Music For Kiddos Podcast

Stacey Peasley is a singer songwriter and performer for children and families, as well as an early childhood music specialist in the Metro West Boston area. After the birth of her first child, Stacey started to write songs inspired by her journey of motherhood and later on, merged both her career as an educator and her passion for music to write and perform engaging and educational songs for kids....

Do you also LOVE to use props in your music classes or music therapy sessions?     In this week's episode, Stephanie Leavell is sharing some of her favorite props to use in her music classes. She also shares some uses of props in music education and music therapy.     Subscribe to our Song-of-the-month newsletter here: www.musicforkiddos.com/newsletter     Download the "Peekaboo" here: www.musicfo...

Music therapist and music educator Katie Pistilli joins Stephanie Leavell on this week's episode of the Music For Kiddos Podcast . Katie specializes in ukulele and specifically, ukulele education.     Ukulele resources are so vital. In fact. our bestselling course at Music For Kiddos is our beginning ukulele course: Ukulele For Kiddos .     Listen to the interview with Katie Pistillo to hear about...

Have you downloaded our top 5 children's songs?   If you haven't, I'd recommend doing so because children love these songs & the best part is that you can download these 5 popular children's songs for free !      In today's podcast, Stephanie Leavell is sharing her top 5 children's songs plus some implementation tips and how she uses them during music therapy sessions or music classes with prescho...

What was the last year like for you as a music therapist or music educator?   Many of us can say that in some way or another, 2020 was a challenging year. This week on the Music For Kiddos Podcast, Stephanie Leavell sat down with Monica Levin , Anna Delgado & Jenny Focht, three music therapists and music educators, who are also part of the Music For Kiddos Community , to talk about their experienc...

Burnout is an epidemic among music therapists and music educators and there's lot of shame around it. As someone who has experienced burnout severals time and shame, Stephanie Leavell shares her stories of burnout and some of the tools that helped heal her burnout, such as the Music For Kiddos Community .      Subscribe to our Song-of-the-month newsletter here: www.musicforkiddos.com/newsletter  ...

The way that you create a lesson plan is really different from the way that you actually use a lesson plan.     Even if you follow a step-by-step system to facilitate early childhood music groups, flexibility within a lesson plan allows you to meet your students needs right when they need it. On this episode, Stephanie Leavell shares with you how to functionally use lesson plans in the preschool c...

What do medical music therapists do? How do music therapists use music for procedural support?     To answer these questions and more, Stephanie Leavell sat down with music therapist Amy Love of Pediatric Music Therapy to talk about the work she does as a music therapist working in a medical setting.     Amy Love, MA, MT-BC, CPMT is a music therapist who currently works for St. Jude Children's Res...

What do you do when you run out of ideas? As a music therapist or music educator, I'm sure you can relate to this. We look for inspiration for our lesson plans. We gather ideas for new songs we want to write for our clients. We search for intervention ideas for music therapy sessions.   In this episode, Stephanie Leavell talks about her process of coming up with ideas and finding inspiration to wr...

Did you know that guitar is the instrument that is most requested to learn by kids? It probably comes to no surprise to you if you are a music therapist or music educator who teaches adaptive music lessons. The guitar is versatile, fun, and kids cannot wait to play and accompany themselves signing their favorite songs, that is, if we are successful in teaching them how to play the guitar.   The pr...

Recording your own music is something that gets easier over time. Admittedly, it can frustrating, but the more you do it, the easier it gets. If you find yourself getting frustrated with what you're able to record, just stick with it. You may have to scrap things and start over, but know that is a part of the process and you will definitely improve over time. In today's podcast, Stephanie Leavell...

Whether you are a music teacher or therapist spreading the word about your music lessons or sessions to attract more clients in your community, building your brand and presence online as a professional, or marketing your music education or music therapy products or resources, learning about social media is a must. The digital world is here to stay and that's why it is essential for music teacher a...

