#Helloeverybody!  This is our first week of classes for infants through children 8 yrs of age!

 It is also the time when many children are going to half day or full days of school. Remember your child may love taking a class with YOU even when they go to school during the week!

I've heard so many grown-ups throughout this registration time, say to me..."my baby is a covid baby".  I assure you that all families are in the same boat. I also know that these past few years have been filled with such important one on one parent/caregiver -baby/child time. Our classes are the perfect environment to ease back into or experience first time a joyful group setting.

We have been so grateful to be able to have made Music Together^®® and Rhythm Kids^® by Music Together^®® with so many families throughout the pandemic.  Thank you to everyone who joined us online and discovered -The Joy Of Family Music Making^®   in the comfort of their own home.

So, here we are and many of us are back in person together!  Please, please, please, keep making music at home too. Our rich curriculum has been designed and continually researched and developed to help you and your child grow, bond, and play in every way throughout your day!

AND...remember the power of the lullaby! Thank you and reafch out to me through Contact Us any time! -Wendy

I have a confession...I was on a roll writing this blog finishing up our Summer session and getting ready for our highly anticipated Fall Semester!  That was my most recent post before today. Good news is that we were able to create music indoors, outdoors, and online this Fall, Winter, and now gearing up for Spring!  Families are thriving and so excited to see other families and children again.

I had to think back and stop to think, what happened?  Why did I stop writing this Blog?  Well a big shift happened in the Fall when once again there were many unknowns about covid and I got really preoccupied figuring things out for the sessions and a habit really only becomes a habit by doing it.  

So...rather than being upset for loosing track of this habit, I am simply picking it up again.  Truth is: none of us can do everything all of the time.  So Grown-ups, as we move into Spring, I implore you to congratulate yourselves for all you have done, all the switching gears, and resiliance you continue every day, and know that your children will know that they were heroes getting through this time as are you.  

I pray for the families in Ukraine and around the world. Now that is a big shift in life. I pray that they are safe and continue to be able to sing in their hearts for and with their children as no one can take that away from them.  

If you are looking for places to donate: please consider these reputable organizations- Team Rubicon, Mercy Corps, Lutheran World Relief, HIAS, Church World Service, Doctors Without Borders, Care USA,Catholic Relief Services, Direct Relief & Direct Relief Foundation, International Rescue Committee, Medical Teams International, Operations USA, Project Hope, United Methodist Committee on Relief

Thank you! -Wendy

So today is Saturday, not Wednesday with Wendy, and I realize the Summer was a blink! I have not written in this Blog for the whole session. What have I been up to?  I returned to teaching after 5 plus years of not being able to do so, due to a car accident and balance issues.  I have spent the last 5 years rewiring my brain and guess what, I have been able to lead 20 min classes via Zoom 3 times a week and it has been a joy!  So...although I always understood that we we do in our classes musically supports all learning, and that a variety of sensory stimuli is essential to help those neurological connections happen in your babies through 5 year old brains, so that the information may travel,  I had the opportunity to experience that growth again in terms of balance, movement, and vision all over again.  It is true, synapses that fire together-wire together.  We build them stronger and stronger with repetition.  It must be at the natural development of your child.  Meet your child where they are.  Be patient, trust, and celebrate every move.  Every child is a miracle and I thank you for letting us share in this time of extraordinary growth!  This Fall starts our 18th year of bringing Music Together to families throughout Queens, NY and I feel as blessed and excited about this new year as the first,  perhaps even more for all we have been through together.

With indoor, outdoor, and online class options we will all be able to make Music Together however we feel most comfortable.  Proof of Vaccinations for all who are old enough to get it - will be required for all classes and masks for everyone above two yrs of age.  You may bring your own instruments to class, or purchase our gently used instruments to keep.  I have so many high quality instruments that have been safe in trunks for well over a year, that they should be used and loved!  

Change is a given, and so is the miracle of a child and their ability to be music makers!  Let's celebrate them in all we do with them and for them! Thank you.-Wendy

Our May Family Favorites^® Interim Session was a major success!  I don't know who was more excited, the teachers, the grown-ups, or me!

