids. That’s a lot of screens to manage! It’s when we quit the screens that we realize how much of our time is spent in front of those screens. They first three days are detox days, for sure! We all are a little crabby about it. We’re confused. We’re a little lost. But then, the puzzles come out, the card games, the coloring pencils, the Lego bins come into the living room. And we talk! We discuss! We relate! We create! We read! We play music! We listen to music and we find a new, peaceful rhythm. Last year, my son and I spent three solid days sorting and building our Lego creations–and we loved it! When the kids went to bed, my husband and I would play a game of Scrabble and then go to bed early. Can’t you just see our brains healing? Less cheap input and more quality sleep.

While the kids say they don’t need it and dread it, I see that each year they fight me less and less. They are remembering that the time we spend together in February has a different flavor. They see that moderation and discipline have a value in their lives. It’s a certain kind of slow-down that I never regret and find that I anticipate with a little nervousness, but mostly excitement. When February is over, it always take a few weeks to even remember all of the screen options that we have! Of course, being creatures of habit, it slowly creeps back in, but our screen-free-edness lasts at some level for a good, long time until February rolls around and we hit reset, again.

Miss Lisa’s series on Less Screen Time More Face Time has really been valuable. And, while you may not agree 100% with all of them, each one has given us a lot to think about and a lot of good ideas to try on for size. Whatever your view, the key is to be intentional. Assess your situation, ask yourself why you do what you and what you would like to do better and start with one next-step. It’s never too early and it’s never too late.

This post brought to you by Jenny Leggett, who always gets a little jittery thinking about February around the corner.

My husband and I stumbled upon a juicer in our pantry this summer, kindly left behind by my brother-in-law who took off to work on the organic farms of Hawaii. I had never used a juicer before, and honestly thought it was wasting my pantry space and probably needed to go. My husband thought otherwise. Shortly after pulling out the juicer, we watched a documentary on Netflix all about juicing and how wonderful it is. After that, well, I was hooked.

We all know that eating lots of servings of fruits and vegetables is recommended for living a healthy lifestyle. The problem is, you can’t always cook and fry and bake and boil all the vegetables and still expect to get the quality nutrition from them. Darn it. If you’re like me, it is hard to eat the recommended servings of fruits and vegetables in the right way (mostly raw) every day. That’s where juicing comes into play because you can take in a large amount of raw fruits and vegetables one healthy gulp at a time.

My husband and I now try to juice 3 times a week. One of our favorite recipes makes quite the green machine…..

1bunch of Kale
4 stalks of celery
1 cucumber
2 granny smith apples
½ lemon
Small bite of ginger root

All ingredients are certified organic. This green machine is chalk full of nutrients and vitamins and makes 2 large glasses worth of juice. I’ve played with the recipe to make it a little sweeter by adding grapes, or an orange, or any berry – the sky’s the limit!

This is just one example of many juices you can make with a juicer. As children’s tastes buds can be sensitive to some vegetables, many delicious fruit juices can be made fresh with the juicer. But what about all the pulp? Good news, most juicers come with a recipe book that includes ways to use the pulp in other wonderful dishes, so none of that fiber goes to waste!

I look forward to exploring more juicing recipes with my husband soon, and making fresh organic juice a normal part of our future children’s diets. Enjoy!

This post brought to you by Miss Kasey who is fueling herself up with healthy foods to keep up with all of your beautiful babies!

In Kindermusik, we start each semester telling parents, “You are your child’s best teacher,” and I believe it. You have more to offer your baby than TV does. Think of your baby’s brain as the foundation of his or her life “house.” Early experiences that combine sensory interactions make neural connections which function very much like the structure, wiring and paint on baby’s life “house”. Activities that integrate touching, smelling, feeling, hearing, seeing and moving build the strongest, largest and most ornate “house.” Free play and unguided exploration can be combined with short instructive, interactive play times peppered throughout each day.  This beneficial combination encourages greater holistic learning–intellectually, physically and socially- than TV can.

Self-doubt has stymied many a mother’s good intentions. Here are some practical ideas you can use to give baby a TV free start. With a safe area for baby to explore in, along with a few tools of the trade, you’re ready to try this out at home.

