Music For Kiddos Podcast

On this week's episode of the Music For Kiddos Podcast , Stephanie Leavell chats with music therapist and founder of The Self Care Institute , Ami Kunimura. They talk about burnout and taking care of ourselves as music therapists and music educators. We hope this episode and her words feel nourishing and encouraging to you.     Get free music every month and be a part of our Song-of-the-Month Club...

On this week's episode of the Music For Kiddos Podcast , Stephanie Leavell chats with Janet Stephens, who is the owner of Bear Paw Creek . Bear Paw Creek equips teachers, therapists, and parents as they seek to enrich the lives of others through creative movement products and music. They are also a sponsor of the podcast. Janet talks about building a business and shares the story on how Bear Paw C...

Stephanie Leavell shares 3 winter music books and their melodies for preschool and kindergarten music classes and sessions.      Get free music every month and be a part of our Song-of-the-Month Club!    www.musicforkiddos.com/newsletter   Read more about this episode here: https://www.musicforkiddos.com/blog/podcast51 We have partnered with West Music. Check out their incredible instruments and t...

Do you know the BenAnna Band? If you haven't listened to their wonderful music yet, you should! On this week's episode of the Music For Kiddos Podcast, Stephanie Leavell is joined by some of the most delightful people ever, the members of the energetic children's music duo, the BenAnna Band.   Get free music every month and be a part of our Song-of-the-Month Club!    www.musicforkiddos.com/newslet...

On this week's episode of the Music For Kiddos Podcast , Stephanie Leavell will walk you through a monthly lesson plan and what how she introduces it gradually over the course of a month.      Join the Music for Kiddos Resource Community! Limited spots available!   www.musicforkiddos.com/community   Read more about this episode here: https://www.musicforkiddos.com/blog/podcast49 We have partnered...

The Music for Kiddos Podcast is back! And on this week's podcast, Stephanie Leavell talks about a feeling that might lead to burnout and that makes music educators and music therapists think that they might not be doing enough: the feeling of inadequacy. Stephanie also shares how she structures her lesson plans and how she uses repetition to do less but make more of an impact in the classroom.    ...

How are you engaging in self-care? On this week's episode of the Music For Kiddos Podcast, Stephanie Leavell talks about how she's engaging in self-care this month and shares an exciting update!   Sign up for the Song-of-the-Month Newsletter to receive our FREE Christmas Songbook (and a FREE original children's song every month!) www.musicforkiddos.com/newsletter   The Music For Kiddos Community o...

On episode 46 of the Music For Kiddos Podcast, I get to talk to my sister-in-law Kerry Leavell, LCPC, MT-BC, who is a huge part of who I am as a music therapist. We talk about authenticity and what it means to be authentic in the music spaces we share with children and what it means to be authentically yourself while preserving your energy and well-being by not always giving it your all. Because a...

On this week's episode of the Music For Kiddos Podcast, Stephanie Leavell is talking about sensory seekers as part of a mini-series about sensory processing in music spaces. Stephanie also shares how we can support children who are sensory seekers as music therapists or music educators.     Subscribe to our Song-of-the-month newsletter here: www.musicforkiddos.com/newsletter Read more about this e...

On this week's episode of the Music For Kiddos Podcast, Stephanie Leavell dives deeper into what it means for children to be sensory avoiders. She also talks about how, as music therapists and as music educators, we can take a sensory based approach and learn how their sensory systems are impacted by music.       Subscribe to our Song-of-the-month newsletter here: www.musicforkiddos.com/newsletter...

At Music For Kiddos, we just finished organizing and celebrating our biggest event of the year, the Music For Kiddos Symposium. More than 650 music therapists and music educators joined us virtually for a day of learning, community, support, and exchange of ideas. We had the most incredible presenters and leaders in the music education and music therapy arena, including the "Queen of kids music",...

On this week's podcast, Narwhals and Waterfalls join Stephanie Leavell for a conversation about SEL, or Social-Emotional Learning and how to infuse it in the music classroom. Narwhals and Waterfalls is a Kindie Rock band that consists of singer-songwriters Paige Bell and Adrien Palmer. Both teachers in Dallas, Texas, they connected in 2018 over their passion to write creative, original songs to he...