Congratulations everybody! However you made it through this past year, you did it! 

You and your children have a level of resilience that you can always look back on, and may it be a source of strength and confidence filled with love.

Well, I will visiting class this Sat., at the Church in the Gardens and I am so excited to 

You know that thrill of the first time you see a child you love do something for the first time, and then when they repeat it and grow!!! My heart leaps out of my skin and I know yours does too.  Gosh!  Children are extraordinary learners!

You are all doing so much to enrich your children's lives and learning, especially this past year.  I've seen it via Zoom, so a huge Hurray!!! for you grown-ups...and of course to your children for doing what they do naturally.

PLAY>REPETITION>PLAY>PROCESS>PLAY>REPETITION>PLAY>PROCESSPLAY>REPETITION>PLAY>PROCESSPLAY>REPETITION>PLAY>PROCESSPLAY>REPETITION>PLAY>PROCESSPLAY>REPETITION>PLAY>PROCESS.....EXPRESS... and repeat!

Trust that your child is processing, and taking all the musical experiences in, just like everything else.  Do you expect your child to speak in paragraphs when they begin to make their first sounds?  Of course not, do you expect your child to be potty trained after their first infant poop, of course not, so please trust that you provide the stimuli, they process and in their own way and in their own time, they will share all they have processed with you!

Just this week, a Mom who kept assuring me that their child does everything after class, knows the songs, the rhythms, the words, sent me a video.  Of course I was delighted to see the musical development and joy in the music making of this child! I was thrilled and my heart soared. 

Yet, I never needed assurance, because I have seen this miracle of early childhood learning  many thousands of times.  Each is an extraordinay miracle.  Actually it was the miracle of how my child learned and developed that moved me to start my Music Together Center in the first place.  How lucky am I that I get to witness so many of your FIRSTS!

Thank You! - Wendy

Hello Everybody!  If you are reading this, I am sharing a surprise with you!  We are all so excited about our upcoming Outdoor  4-Class Family Favorites^® Interim sessions in May and June, that each registered family will get their class booklet and CD in a fun #Helloeverybody nylon string carry bag plus one large red Music Together egg shaker! 

This way everyone will have a bag to carry their other homemade or home instruments and props when they head out the door for class! 

In anticipation of this next step to making music in person, I admit that I am excited, and a little apprehensive about what to expect.  I know it will be very exciting to be together again,and I know that Nini and Dulce are so excited about teaching outdoors.

It dawned on me, how will your children feel?  How will you feel? The truth is, this is new for us all, making music outside, masked on our own blankets.  Yes, the plan and goal is that it will be a fun and delightful musica experience and a chance to see other families.  With all new experiences, meet your children where they are emotionally.  If they are taking it all in and just looking around, know that their ears are always open.  On the other end of possibilities, If they are so excited that they want to move around alot, please engage them on the blanket for everyones comfort level and safety.  For everyone, remember to take a breath in, enjoy the fresh air, and sing! Thank you! - Wendy

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" I have Ten Little Fingers" is a delightful and fun chant that everyone in our current Triangle song collection is enjoying!  Fingers and Toes crossed that we may be able to meet and make Music Together outside soon!  We are finalizing details with the NYC Parks department !  More news to come.

Till then, and moving forward, our online classes are a source of great joy and music making for us all.  We will definitely be keeping all of our evening classes via Zoom moving forward in addition to in person as the world continues to open up.

Until then, PLEASE wear a mask, physically distance, and meet outside whenever possible.  I got my second vaccine dose and look forward to seeing you all soon! Thank you! -Wendy

Thank you to everyone who sang Happy Birthday to me for my Birthday!!

I love singing Happy Birthday to family, friends, and yes, even strangers at other tables (pre-covid), when the cake, lit candles, and wait staff arrived at their tables to sing Happy Birthday to them.  

I understand that that there are many people who are absolutely mortified when they are sung Happy Birthday in public, and barely tolerate it in small groups in their own space. I am not that person. 

