"Leaves Are Falling" is the perfect song to sing while on a family walk this fall. Whether you're walking on a nature trail, at the local park, in your back yard, or around your neighborhood, try singing "Leaves Are Falling" and replacing the colors in the song with the colors of the leaves you see---or the types of trees in your neighborhood (e.g., "maple, oak, pine, willow, maple").

Continue the fun at home with a simple musical craft activity. Download this coloring page of leaves (or draw your own) and invite your child to color them in their favorite colors. Then, cut the leaves out and sing "Leaves Are Falling," pointing to your child's leaves and substituting their colors for the "orange, red, brown, yellow, orange" phrase. (Who knows, you might have pink, aqua, or polka-dotted leaves in your song!) Gather your leaves together and throw them up in the air on the final phrase "tumbling to the ground." [Tip: To help leaves float more easily, try making them from coffee filters.]

Give the gift of music to friends and family this holiday season! Check out the Music Together online store for a full range of imaginative and colorful instruments, play materials, CDs, storybooks, and more.

When you place an order of $30 or more, you'll receive a free gift from Music Together: a pair of red egg shakers ($4.50 value). Enter coupon code HOLIDAY2013 at checkout.     

Offer expires January 1, 2014, and may not be combined with other coupon or discount offers.

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To ensure on-time delivery,  

please place your holiday orders by:

November 15 for Hanukkah  

December 10 for Christmas  

Looking for a fun way to grow your baby or young child's speech and communications skills? The experts at Language Launchers have developed two award-winning kits that can help you do just that!

Ten lucky Music Together families will each win a choice of THE BABBLE BOX or CHATTING WITH CHILDREN kit. Learn more and enter on our website. Please enter by November 1, 2013.

 WIN ONE OF THESE PRIZES!

THE BABBLE BOX, for parents and caregivers with babies from birth to two years of age.

 

CHATTING WITH CHILDREN KIT, for parents and caregivers with children  from two to five years of age.

by Kate Battenfeld

Music is powerful in helping us to fulfill our human need for connection. In particular, songs of peace seem to be universal and go beyond language, age, ethnicity, or religion to bring people together. When Music Together Founder/Director Kenneth K. Guilmartin wrote the song "May All Children," it was his hope that people around the world would find meaning and connection in its music and its message of peace. And it would seem that his wish is well on its way to coming true. 

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Have you ever been feeling stressed or sad and then immediately felt better when your favorite song came on? Or perhaps you've seen music calm your child's crankiness. We know from both research and experience that music has the power to make us feel better emotionally. Now recent research offers us interesting new perspectives on how music is being used in the medical field to make us feel better physically, as well.

Among a group of adults with hypertension, listening to classical or Celtic music for just thirty minutes a day helped to reduce their blood pressure. Compared to patients undergoing more standard treatments, cancer patients who listened to pre-recorded music or worked with a music therapist during treatment were found to experience reduced anxiety, heart rates, and respiratory rates, as well as boosts to their mood. Individuals who listened to music described as "joyful" experienced improved blood vessel function associated with heart health. One doctor has been exploring the benefits of music during neurosurgical procedures: patients listening to calming melodic music experience a decrease in neuron activity, which can lead to reduced patient anxiety during surgery.

This research and other work using music in the fields of medicine and psychology highlight the potential "healing" power of music and reinforce what we already know---that music promotes relaxation, reduces anxiety and depression, and lifts one's spirits.

For a list of resources or for more information on the referenced research, please contact news@musictogether.com.

Alexandra Imbo is a classically trained vocalist who has performed in Carnegie Hall and a Master's-level NJ certified K-12 general music teacher. But her favorite job is being silly with the preschoolers she teaches as a Music Together In School specialist! Though skeptical when she first took the Music Together teacher training, Alex quickly came to see that the Music Together in-school curriculum is far more than just variations of "Wheels on the Bus." She now teaches Music Together classes at two schools in central New Jersey. We recently chatted with Alexandra about some of her favorite moments teaching Music Together over the past few years.

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 LEARN MORE about bringing Music Together to your child's school.