To mark the launch of the Potato Pals 1 app, author and guest blogger Patrick Jackson asks some important questions about app time. My son Kai is 10 and hooked on his iPad. We should really call it a KaiPad. He’d use it pretty much all day long if we let him, (although he tells… Read more »
Simple in Seattle
We’ve moved! To the beautiful city of Seattle, Washington. Actually, we began this move a little over a year ago, but it’s taken us a while to get settled in. If you’re not familiar with our story, around 2005, we (Devon, Troy, and Tanja) started making simple songs for teaching basic language skills to young… Read more »
Super Simple Songs In Burma
Our friend and colleague, Sara Wall, recently went to Myanmar (Burma) to volunteer for two weeks at an education monastery in the northern Shan State. We were excited to hear that she took Super Simple Songs along and wanted to know more about her experiences. Tell us about the project. There were 17 volunteers, including… Read more »
Puppets as communication aids
Puppets are great helpers. We know that children connect with puppets in a variety of ways. Children listen to what the puppets say. Children really hate to disappoint puppets, and children are remarkably willing to change their behavior to keep the puppets happy. They also have conversations with puppets that they won’t have with anyone… Read more »
Weekend Reading: Music and the Brain
We’re fascinated with music. We’re fascinated with how it makes us feel, how it helps us learn, and how it relaxes our minds. We’re not the only ones. These articles and programs on music on the mind stirred our imaginations this week. We hope you’ll check them out and take a moment to think about… Read more »
Frère Jacques Around the World
This is a guest post written by our friend, Lisa Yannucci. Her website, Mama Lisa’s World, is one of our favorites and is the internet’s go-to site for children’s songs and rhymes from around the world. Parents and teachers often write me asking for suggestions about activities they can perform with kids to stimulate their… Read more »
Weekend Reading: Music’s Effect On Learning
Plato said, “I would teach children music, physics, and philosophy; but most importantly music, for the patterns in music and all the arts are the keys to learning.” Scientists seem to agree. Scientists have discovered much about how music affects the brain and where in the brain all of this is happening. The research is… Read more »
Felt Boards in the Young Learners Classroom
This is a guest post from our good friend, Bob Pensak, owner of the English language school, Bob’s English, in Okazaki, Japan. “Felt boards” are an exciting, fun way to tell a story by combining music, movement, and visuals. Felt boards can be purchased or made very easily. Go a hardware or art supply store… Read more »
Weekend Reading: Raising Bilingual Children
We recently posted a fascinating article about how bilinguals switch between languages on our Facebook page. Parents often ask us for advice on raising their children bilingually. Parents want to do it and educators want to help. Christina Bosemark wrote a series of 6 articles about raising bilingual children, giving loads of insight, advice, and… Read more »
How music changed my teaching life
This is a guest post from our Good Friend, Patrick Jackson, author of Potato Pals, Stars, and Everybody Up, all published by Oxford University Press. Before I went to Japan and started to teach kids, I ran a late night café in Dublin. While there are some similarities between customers in a restaurant and… Read more »