It's funny, I remember not wanting a sweet sixteen party, I felt funny having a bridal shower and sitting with a ribbon hat on my head. The Birthday Song though, brings joy to my heart!  My parents, and sister must have always made me feel very special on my Birthday starting with my first, and I must have learned at a very early age to relish and enjoy the moment! Being born three months premature may have had something to do with rthe excitement of reaching the milestone 1!

Musical memories, and the cellular memory that grows with each note is real and beautiful.  Sing to, for, and with your children!  Music Learning Supports All Learning^®!®️

Some 1 year olds may be startled by a loud resounding Happy Birthday Song, so you might want to sing a soft version, or a slower tempo Happy Birthday Lullaby. Please do Sing!

The day your baby turns 1 and every birthday there after, is an opportunity to celebrate and notice how their musicality grows every year! 

Once they know the Birthday Song, they will have the joy of singing it back to and everyon else they know and love.

Happy Birthday To You! Thank You! -Wendy

Every first class of every semester we start a new song collection.  I always smile with the fondest memory of a Mom in one of my classes. 

New Song Books and CD's were always handed out at the end of each first class and this was her second semester of making Music Together with us.  Well, I began leading the class, and she and her child were smiling during the Hello Song.  As soon as I started singing the next song, which was part of the current/new song collection, this awesome Mom stopped smiling and looked confused. I introduced the next song, and she started looking more confused.  I asked her if she needed anything, and she asked:  "where are the other songs from last class?".  I explained that she was getting a new CD and new songs because this was a new song collection.  Her honest, heartfelt response: "But, I just finished learning all of the other songs, I have to learn new ones!?". 

Why do I love this Mom so much, and why does this memory always make me smile? Well, I think many grown-ups must have felt the same way about being so comfortable with all the songs and movement at the end of the semester that they could have more fun and play more musically with their children and each other, and that feeling of self conciousness that many have when learning anything new, is replaced with joy.

Imagine how the children feel!! Well, on the one hand, children do love anything and everthing NEW.  When you think about it, every experience is new to them.  This is exactly why we have rituals in every class, online, or in person, that are musical guideposts of comfort.  

Guess What, your children have their favorite songs too.  This is why I encourage all returning families to gently weave in the new song collection with the prior song collections.  

Families are very excited about learning the new songs in each new collection once they get over that initial recognition of starting something new.

Welcome to the Triangle Song Collection and to the Rhythm Kids^® Jaquar Song Collection! Thank You. - Wendy

Today is March 10, 2021.  On March 12, 2020 we, in NYC went into Covid-19 lockdown. I am profoundly grateful to be sitting and writing to you today, knowing how many lives have been lost throughout our country and throughout the world. Our time together making music via Zoom is what I, and our teachers have been able to do to keep continuity, joy, and music alive and well for families and our children. Thank you to every single family in our classes!

So many people have stepped up any way they could this past year, to do whatever they could.  To the extraordinary first responders and front line workers - thank you is a start. There is only ONE Dr. Fauci, and thank G-d he and his teams, work on what they do best!!  For many, getting through the day, getting from one meal to the next, keeping that smile and focus for your children, has been an extraordinary accomplishment.  We are in the homestretch.

Now that there is a glimmer, a light of NYC opening up gradually, what does that mean for Music Together with Music and Me classes?  I am cautiously optomistic about returning to in person classes outside late Spring/early Summer.  They may be Sing-A-Long Story book times, and then a full Summer session. 

Our Music Together Online Triangle Song Collection starts March 22nd, and registration is open now! We offer unlimited weekly classes with free in household siblings for one family tuition. Music Together Online Session Details , Registration

A beloved Mom, reached out to me today asking if we will be continuing our ever popular 6:30PM  Mon., Wed., and Fri. Zoom classes, even once we return to in person classes.  She appreciates the ritual, the convenience, and the ability for Grandma to attend the class from her home as well.  The answer is YES! We have also added a 5:30 PM, Zoom Mon. and Wed. class for families preferring that time slot.

Stay Well, Wear a Mask, and Keep Physically distanced for NOW.  Thank you! - Wendy