• Cribs, playpens, stationery jumpers and baby proofed gated areas are ideal places for baby to engage in free play. Play music softly in the background. Music, like Kindermusik CD’s, that is diverse in meter, style, beat and timbre is best.
• For young babies, mirrors, balls, an activity gym or playmat, mobiles, a fabric doll preferably with textures, snap and lock beads, stacker cups, shape sorters, soft blocks, rattles, teethers, soothers, and pop up toys are all excellent choices.
• As baby gets older, fill a large container without a lid with baby’s toys and add stuffed toys, Little People, board books, play telephones, blocks, as well as simple rhythm instruments, like a drum, bells, and glockenspiel. One of my babies loved her toy box so much, I’d often find her sitting in it happily exploring her treasures.
• Setting a timer helps a busy mom be purposeful about floor time with baby throughout the day. In 15 minutes you can read several books, make block or duplo towers and demonstrate simple board puzzles. Repeat this over and over, day after day. Remember babies thrive on repetition.
• Add to the mix a mini-massage during diaper change or at nap time for some purposeful physical touch, which also stimulates neural connections.
• Top it off by singing baby a song.   Nothing else can surpass this kind of stimulation for baby’s brain development and emotional security.

Twenty-three years later, the idealism and naivety are both gone and so is the season of life that includes floor time, guided play, and dirty diapers. Since then, I have stockpiled a long list of personal regrets both as a wife and a mother. But I am proud to say that living TV free is on the top of my list of personal kudos. That decision set a trajectory for marriage and family life that has been rich and rewarding. Our kids rarely say “I’m bored.” They are avid readers, immensely creative, arts enthusiasts, and unbelievably content (which I am convinced is a byproduct of not being inundated with thousands of advertisements telling them what they need to be happy and fulfilled). Absolutely,  I’d do it all over again exactly the same way.

This post brought to you by Miss Hope who thrives and lives TV-free!

As adults, we can often respond to our children with unrealistic expectations coming from a “why would you do that?” point of view. We sometimes forget that we once had learn how to get along, too. The following excerpt is from a blog post from Dr. Lynne Kenney, Psy.D from her blog “The Family Coach Blog.” The example she uses as about sharing and while a little technical, it’s good food for thought to keep in mind the next time we have a “what were you thinking?” moment.

Behavior #1: Sharing Toys

Step #1: What is the expected behavior?

Answer: I expect my five-year-old son to share his toys with his sister.

Step #2” Can he do it?

• Did I discretely define one behavior I am seeking my child to exhibit?
• Does my child have the requisite skills to exhibit this behavior?
• Are there any roadblocks that inhibit my child’s ability to exhibit the behavior? e.g Did my child sleep well and eat well?
• Have I defined which toys are for sharing and which are personal and will not be played with by others?
• If my child will share another toy but not the requested toy, did I offer an alternative solution for the children?

Step #3: Is yes, expect it, help the child to share the toy by clarifying expectations and establishing a time-frame for sharing.

Step #4: If no, teach it. Help the child to choose an alternate toy, model sharing, practice sharing.

Your children want to succeed. When you know how to determine if they have the skill-set to do as expected you are on your way to a more peaceful family.

• Sign language is a great tool for our youngest children as they join the ranks of civil and polite behavior. Here’s a shameless plug for the February 2-3 Kindermusik Sign Language class. This is an unbelievably valuable and rewarding skill. All three of my children learned a few signs as babies and although they are 13, 10 and 7 now, it still comes in handy across a crowded room with a flick of the wrists communicating, “All done? Can we go now? Wrap it up!”
• Music is wonderful way to take the edge off of next steps with which our little ones can so often struggle. In Kindermusik class we sing the “Toys Away” song. It’s not on any CD but is every parent’s go-to song at home to get their child to put something away. It’s MAGICAL! Parents have told me it helps for putting on shoes, cutting fingernails, whatever–change the words as you please.

• There’s more to nap time than meets the eye. A recent study brought out that today’s naps could be shaping tomorrow’s brain as well as today’s. In each Kindermusik class we have down-time, quiet time that is not for napping or nursing but just to breathe and slow down. It’s to give a child’s brain and body a chance to regroup. It’s necessary developmentally and children actually crave it. In class, it’s a POSITIVE routine and very easy to incorporate at home because a child will recall the class “rest” as positive and will associate the music to accompany down-time at home as a positive break (not punitive). Parents needs the rest time to bring a little peace into our day and also help our children process all that’s coming at them in this busy world.

This post brought to you by Jenny Leggett who assures you that the work you do when they are little is worth every ounce of effort.