This week, we’ve had the pleasure to interview Hakeem Leonard and Kerry Devlin, two music therapists who I respect and admire. You might know them from Instagram and if you don’t, I recommend you follow their accounts: Hakeem @musicallman and Kerry @liberatedlearning.

Peek A Boo, my peekaboo song, is perfect to use online or in-person with scarves. If the kids are online, you can have kids use any kind of scarf, blanket or t-shirt that they can use to cover their faces. During virtual session, you can cover use your scarf to play “peekaboo” with your camera!

I hope that you have been enjoying this Music For Kiddos Symposium Presenters’ series we have been doing on the blog and on the Music For Kiddos Podcast. We are interviewing each and everyone of the speakers leading up to November 12th, 2021, when the Music For Kiddos Symposium is taking place. If you missed the previous interviews, so far we’ve had the opportunity to talk with Franklin Willis, Kaiti Shelton & Rich Abante Moats, who are wonderful music therapists and music educators who you should know. This time, we got to interview some of my favorite people in the whole entire world. We get to hear from Lori Kubicek and Kimberly Khare who are my personal mentors and two people I love so much.

Grizzly Bear Grump is a sensory-based movement song. It helps kids explore feelings of anger and frustration, and then it gives them specific sensory tools to help them self-regulate.

Rita Antonia Abante Moats, MA, MT-BC or most commonly called “Rich,” has been a board-certified music therapist for 13 years. Rich has primarily worked in the medical setting since becoming a board-certified music therapist in the United States. Her initial passion was in pediatric music therapy - working with children diagnosed with cancer, other life limiting illnesses, as well as the neonatal intensive care unit. Since then, Rich has worked with children and adults in the hospital, both in individual and group settings, from Med-Surg, ICU, Neuro, Cardiac, Psych, and Rehab.

Bitty Bitty Bat, it's a MAJOR favorite song of kids, music teachers and music therapists alike. With this song, kids can pretend they're an itty bitty bat (with teeny, tiny wings) and then in the middle part ("I'm flying...") they can fly with BIG wings. As the song goes on, they go back and forth between flying (big wings) and being a bitty bitty bat (little wings).

Kaiti Shelton, MT-BC, is a board-certified music therapist from Indiana. Kaiti will be presenting at our annual conference for music therapists and music educators who work with kids, the Music For Kiddos Symposium, on November 12th, 2021. The title of her presentation: A Look At Inclusion Strategies And Tips For Accommodating Blind Or Visually Impaired Music Learners.

What if we celebrated fall by singing songs in Spanish? Latinx/Hispanic Heritage month coincides with the start of the fall season here in the United States, and bringing songs by Latino/e artists, singing in the Spanish language, and learning about the different Latin American countries and their traditions (seasonal or year-round) can be some of the ways in which we can honor and appreciate the Latin American ancestry and cultures.

If you are on Instagram and you are a music educator or a music therapist, you know who Franklin Willis is. He is a leader, author, an educator, public speaker and music education coach. I first got introduced to Franklin a when he was interviewed by our Empowering Little Leaders course instructors Kerry Devlin, Zoe Levine and Naomi Davis on Instagram. I remember so clearly, Franklin talking about how the kids were his focus, and his avenue to really care for kids was music.

I’m going to share with you a list of some of my favorite Laurie Berkner songs for early childhood music lessons and music therapy sessions.