If you have kids, you will want to read this.

"There is no longer any doubt that there is a significant link between early music instruction and cognitive growth in certain other, “non musical” abilities, such as math, memory, and spatial-temporal reasoning..." - Kindermusik

Having gone to college for music education this subject is very important to me. I am really excited to tell everyone that my sister-in-law Jodee is starting up summer music camps for children. Jodee has several years of experience working with children and teaching music. It will be a great opportunity for your children to learn to love music from a young age and have a fun and educational atmosphere to interact with other children. If I had any children they would definitely be in her classes! I highly recommend looking into these summer camps. Check out her blog for more information http://www.bradenandjodee.blogspot.com/.

Spread the word to all your friends!

What are the benefits of Music?

"Early music experiences can have a significant impact on literacy and reading. According to experts..." - Kindermusik

"Music is a window to higher brain function" - Music Teachers Blog


"Children who are exposed to music before the age of seven years old are ten times as likely to succeed in the workplace and achieve up to 200 points higher than normal students on their SAT scores..." - Wikipedia

"Research demonstrates that involvement in music and movement activities from an early age helps children develop good social and emotional skills. Research also links social and emotional development with school-readiness and even with higher academic testing scores. It's no surprise. After all, the same skills that foster emotional security and social success - skills like confidence, curiosity, cooperation, self-regulation, and good listening - predict cognitive achievement and academic success as well." - Kindermusik

Wooo Hooo!

LAKERS WIN!

2009 NBA Champs!

AND HAPPY FLAG DAY!

Softball league

With summer fast approaching, so is the new softball season. Aaron has played in a league a couple of times before and will be playing again this season. He will be joined by his brothers, friends that he has had for years, new friends, friends of friends, and co-workers of friends. They all come together to join this team and have a great time playing softball. The practicing has started and the weekly Friday night games are just around the corner. Friends and family will come out and cheer them on while they play and then after the game they will wind down eating out and discussing the game (or other sport games- sports talk is universal).

This has been my first exposure to softball leagues (or really any sport league) and I must say that I am really impressed. I think it is so great that these guys can come together and do an activity that is good exercise, fun, and have their families come out to cheer them on. I started thinking about how I would love it if I had an activity where I could get together with all of my friends, sisters (and sisters-in-law), co-workers, etc. and do something that is good exercise and fun and where family and friends would come out and cheer us on. It's funny how women don't really have an outlet like that. I know technically we could join the softball league but that isn't really something most girls are into. I started to think of what else there would be and really couldn't. Any ideas?

Well, I ended up just signing up for a beginning/intermediate dance class through the city of Anaheim. If anyone is interested in joining me let me know! It is $90 for 8 weeks of classes. Maybe we can get our husbands to come out and cheer us on ;-)

I really am excited for the softball season to be starting. I like watching the games and especially my favorite player:)

A busy weekend!

I'm going to include Thursday and Friday in this busy weekend update. You know it's June when you have a baby shower and a wedding in the same weekend.

Thursday night I went to Holly's baby shower. She is about 7 mos. along and looks so adorable! It was a beautiful shower (thanks to Jen:-). We played some games, had some great food and enjoyed watching Holly open all of her gifts. Little boy Oyler is a lucky little guy!

Friday was a busy day with work, but Aaron and I decided to get some Lucille's take out for dinner and had a nice relaxing night in. There is nothing like getting food from one of your favorite restaurants and bringing it home to watch a movie. Good idea, honey!

Saturday started early with me driving to the San Diego Temple to be in the sealing room for Jessica Ball's sealing. It was a beautiful ceremony and I loved being in the San Diego Temple (it was my first time at that temple).

Jessica Ball is now Jessica Slade. She married a great guy named Anthony. After some pictures I drove back to Anaheim to get Aaron. We drove out to Aaron's interpreter class in Ontario then drove BACK down to San Diego for Jessica's reception.

It was no surprise that there was some beautiful harp music playing during the reception. Jessica even played a couple of pieces in her wedding dress! She looked beautiful.

Emily Jones was there and it was soooo nice to see her again!

Aaron and I went over to Emily's house after the reception to check out all of her wedding plans (she is getting married in August). It is so fun seeing all of the cute ideas these girls came up with for their weddings. Around 10pm Aaron and I started the trip back to Anaheim. LONG DAY!

Sunday was church. It was actually a sad day because we announced that it would be our last day in that ward. We will officially be going to the Anaheim 4th ward now. When we moved (4 months ago) we moved about 500 yards out of our ward boundary. We continued going to our old ward because we didn't want to leave and it is actually closer to us than our new ward.

Next we went to St. Luke's church in Long Beach for my Women of Note concert. This is my first season with this lovely choir and I have really enjoyed it. It is filled with great women and it is really neat working with Aaron's high school choir director (that he loves). The concert went well. Aaron was a great help being the A/V guy. He was announced as a "Man of Note", hehehe.

Well, that's about it for our weekend. It was busy but a lot of fun!

How much are you worth as a stay at home mom?

Check it out...

http://swz.salary.com/momsalarywizard/layoutscripts/mswl_newsearch.asp

Time to ask for a raise?