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If you're looking for a way to entertain the kids during the school holidays, AND learn something new at the same time, head over to the Plastic: Remaking Our World exhibition at the National Museum! Tickets are at $5 for local residents.

Meanwhile, head over to https://www.bloom.com.sg/earth-song-michael-jackson-earth-day-museum-musings-plastic-remaking-our-world/ and read about our favourite parts of the exhibition.
We also talk about how prevalent plastic is in our lives. Have you noticed how many things around you are made of plastic?

Learn about the history of plastics, and consider the future with plastics; is it a blessing or a curse?

See you at our blog! And share your plastic recycling, and upcycling tips with us at @bloom_and_denise (Instagram)!

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Hi! I'm Denise, resident blogger for http://www.bloom.com.sg, and this is a new thread to explore some careers in, and related to music!


With DSA-Sec (Direct School Admission) coming up soon, we want to consider the future prospects of taking up the 4-year Music Elective Programme (MEP) and Enhanced Music Programme (EMP) in a school offering them.

Read the full article on https://www.bloom.com.sg/careers-in-music-disc-jockeys-exclusive-interview-with-dj-jason-tolson/ to find out more about DSA. And now, first up, let's discover what a day in the life of a DJ is like!

Read our exclusive interview with Timo-J, a local DJ and events emcee.
Meanwhile, here's a short excerpt:

What skills/qualifications do you need to become a disc jockey?

There are no qualifications required to be a DJ, but there are definitely several degrees of skills that are required:

* You need to be able to count bars and beats per minute (bpm)
* You will need to understand music structure and have a wide knowledge of music in general
* You will need to be able to read the crowd; which songs work/will work, and which do not/will not
* You will need to be able to do voice-overs or “hype up” the crowd with a microphone

Stay tuned as we explore more careers in music!

Want to bloom and flourish in music? Come explore with Bloom School of Music & Arts!
We offer various individual music programmes such as piano, violin, guitar, drum, and ukulele.
Send a WhatsApp message to +65 9278 3315 for more information!

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Do you want to do magic?

And no, you do not need to have special props! All you need are your hands!

Read the post in its entirety at https://www.bloom.com.sg/sing-along-song-one-little-finger/, and learn a new song to add to your treasure trove of https://youtu.be/AxqDjVFxKW4?si=MPyUCnudefq8D30d for the perfect family bonding.

Toddlers are especially tickled with finger plays because they are at the age where “their greatest need and most persistent drive is to explore the exciting world that beckons them” (Heyge, L. & Sillick. A., 2003). When you are doing the finger play or action song, toddlers want to attempt to copy you, because they want to attain control and mastery of their body movements.
[quote]Children need to move, because they learn through movement.
– Lorna Heyge, Ph.D., & Audrey Sillick[/quote]To gain mastery of body movement, parents can support their babies and toddlers by practising every action over and over. In doing so, the repetitions strengthen and enhance the the body, mind, and neural connections, which are critical to this stage of child development. Kinesthetic awareness—an inner sense below the conscious level that contributes information about how the body feels as it moves—is invaluable to all learning. As their body become better coordinated, their body also “becomes an expressive instrument with ever higher levels of awareness and complexity” (Heyge, L. & Sillick. A., 2003).

Besides our hands, we also need the right words.
Nursery rhymes and chants are an extremely useful source of repetitive alliteration (the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words) and rhythmic beat, and poetry and songs amplify the music of language. Children need “words to label their experiences so that they can be communicated” (Heyge, L. & Sillick. A., 2003). Thus, repetitive finger plays and songs which combine words with appropriate actions are helpful both musically, and to children’s language development. What is a better way to help children maintain a spontaneous approach to the work of creating language than by making it playful and fun with musical play; let children talk to themselves, make up words and silly sounds for their songs, and this will help them practise the rich phonetic content that leads to shaping speech and listening skills.

