Category Archives: Music

Great apps for kids: Musical Me!

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Musical Me! by Duck Duck Moose is one of Reading Kingdom’s recommended great apps for kids. Carolina Nugent explains why:

This app takes children on a magical, musical journey. Explore elements of music with familiar Duck Duck Moose Characters and superbly arranged children’s songs. Enjoy little surprises throughout this app as your child learns about rhythm, instruments, pitch, and musical notes. Sit down as a family to dance, laugh and create music with Musical Me!

For ages 3 – 6
Available for iPad and iPhone

If you want great reading games for kids, sign up for a 30 day free trial of the Reading Kingdom, our online reading program and game which teaches all six skills needed for reading & writing success.

Carolina Nugent

Carolina Nugent

Carolina Nugent is an expert in early childhood education with nearly a decade of experience in public schools and private early childhood programs. As the Director of Education at KinderTown, an educational app store that helps busy parents find the best apps for young kids, she's evaluated more than 1,000 apps for kids. She scours the app world from the Philadelphia area where she lives with her husband and two dogs. You can see more of her app reviews in the FREE KinderTown App, available for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.

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Great apps for kids: Do-Re-mi 1-2-3

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DoReMi 1-2-3
is one of Reading Kingdom’s recommended great apps for kids. Tim Donovan from YogiPlay explains why:

“How many of you parents remember that classic 1959 musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein called “The Sound of Music”?  In the film version, starring Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer and Eleanor Parker, Andrews plays the role of a nun who leaves an Austrian convent to become a governess to the children of a Naval officer widower.   While taking care of the officer’s children, Andrews teaches them musical theory by learning to sing that now famous song “DoReMi”.

Now your child can have the same fun experience learning about music with an innovative learning app called DoReMi 1-2-3.  Created by Creativity Inc. this award-winning app helps children to learn musical notes, scales and melodies by teaching them familiar songs including Row Row Row Your Boat, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Ode To Joy.

Each song is accompanied with its own set of rich graphics, interactive features and adorable characters.  Every character represents a specific note on a musical scale (Do, Re, Me, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, Do), and when a child touches a character, each one makes the related sound for a particular note. Children are then guided by the characters, who help them to string notes together in order to make the melody of the song.

With Row Row Row Your Boat, the characters are happy little pandas rowing out to sea on a Chinese dragon boat. For Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, there are cute little stars in the sky that animate when you touch them, and for Ode To Joy all the notes are taught by friendly, fun-loving dairy cows.  In addition, DoReMi 1-2-3 also allows children have “free form” play where they can create and record their own musical compositions which they can then share with family or friends.

DoReMi 1-2-3 is a perfect app to introduce musical theory to little kids.   Parents will love watching their children learn about basic music concepts and children will love having fun playing their favorite songs with this ingenious app.

This is an especially good app to keep children occupied while traveling on family vacations.

DoReMi 1-2-3 is one of many YogiPlay boosted-apps that have been certified for educational quality.

To download DoReMi 1-2-3 today, please click here.”

If you’re looking for more great apps for kids, visit us for app reviews and free educational resources.  And sign up for our free 30 day trial to see our award winning approach to teaching reading and writing that has received thousands of parents and teachers recommendations!

YogiPlay

YogiPlay

YogiPlay is the first personalized mobile learning apps recommendation engine designed specifically for children from ages 3 to 8. YogiPlay provides parents with valuable insight into their child’s learning and play patterns, along with meaningful personalized app recommendations tailor-made to meet each child’s specific learning needs. YogiPlay is available on Apple devices, Android tablets and smart-phones, so look for YogiPlay-boosted apps in your preferred app marketplace.

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Fun picture books for kids: Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin

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“Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin” by Lloyd Moss is one of the Reading Kingdom’s recommended picture books for kids. Melissa Gaynor explains why:

What You Need to Know:
• This Caldecott Honor book would be an asset to any bookshelf.
• The story will inspire young musicians.
• Every word seems to have been chosen with care.
• A beautiful story to read out loud.

Summary:

This picture book is a beautiful depiction of how music is made and shared among musicians. On each two-page spread, the reader discovers an instrument, the sounds it makes and what the grouping is called. As the pages turn, instruments are added and the excitement builds. The illustrations, although somewhat frantic and chaotic, tie in beautifully as the musicians seem to flow and dance across the page. Even the dog, cats and mouse race around and explore the stage along with the musicians.”

Have your children read Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin? What did they think of the book?

Did you know that the Reading Kingdom is great program for teaching your child to read? The Reading Kingdom is our award-winning, fun, easy-to-use online program that teaches children 4-10 years old how to read and write to a third grade level. You can sign up for a 30 day free trial, risk free!

Sweet on Books

Sweet on Books

Melissa Gaynor and Melissa Young live in a small town outside of New York City and have five children between their two families. Their children and a shared passion for children’s books brought them together as friends and business partners. Voracious readers with dreams of opening a children’s bookstore, they parlayed their passions into creating Sweet on Books and establishing themselves as two of the leading children’s book reviewers on the web.

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Learning games for preschoolers: singing and drawing

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If you have a preschooler preparing to learn how to read, there are a number of learning games for preschoolers that will develop the skills required for reading and will foster a love of reading.

Recommended learning game for preschoolers – singing and drawing

Sing!
Singing nursery rhymes helps young children love the flow of language and it helps develop rhyming skills, which are important in reading.

Draw!
Holding crayons and being able to make basic drawings indicates that the necessary motor skills are present.

For interactive reading games, visit our reading games for kids page.

Try the reading program that’s disguised as a game!

The Reading Kingdom online reading program is one of the leading reading games for kids. It has helped thousands of children to learn to read and write to a third grade level.

“My daughter loves to “play” her game. We have seen such an increase in Hannah’s reading level since starting Reading Kingdom. But most importantly her confidence in herself has gone way up! Thank you Reading Kingdom for giving our children the confidence they need to improve their reading!!” – Jen Brandes

Sign up for a 30 day free trial today.

Lingo the Owl

Lingo the Owl

I’m Lingo, the owl. You can find me in my favorite game of all time – the Reading Kingdom! Come play with me in the online reading program that’s disguised as a game.

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Music for kids is natural!

 

All children are musical!

Research shows that between the ages of birth and age 5 there is a window of opportunity for learning music that is optimum.  Music for kids is natural! All children can achieve basic music competence- that is the ability to sing in tune and keep a beat. Also to express meter by rhythmically accurate movement and the ability to audiate.

Can you hop like a bunny and bang on a drum?

Research shows that children learn best from participation and modeling by their caregivers, regardless of  the caregivers musical ability. It’s okay if you sing off key, you are your child’s best singing teacher and singing music for kids!

It is best for children to learn music at this age in experience based , not performance-based classes, focused on fun. ”Silly Quotients” are important moments in a typical Music Together class.

Music Together Classes are mixed age with parent education moments throughout the class. You are given the opportunity to take home what you have done in class and do it all week with your child. This is when a lot of the learning will actually take place. The Music Together teachers are the facilitators , you are the teacher!

Young children should be exposed to a variety of tonalities and meters with multi-modal learning experiences.

There should also be plenty of time for improvisation and play. We all know that  very young children learn best through playing and should be provided with opportunities for using instruments, movements and their voices for play.

Their musical growth is best achieved in a playful, developmentally appropriate, non-performance learning environment which is musically rich, yet immediately accessible to the child’s and the adult ‘s participation.

 

Music Together

Amanda and Wendy teach music to children at A and W Music Together, and are experts in teaching music to children.

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