Parenting Tip:  Get louder & quieter with your preschooler!   Why? As children experience and listen for tempo (fast or slow?), dynamics (loud or soft?), and melodies (up or down, high or low?), they are developing the critical skill of being able to distinguish between sounds – an ability that is absolutely vital to reading. Listening and paying attention are naturally encouraged in music activities where children are encouraged to interact with, engage in, and respond to what they are hearing in the music, rather than just passively participating.   How? Read the e-book ‘Rain Song’ with your child.  Can you use voice sounds, or instrument sounds, to emulate the crescendo (getting louder) and decrescendo (getting quieter) of the rain? To make crescendo (kreh-shen-do) and decrescendo (day-kreh-shen-do) sound effects, try some ‘Do-It-Yourself Weather Sounds‘   Want to Learn More? Try singing the ‘Crescendo’ song, and  the ‘Decrescendo’ song!   Kindermusik 7-Year Continuum:  Kindermusik babies experience loud & quiet sounds as their grownup tiptoes and stomps with them, and demonstrates playing instruments in loud & quiet ways.  As toddlers, Kindermusik kids begin tiptoeing & stomping, themselves, as they follow what their grownups are modeling.  In Kindermusik preschool classes, students are learning musical terminology for loud & quiet, like forte, piano, crescendo & decrescendo.  Big kids, in Young Child classes, begin to apply those musical terms to songs they play on instruments – like glockenspiel, dulcimer, and recorder.