Not only does music offer children a means of communication (because it soothes, stimulates response, and focuses attention), music is also a wonderful way to send messages or teach/learn! When children are allowed to take responsibility for their own learning, they gain not only knowledge, but also problem-solving skills, thinking skills, self-confidence, and self-esteem.
Lorna Heyge, Ph.D., and Audrey Sillick, the founders of Musikgarten, understand the benefits of music for babies and young children, and have done extensive research to create their acclaimed Early Childhood Education music programmes Family Music for Babies (FMB) and Family Music for Toddlers (FMT). They advocate for active music-making as a family because they believe that children are innately musical, and children need the immersive and supportive environment to flourish not only as a musician, but holistically as a child all through to adulthood.
[quote]Bloom School of Music & Arts is one of the few schools in Singapore to offer these Musikgarten programmes, and we would love for you to discover the magic and wonder of the Musikgarten experience. Music is a gift that will last a lifetime.
Celebrate Bloom's 15th birthday with this special offer:
Quote KIASUXBLOOM via WhatsApp to 92783315 to schedule a free trial (Thursdays, 4pm/5pm)[/quote]https://postimg.cc/vcYpGP0F

See you then!

This Deepavali, let us learn about some Indian classical, and folk dance forms!


I noticed some similarities between Indian dances and Musikgarten experiences at https://www.bloom.com.sg/.
Bloom School of Music & Arts is proud to be one of the few schools in Singapore to offer https://www.bloom.com.sg/musikgarten-program/, an Early Childhood music programme from USA backed by research on child development and psychology, for children 0-6 years old.

Read the full article https://www.bloom.com.sg/indian-dance-visual-arts-deepavali-2023/, and also read our exclusive interview with the Meenalochani, Director of https://www.makoolamkk.com/, an Indian Dance & Visual Arts academy in Singapore.

(1) Kolattam is a folk dance, also known as the 'Stick Dance', as performers will hold different coloured sticks, hitting them together at intervals, and dance, usually in a circle, in synchrony to rhythmic tunes.

In our https://www.bloom.com.sg/family_music_for_toddlers/ lessons for the 18mo-3yo, we also use sticks, though these sticks are more than just props. We use rhythm sticks to explore rhythm patterns, and also to build awareness of beat. These rhythm sticks are made of natural wood that are smoothly sanded, and have a distinctive clack when tapped together.

It is important to allow young children to hold, carry, and experiment with good-quality instruments made from natural materials. Good tones “tune” their ears, and when allowed to explore, young children discover new ways to play the instruments, and also improvise their own music. They also learn how to determine factors such as when, how long, how loud, etc., thus examining pitch, timbre, dynamics, rhythm, and melody, practising the beat, and making up their own musical games.

(2) Oyilattam is a dance of ‘beauty’, as implied by ‘oyil’. This beautiful, traditional dance form, originating from Tamil Nadu, portrays the folk, and mythological stories such as those of Mahabharata, Lord Muruga, and Ramayana. The dancers would wear ankle-bells, and hold handkerchiefs while dancing in time with the music.

Scarves accompany our https://www.bloom.com.sg/family_music_for_babies/ lessons often. Scarves are perfect for peek-a-boo musical games, for highlighting flowing movements, for juggling, for costuming, or for anything else one can imagine. Its vibrant colours, lightness, and transparency makes it ideal for babies to learn object permanence, and clarify spatial concepts such as up/down, side-to-side.

Young children enjoy having something in their hands, because they get to explore the texture, the shape, and the various ways to manipulate the object. Having something in hand also focuses their attention, and acts as an extension of their hand and body. The graceful movement of the scarf leads children naturally to expressive movement, and the sensations generated by those movements link them with feelings and memories which are mapped on the whole body.

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Regardless of where music comes from (whether your homeland, or mine), music-making is active and joyful!
At https://www.bloom.com.sg/, we believe that children are innately musical, and they have an inborn ability to sing and move rhythmically, and which we can nurture. The earlier a child is in an environment of active music-making, the more likely that child’s musicality will be awakened and developed.

Consider affording your children to a weekly, set time, dedicated to parent-child bonding on top of being surrounded by music, and musical instruments, and active participation in a musical environment, and learn, together with your children, to make music, both freely and naturally.

Find out more about our Musikgarten programmes (FMT & FMB) by sending us a WhatsApp message to 9278 3315, or filling in the https://www.bloom.com.sg/contact-us/.

