With February upon us, we are feeling the love inside and outside the studio. Our community is always so supportive of our adventures and we have decided that it’s time to “BBTB” – Bring Back the Blog! It’s been well over a year without a post, and our new goal is twice a month. Want to hear about something? Let us know!
This month is full of fun activities at the studio, but there’s one special Outreach Program we do that portrays love in a way nothing else can: Kindermusik with “Grandfriends”.
With February upon us, we are feeling the love inside and outside the studio. Our community is always so supportive of our adventures and we have decided that it's time to "BBTB" - Bring Back the Blog! It's been well over a year without a post, and our new goal is twice a month. Want to hear about something? Let us know!
This month is full of fun activities at the studio, but there's one special Outreach Program we do that portrays love in a way nothing else can: Kindermusik with "Grandfriends".
For over 6 years now, Miss Louise and her team have been visiting our friends at Parkstone Enhanced Care in Halifax for celebratory times of the year - Halloween, Christmas, Valentines, St Paddy's Day, and sometimes just for pure fun!
Although we are typically not allowed to take pictures and videos while there, we did have a few special events where with family permission we captured these incredible moments.
We essentially take our amazing families and friends from the studio and bring some Kindermusik class activities to the residents at Parkstone. We sing, we make music, we celebrate. The joy that comes out of these sessions is something that is hard to describe. We often wonder who is getting the most therapy and benefit from this - the children, the parents, or our grandfriends. Even our educators experienced an overwhelming sense of emotion after teaching the classes.
What's the reason? LOVE. JOY. CONNECTION.
Research tells us that as a person ages, and possibly find themselves dealing with dementia or other forms of memory loss, the executive functioning of the brain is quite similar to that of a young child.
And what is a young child looking for? Love. Joy. Connection. In our Kindermusik classes, we work with parents on the importance of Face-to-Face interaction with their little ones. That a socially connected child is a happy child. This is what our senior population is looking for as well.
So it just made sense to Miss Louise to bring these two generations together. After visiting her grandmother in a senior's facility in Cheticamp, NS, Louise noticed how comfortable her then 2 year old son was around the residents. He saw past the wheelchairs, walkers, injuries. He ran around, laughed, danced and they loved it. So when Parkstone called to see if a partnership was possible, Louise jumped on the opportunity.
No money exchanges hands for this program. Just music, joy and laughter.
On Feb 12th we'll be back at Parkstone and cannot wait to shower the youngest and oldest with some pure LOVE. We encourage you to take time to spend with our wisest generation. Let time stand still. Have a conversation, sing a little song. It will mean so much and take such little time.
In the meantime, try checking out Alive Inside: a documentary about music & memory. Here's a incredible snippet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HLEr-zP3fc
Remember that our "Grandfriends" may not always say much, but they can often see, hear and feel just as we do. Give them love. Happy Valentine's Day!