On today's podcast, Stephanie Leavell is joined by the keynote speaker for the Music For Kiddos Symposium, the absolutely incredible queen of children's music, Laurie Berkner .    **Register for the 2021 Music For Kiddos Symposium, our online conference for music therapists and music educators who work with kids here ! It's all happening on November 12th.    Subscribe to our Song-of-the-month news...

On today's podcast, Stephanie Leavell is joined by Hakeem Leonard and Kerry Devlin . Hakeem Leonard (he/him/his), PhD, MT-BC, is Associate Professor of Music Therapy and Assistant Provost for Inclusive, Diversity, and Equity at Shenandoah University . Kerry Devlin, MMT, MT-BC (she/her) is senior music therapist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Music & Medicine . She is a current PhD student at Aalb...

On today's podcast, Stephanie Leavell is joined by Lorrie Kubicek and Kimberly Khare. Lorrie Kubicek, MT-BC is a board certified music therapist and program manager for Expressive Therapies at Massachusetts General-Brigham Hospital . Kimberly Khare , MT-BC is a board certified music therapist and a Nordoff-Robbins music therapist. She is Song Studio Director for Next Step , a Boston-based non prof...

On today's podcast, Stephanie Leavell is joined by Rich Abante Moats, MA, MT-BC, music therapist and Director for AdventHealth Central Florida Division's Integrative & Creative Arts Therapy Program.   Rich 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: C...

On today's podcast, Stephanie Leavell is joined by Kaiti Shelton, MT-BC, music therapist in Indiana who works with children and adults with a variety of disabilities through the Indiana Medicaid Waiver.    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 presentat...

Have you met Franklin Willis ? 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. For Franklin, kids are his focus, and his avenue to really care for kids is music. On today's podcast, Stephanie Leavell is joined by Franklin Willis who talks about using music and...

What do you do when your music class becomes chaotic and you can't seem to get them back?   It happens. Sometimes it seems like there's just something in the air. Sometimes, something happened earlier in the day with the kids in their class. Maybe a few kids are having a particularly challenging day. Sometimes it is just close to impossible to get the attention back and to get that sense of calm b...

What's your relationship with technology as a music therapist or music educator? Do you use YouTube in your lessons/sessions, or, do you create videos for YouTube?     Stephanie Leavell met with Bill Henry & Bruce Fite of The Music Podcast For Kids   to talk about their podcast and about different technology tools we can use as music therapists and music educators. Additionally, they shared some t...

It's Shy Little Monster Season !     The Shy Little Monster is a music-book Stephanie Leavell wrote & self-published, illustrated by Sarah Pilar Echevarría. This ( not scary! ) Halloween story is a charming and beautifully illustrated Halloween book that celebrates silliness, friendship, and shows kids that hard things can be made just a little bit easier with the help of your (adorable monster) f...

This week on the podcast, Stephanie Leavell is answering some of the most frequently asked questions (FAQs) about creating an online business, in a really specialized way, with a relatively small audience, that provides a full-time income. She also share some strategies and ideas on how you might be able to do it, too.    Subscribe to our Song-of-the-month newsletter here: www.musicforkiddos.com/n...

How do we use music to help kids regulate their sensory systems?   Over the years,Stephanie Leavell has talked to hundreds of music therapists, music educators and parents about self-regulation, which is a topic that tends to really pique everybody's interest. On this episode of the Music For Kiddos Podcast, Stephanie talks about songs for sensory regulation and how we can use music to help kids r...

How are you feeling about back to school this year?   Many of us music therapists and music educators feel a mix of emotions, including uncertainty, as we approach the start of a new school year.   In the hopes of bringing some certainty and extending some kind of support, Stephanie Leavell shares some tactics she uses this time of the year and ideas for back to school planning to make sure you ha...

Stephanie Leavell, MT-BC shares with you four ways to use music with transitions, which Stephanie describes as "getting kids to 'work with her' instead of 'against her" by using music.     Transitions can be difficult for young kids, but a song can really prepare them and go through that change successfully. Giving children advanced notice combined with a song, can serve as that gentle reminder &...