What if instead of asking "brush your teeth!", "clean your room", or "go to bed", we could use music to engage children and use it as a cue for the things we are asking them to do?   Music can be part of our routines and transitions like when washing our hands or before going to sleep. Not only that, but music can also help us connect with children, share a piece of joy together, and preserve our...

Stephanie Leavell is an improvisational music therapist. What does an improvisational music therapists do?   The approach of an improvisational music therapists in any of these settings is really "in the moment." We often make up songs on the spot with what the client is needing or we are reacting to what is happening in the moment. Sometimes the entire song isn't made up. Sometimes it's just a ti...

What is phonological awareness? And, what role can music play in the development of this skill?   Kathy Schumacher , MT-BC, WMTR of Tuneful Teaching joins Stephanie Leavell on this episode of the Music For Kiddos Podcast to talk about this phonological awareness and how we can support children to work on & develop communication & literacy skills through music.   IN THIS EPISODE: Learn about phonol...

Whether you are a music therapist or a music educator, more likely than not, you have come across or worked with a child that was labeled as "challenging" or that perhaps had "failed" out of other classes or therapies.   It is an amazing thing that in our role as music therapists, we can focus on their social and emotional wellbeing. We can provide them our full attention and listen to them in a d...

Celebrating diversity, celebrating all kids and making sure that kids are represented in music are some of the things that Katie Norregard, better known as Miss Katie Sings , cares about. She is a children's musician, an early childhood music educator and content creator based in Chicago. Her songs and resources are focused on anti-bias & anti-racist education and social-emotional learning for you...

When it comes to songwriting, some of us love it, and others find it intimidating. If you feel like songwriting might not be for you, listen in because I'm sharing three different tools that I use specifically when I write music for kids under the age of six. There are three things that tend to help me write new songs that are really captivating for kids: Keep it simple Add a little bit of silline...

Some of the questions that music educators and music therapists might be asking themselves when it comes to creating inclusive and equitable early childhood spaces might be: How can I create social change in my early childhood music classes? How can I talk to young children about topics related to race, politics, landownership, disabilities, etc.? How can I have meaningful teaching moments in whic...

My all-time favorite song category are movement songs. Why? Because movement songs provide endless opportunities to engage children and can give them an opportunity to regulate their sensory systems. When it comes to movement songs, I have a very systematic kind of approach. In today's podcast, you'll learn my system and how I use movement songs in my classes and therapy sessions.    In this episo...

Music can be fun, engaging, and a great source for entertainment. But, did you know that music can also provide opportunities for learning and address goals, such as those related to speech? Alyssa Stone, MT-BC of Dynamic Lynks shares how communication skills can be addressed and developed through music on this episode of the Music For Kiddos Podcast. In this episode, you'll hear about: How music...

Is there anything more pleasing and enjoyable than a good book? Especially music books with engaging visuals, an interesting melody, and that have a really clear song form. There's nothing that will quite hold a child's attention.  In this episode: I share my top 3 singable books to use in my music classes & therapy sessions You'll hear their melodies and a little bit about how I implement them in...

The summer of 2020 was a stressful time to say the least. Music educators and music therapists were preparing to go online to provide services and lessons over somewhat unfamiliar virtual platforms. Amazingly, our colleague Kerry Devlin, MMT, MT-BC stepped up to the plate and shared a wealth of information on our Lights, Camera, Telehealth course and today, she's sharing a Telehealth update on the...

The way that we present music to kids is really important because we want to help them to be as successful as possible. Fewer words, more music is all about communicating with music and is not necessarily communicating without words. It means that we are increasing our communication in music so that we can best support kids.  In this episode, you'll hear about: How to communicate more with music,...

Kate Shannon, LPC, LCAT, MT-BC of Creative Therapy Umbrella is a fellow music therapist, creative arts therapist and a licensed professional counselor.  On the fourth episode of the Music For Kiddos Podcast, Kate joins Stephanie to share tangible, child-centered resources that you can immediately implement in your practice. She also talks about her new course on Music For Kiddos called Out of the...