"Like all new moms, I wanted to eat healthy, exercise, and do everything I could for a fabulous pregnancy. I discovered all sorts of websites for a healthy pregnancy, but one caught my attention about the "Mozart Effect". So I started to surround myself with classical music during my prenatal phase. I would fall asleep listening to it, so I decided to purchase a headphone set and would place the earpiece on my stomach so my unborn baby can listen to the music also. Every evening I would do this on a regular basis prior to falling asleep. When the day arrived for delivery, I took my CD player to the hospital and played classical music. Other then my voice, my children listened to classical music during their first hours of life.
I would go for long walks and carry a small CD player with portable speakers. I would place them by the stroller and both my children would fall asleep. I decided to do this during their bed time routine, always playing the same piece of classical music; that way it becomes imbedded in their sense of memory. Some infants sooth or calm themselves with pacifiers, blanket or their fingers before falling asleep. My children learned that classical music would sooth them to fall asleep.
In the childcare facility where Benjamin attended at the age of 4, there was an incident that upset him. His teacher asked him what she could do to help him feel better. My son asked the teacher to turn classical music on, so she looked for a radio and played his request. She was surprised, but Benjamin sat on a chair and listened to the music to calm down. When his teacher mentioned this, I was not surprised by my son's request.
I am so grateful that we have found Ms. Tanya (as my children call her). Our experience with her has been very rewarding. As our music teacher, she has given my children the message that classical music can be fun, and not boring to listen to." - Barbara G.
"I wish my child be able to learn and appreciate classical music, but I don't know much about it; I'm not a musician. One time I've read that a polyphonic music is extremely beneficial to a young child, but I don't know what polyphony is and what composers wrote polyphonic music. I don't know how to instill my 3-year old daughter's love for classical music. I wanted her to take a music class, but all I found to be offered just children songs, movement (wildly running around in a room), banging on some instruments like glockenspiel and drums (they call it self-learning). It seems to be that our modern culture is all about fun!
But I want something more than that, something more intelligent and inspiring. Any place you go to in our days like stores, fitness clubs, friends' homes, you hear music that is not appropriate for young children, that is more like noisy disturbance. I'd like to take my child to places, where you hear classical music and meet other parents who have the same values as mine. I think I finally found such a place: it's a Parents Night Out program by Musical Environments." - Susan L.