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From all of us at Bloom School Music & Arts, here is wishing all celebrants:

May you all be surrounded with Love, Light, and Happiness.
Happy Deepavali!

🪔🪔🪔🪔🪔🪔🪔

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🎶 New FMT class! 🎶

We have a new Family Music for Toddlers class (18mo-3yo) beginning 4 July, every Tuesday, 4pm!

Come join us,
and experience music the Musikgarten way!

To register for a trial class,
send us a WhatsApp at +6592783315.

See you then!

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#Musikgarten #FMT #FamilyMusicForToddlers
#musicforyoungchildren #earlychildhoodmusic
#newclass #musicenrichment

We are almost into the second quarter of 2023! How are you doing?


I hope you and your child(ren) are settled in to new routines and experiences, especially for children transitioning from kindergarten into primary school! It’s a huge leap for the little ones, who need to: use money to buy food at the canteen before learning how to count money; make new friends; be responsible for a whole lot more things (school books, belongings, and homework!); learn so many more new subjects.

It can be overwhelming for some children, especially those who have not attended any form of school before primary school. According to Fred Cordeiro, Executive Director at Clarity Singapore, writing for the government initiative My Mental Health, there are some warning signs to recognise stress your child may be facing:

* Difficulty falling asleep, or staying awake, changes in sleep patterns, and nightmares
* Return of behaviours that your child had grown out of, such as bed-wetting
* Increased intensity, frequency, and duration of mood swings
* Aggressive behaviours and tantrums
* Changes in eating habits, such as comfort eating, or a lack of appetite in response to stressful situations
* Pain: Headaches, vomiting, stomachaches, and cramps (may indicate emotional stress)
* Excessive worrying that is keeping your child up at night. Insignificant things also seem to cause unnecessary anxiety
* Sudden changes in behaviours, such as clinginess, and crying (could mean your child is struggling with stress)
* Trouble concentrating: Over-thinking, forgetting simple instructions, experiencing difficulties in completing ordinary tasks, and loss of interest in school work
* Withdrawal from activities your child used to enjoy, and pushing away friends and family

As parents, the best way we can support our children is to be there and offer a listening ear. We can also help them to manage their stress. Here are Fred’s tips:

1) Determine if it is a problem-focused or emotion-focused problem
* Problem-focused problem: relates to a current problem that needs to be managed by the child. Parents can help by exploring strategies to remove or reduce the stressor(s) through problem-solving techniques, time-management skills, or improving social support
* Emotion-focused problem: Usually beyond the child’s control. Helpful stress management strategies include reducing negative emotional responses (such as embarrassment, fear, anxiety, and frustration), and mindfulness activities
2) If symptoms persist, seek professional help. Appropriate therapeutic interventions can be applied to mitigate depression when help is sought early. Your child can reach out to the Tinkle Friend Helpline at 1800 274 4788.

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Music has the power to impact one both physically and mentally. Music is not only for entertainment; it can also help boost your overall well-being: from reducing stress, to improving cognitive performance, and encouraging and inspiring creativity.

Until our children learn effective coping strategies, why not use music to help them self-soothe? You can download their favourite songs into their mobile phones, or create a music playlist on an accessible platform which they can turn to when they need it.

Playing music for pleasure can also have a soothing effect! According to research, playing instruments can help musicians—regardless of skill level—lower their heart rates and blood pressure, reduce stress levels, lower anxiety, and deter depression. Playing an instrument can also increase your problem-solving abilities, besides improving your overall mental capacity. Playing an instrument can help bring you to a state of “flow”. It sounds like a prescription I would like to have!

If your child is not already learning an instrument, why not let him/her learn one?
Bloom School of Music & Arts offers a variety of instruments to learn (piano, drum, violin, viola, cello, guitar, and ukulele)! Send us an Online Enquiry, register for a trial/assessment, or come on down to our studio to have a chat with us!

