We are pleased to inform you that Kidz Talent Lodge will be launching our new centre at Ikano Power Centre in February 2005. It will be the first dedicated Kindermusik Centre in Malaysia.
As part of our expansion plans and mission to bring the joy of Kindermusik to more families in Malaysia, we are hiring more teachers to be certified as Kindermusik educators. We are lining up more classes for children aged 0 – 7 years old from Mondays to Sundays at Ikano Power Centre.
At Kidz, we believe in methods that permit the achievement of lifelong growth and benefit, not just short-term or temporary benefits, and Kindermusik is undoubtedly the single best choice to stimulate the development of both the left & right sides of the brain as soon as the baby is born. With more than 30 years of history, Kindermusik has made its name in many countries as the number one choice for brain stimulation based on music and movement.
For families who have benefited from Kindermusik, we appreciate and thank you for spreading such positive words about this program to your friends. As an incentive to any registered student who introduces the program to a non-registered family, we will pay you a commission of RM30 for each new family enrolled at Ikano Power Centre! This campaign will continue for the next few months until further notice!
For our most valuable students, we would like to extend our special sibling offer to all non- enrolled sibling(s) in the family-a 25% discount off the tuition fee for one semester! This offer is only valid for new enrolments at Ikano Power Centre in conjunction with our new launch. Please call us to find out the details and class schedules.
Please be informed that Kindermusik International has issued a letter to all licensees on their requirement to standardize all Kindermusik pricing in Malaysia effective 1 January 2005. As such all 45- minute lessons must be charged at the minimum of RM25/lesson. In view of the potential impact on parents, we are giving a rebate of 12% discount off tuition fees (i.e. at RM22 per lesson) if you sign up for 16 or more classes. All curricula of “Our Time” and “Imagine That” will be revised to 16 lessons per semester. Please log on to www.kidztalent.com for more details on fees.
Last but not least, thanks again for your continuous support. Have a merry Christmas and a joyous new year!
Yours sincerely,
Patricia Choa
Chief Executive Officer
Kidz Talent Lodge Sdn Bhd
Making Your Child Smarter (extracted from www.kinderstart.com)
Dr. Mike Pappas, who is a board certified pediatrician in both critical care pediatrics and general pediatrics, discusses ways of making your child smarter.
At birth, your baby’s brain has over 100 billion neurons (or nerves) which connect to one another by 50 trillion connections. These connections will increase by 20 times in the next four months. With more connections, comes more brain development.
By stimulating your baby’s life’s experiences you can increase or at least strengthen these connections. Life experiences can be simple things like playing “peek-a-boo” and playing with blocks. These games are ways of stimulating and improving your baby’s motor, recognition, and language skills.
The vocabulary of a child (how many words your child can speak) has been shown to be directly related to how much a mother talks to her child. A study of 20-month-old children of “chatty mothers” showed that their children had a vocabulary of 130 words more than children of quieter moms. By 2 years of age, these same kids had a vocabulary of 300 more words than of kids whose moms did not talk that much to them. Repeating the same words over and over again (to reinforce them in your child’s memory) is the most important language-learning tool).
Music can act on the brain to improve the development of reasoning, particularly in math and engineering. A study of 3-4 year olds, who received weekly piano lessons for 6 months, scored 35% higher in reasoning skills than similar kids who did not get piano lessons. The plausible explanation is that by playing the piano, these children could see and reason how patterns (the piano keys) worked over space and time. This helped to strengthen their reasoning abilities and apply them to other aspects of their lives.
What can hurt my child’s chances of being smart?
Brain trauma and even emotional deprivation can affect brain development and activity. Trauma can irreversibly destroy parts of your child’s brain which can be involved with speech, reasoning, and motor skills. That’s why it’s important to protect your children with car seats, seat belts, bike helmets, and other modes of accident protection.
Also, studies have found that the brains of babies and children who have been emotionally deprived, e.g. orphans, have less brain activity in the emotion center of theirbrain than of children who have not been emotionally deprived. Some people call it attention, and yet others call it love. One way or another, babies and children need to be wanted, cuddled and talked to, in order to develop normally.
My children love watching Barney for hours and hours. Doesn’t this help them become smarter by getting them to sing and learn about life?
Are your kids watching Barney for hours because they are learning and interacting, or because he mesmerizes them, and you don’t have to worry about entertaining them?
Only “live language” applied in real life seems to stimulate the learning centers greatly. In other words, babies, children and even adults listen more carefully and learn more when a live conversation directly affects them and involves their response.
Think about it…as adults, we can have conversations when we are reading the newspaper, but we really aren’t listening to the conversation. We only carefully listen when we put down the newspaper, make eye contact, and interact in the conversation. I’ve gotten into trouble with my wife many times because I’ve nodded my head in agreement to a conversation I was not even listening to.
The greatest teachers in the world are parents who take the time to love and teach their children to bigger and better things. The next Albert Einstein or Madam Curie will be your son or daughter!
Dr. Mike (Pappas) is an Ohio pediatrician who is board certified in both general pediatrics and pediatric critical care medicine. Questions may be sent to him at his website intensivecaring.com
MUSIKHAUS- Quality teaching that goes beyond music