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Read this article in its entirety https://www.bloom.com.sg/using-music-to-help-children-cope-with-stress-museum-musings-mental/

I hope this post has been helpful for you, and I wish you and your children lots more precious moments as you navigate the year together, and be pillars of support for each other.
Keep each other in check, and watch out for each other 💗

How else do you help you children cope with stress? Let's continue the conversation!

monica15\" post_id=\"2102081\" time=\"1679418792\" user_id=\"201147:

I always dreamed of playing the piano, I still have small children and I don't know if I should realize my dream in them?
but I know it's great for a baby's growth

Hi Monica,

Perhaps you can start with baby music programmes, such as Musikgarten. Musikgarten is backed by Early Childhood research, and offers music programmes suitable for babies in-utero to five years old. Over time, as your child expresses more and more interest in music, you can send them for individual music classes, and then you'll have a Little Musician in the house!

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https://www.bloom.com.sg/contact-us/ is one of the few schools offering Musikgarten. You can consider going for a trial class first!

In learning music, there are various piano teaching methods music teachers use to help their students excel.

These are some other Piano teaching methods being used in music schools in Singapore:


Suzuki Method
Developed by a Japanese violinist, Shin’ichi Suzuki, this method of teaching is based on the realisation that children learn their mother tongue with ease Suzuki recreates the ‘ideal’ environment for learning music with what a person has for learning their native language, by including love, praise, rote training and repetition, and a timetable lead by the student’s developmental readiness for learning a particular technique. This teaching method exposes students to performance opportunities in a positive way, such that performing becomes a joy rather than a dreaded job.


Orff Schulwerk
The basis of this “approach to music” is that students have innate abilities to engage in rudimentary forms of music using basic rhythms and melodies. It is developed by Carl Orff, a prominent German composer, to help foster students’ self-discovery of their bodies as a percussive instrument, to encourage improvisation, and to discourage adult pressures and rote learning.


Yamaha Music
Interestingly, the Yamaha method began with Genichi Kawakami, a businessman who expanded his family-owned piano company to an international conglomerate, making products ranging from motorcycles to musical instruments. He developed the Electone Organ, and oversaw the establishment of the Yamaha Music Foundation in 1966. The objective of this method is to cultivate students’ musical ability within an environment that inspires a love for music. Thus, the use of solfège, participation in music appreciation activities, singing, and movement to music, rhythm and keyboard ensembles.

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At https://www.bloom.com.sg/, our piano lessons are taught using the Alfred Premier Piano Method. Alfred Music features a variety of other books, all correlated and presented in 4 progressive levels. Its baroque, romantic and classical piano pieces are arranged without too much fanfare, making it ideal for serious, self-motivated students to learn. The Alfred Method for children uses coloured pictures, graphics, and multimedia to help with the learning process.

The four courses of Alfred’s Basic Piano Library—Prep, Basic, All-In-One, Complete—are all based on the same fundamentals. Students learning by this method are often good at:

* correct playing habits
* Intervallic Reading, which means recognizing the intervals between notes
* having a solid foundation in music theory
* multi-key reading
* chord progression

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By understanding how each music teaching method works, we can decide how the strengths and weaknesses of the method score against our preferences, and the way we learn.

I will end this post with this quote by Rita Dunn: If the child is not learning the way you are teaching, then you must teach in the way the child learns.

Read the full article at https://www.bloom.com.sg/how-do-you-learn-a-look-into-piano-teaching-methods/

The brains and brawn behind USA’s leading Early Childhood music programme, https://www.musikgarten.org/benefits-of-music--movement, share that children are oriented towards learning language, and music is a language. Music is also a social activity involving family and community participation, and music transmit culture, and is an avenue by which beloved songs, rhymes, and dances are passed down from one generation to another.


Who remembers hearing about Grandma singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to your Mum, who later sang it for you when you were growing up, and now you are singing it for your own children? What about this https://www.bloom.com.sg/mothers-day-2021/?

In multi-cultural Singapore, we have a whole treasure trove of these traditional and cultural songs, nursery rhymes, and poems of our different languages, that we meaningfully and carefully curate, and share with our younglings, and/or people close to us.

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If you want to learn how to use music to engage baby in learning, or you just want to spend the time bonding with baby, come join us for our http://bloom.com.sg/family_music_for_babies/ classes! During our classes, we introduce to parents, various activities that will help them learn to:

• Bond and play musically with their babies
• Stimulate the development of the babies’ left and right brain through music
• Sing, move, dance, rock, bounce with their babies, and playing wiggle, tickle and peek-a-boo games with them

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https://www.bloom.com.sg/contact-us/ to find out more about Musikgarten, and our class schedules! We hope to see you soon!

Meanwhile, let us learn a simple Chinese song you can sing to, and with your baby!

What is your Mother Tongue? 我的母语是中文。
A Taiwanese colleague of mine created this simple Chinese song as part of preschool’s Circle Time. I like it very much because it can also be sung with baby, perhaps as part of a bath time routine. With her permission, I have adapted it, and included hand actions to aid in baby’s memory and eye-hand coordination. Here is the video:

[youtube=https://youtu.be/iPUe5piS-Cs][/youtube]

(Read the entirety of this article, and our exclusive interview with the founders of https://www.dimsumwarriors.com/clubland/ over at https://www.bloom.com.sg/making-music-with-baby-in-chinese-exclusive-interview-dim-sum-warriors/)

Here's a sneak peek:
You https://www.dimsumwarriors.com/blog/chinese-for-kids/, with this method: Learn Chinese in a fun way with the https://www.dimsumwarriors.com/!

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In our interview, we find out about the amazing work Dr Yen Yen and Colin Goh do to make Chinese-learning approachable and manageable. Also, find out what 'translanguaging' is, in our article!

See you there!

Is parkour and freerunning appropriate for children? https://www.bloom.com.sg/exclusive-interview-tan-chi-ying-a2-movements-parkour/ finds out in an exclusive interview with Tan Chi Ying of A2 Movements Parkour Academy!


We have got Children’s Day coming up, so let us talk more about play, because that is what children are really good at!
We have talked about play a few times now, with this being our most recent article about open-ended play and its benefits: https://www.bloom.com.sg/lets-celebrate-play-exclusive-interview-with-nur-waheeda-of-odn/. Let us explore other ways we can play: parkour!
[quote]Whether parkour or freerunning is better;
whether you are a boy or a girl;
competitive or expressive;
practising in an urban environment or the forest;
in the end, this is all “just movement, and more importantly,
it (i)s all just play”.

– World Freerunning Parkour Federation[/quote]My daughter takes parkour classes, and game time is structured into lessons, mainly because it is fun, and it is also a time to practise the skills she has learnt. One of the games my daughter played was a lightsaber fight with her coach, and it made me think of actual fight sequences in Star Wars movies. Did you know that the stunts include parkour moves such as flips, wall runs, and precision jumping?

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoalsuqWKvA&t=2s][/youtube]

I first heard about parkour when I was studying French, and watched the French film, Banlieue 13 (District 13). I was impressed, but never got around to learning it for myself. Two decades and a daughter later, out of curiosity, I asked her
“What would you like to be when you grow up?”
She confidently replied, “Ninja!”
And thus began our search for a space to learn parkour.

We decided on A2 Movements Parkour Academy, and there we met the Founder and Coach, Tan Chi Ying. Qi, as he is also known as, is an accomplished entrepreneur and professional Freerunner. He graduated from the University of Manchester with a Bachelor of Science in Business, and used his business knowledge to start up A2 Movements. He also studied Interior Architecture Design at Temasek Polytechnic, and designed the Free Runner Lodge where he holds both private and group classes for children and adults. The Free Runner Lodge is cosy, unintimidating, and makeshift—designed for every level from beginner to advanced.
Chi Ying is a stoic, down-to-earth, and passionate parkour instructor. He cares deeply about safety and getting techniques right to prevent injuries, and is generous with his encouragement.

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https://www.instagram.com/bloomschoolsg/ is very thrilled to interview Chi Ying to talk about parkour and its features, and ask if parkour is a sport children can learn. Read the full article https://www.bloom.com.sg/exclusive-interview-tan-chi-ying-a2-movements-parkour/

Meanwhile, to find out more about Singapore's first parkour training academy, click https://www.a2movements.com/about-us to visit A2 Movements Parkour Academy, and chat with Chi Ying yourself!

Meanwhile, from all of us at Bloom School of Music & Arts, here is wishing all children, and children at heart,

Happy Children's Day!