Musikgarten is an internationally acclaimed sequential music and development program for children beginning at birth.  The program opens and develops your child’s inborn joy and talent for making music.  Early childhood is a time of rapid growth and brain development, an optimal time to start your child’s musical journey!  We are excited to announce that this program is available right here at our church.

Family music for babies and toddlers will be offered in the fall beginning September 15th.

Family Music for Babies (ages newborn to 18 months) – Play musically with your baby through bouncing and rocking songs, wiggle and peek-a-boo games, dancing, moving, and singing.  Music play activities are designed to increase your child’s curiosity about music, to develop listening skills and a sense of beat, and to establish the foundation for singing and musical thought.

Family Music for Toddlers (ages 16 months to 3 ½ years) – Participate with your toddler in singing, chanting, moving, dancing, listening, and playing simple instruments while developing a strong musical bond with your child.  Through activities that bridge the natural connection between music and movement, your child’s musical aptitude and listening abilities are enhanced and further developed.

Visit  www.musikgarten.org/wichitafalls to register for the fall.

For more information on the program contact Sarah Fukasawa at 940-224-1221 or musikgartenwichitafalls@gmail.com.

The Wesley, Trinity, and Cherub Choirs sang and performed beautifully together for this annual musical event that showcases the talent in our church’s children’s choirs!  Just looking at the pictures gives you some insight into how great this event was that started with a meal of fried chicken, continuing with the musical, and culminating in an awards ceremony recognizing young people in the children’s and youth choirs.

Here is a note from our Music Director, Kristen Gossett:

Thank you for all your help this year. Your support and encouragement as well as your time is essential to our music ministry.

It is a humbling experience each week to see dedicated parents and volunteers who are “regular and committed” to the gifts with which God has blessed them, using those gifts and encouraging our children to serve and inspire others in worship and mission.

Thank you for all your love and support.

God bless,

Kristen Gossett

Click the strip below to see pictures of this great event!

Mark your calendar (and get your tickets soon) for the 2010 Children’s Musical, Table for Five . . . Thousand! This will be a re-telling of the miracle of the loaves and fishes that reminds us that the most humble among us – especially children – can do great things with God’s help.

Tickets for the musical and dinner are:

• $7.50 / Adult
• $3.00 / Child

Children in Grades 1-6 can still sign-up to have a part in this musical.  Just contact Kristen Gossett (kkgossett@aol.com or 940-766-4231, x225) soon to get a part assigned as well as receive the music and lines to begin practicing.  Rehearsals take place on Wednesday afternoons from 4:00-5:30pm, with this more intense rehearsals on the days leading up to the show:

• Sunday, May 2
  1:30pm – Trinity/Wesley Musical Rehearsal
• Monday, May 3
  4:00pm -  Trinity/Wesley Musical Rehearsal
• Tuesday, May 4
  4:00pm – Trinity/Wesley Musical Rehearsal
• Wednesday, May 5
  4:00pm – Trinity/Wesley Musical Rehearsal

“Next time you gaze at . . . the Last Supper painted by Leonardo da Vinci, note the ripple effect: Christ in the
center and the ebb and flow of movement as it ripples out from Christ past the disciples – all grouped in threes, their posture and positions accentuating that ripple effect.”

-Lois Gagne

Although our Music Ministry at FUMC is not a Da Vince masterpiece, God uses it to create a similar ripple effect in many lives. Your music produces vibrations and resonations far beyond one’s imaginations.

Thank you for your “waves.”and to all who participate in the Music Ministry of our church, especially during Holy
Week. Thank you for your ripple effect of action, passion, and Divine Blessing!

If you ever doubted the beneficial results from participation in music, here is once again, scientific fact that it does. These quotes are from a recent neurological conference in San Diego.

“Music making is a multisensory experience activating links to several parts of the brain.”

– Gottfriend Schlaug
Associate Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School

“New studies show that musical training enhances the brain’s ability to do other things. The trained brain gets better at detecting patterns in sounds, so that musicians are better at picking out the voice of a friend in a noisy restaurant. Musical experience improves abilities important in daily life. Singing and playing an instrument helps youngsters better process speech in noisy classrooms and more accurately interpret the nuances of language that are conveyed by subtle changes in the human voice. When people first learn to talk and when they talk to babies they often use musical patterns in their speech. Music training is not only beneficial for processing music stimuli. We’ve found that years of music training may also improve how sounds are processed for language and emotion.  The very responses that are enhanced in musicians are deficient in clinical populations such as children with developmental dyslexia and autism.”

– Nina Kraus
Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory Director, Northwestern University

“New studies show that music doesn’t involve just hot spots in the brain, but large swaths on both sides of the brain.

– Aniruddh D. Patel
The Neurosciences Institute in San Diego

Our annual Advent Celebration with beautiful music (featuring Children, Youth, and Adult Choirs along with ensembles), a live nativity, and candlelight will take place:

• Sunday, December 6, 2009
• 6:00pm
• Childcare will be available

Following this beautiful service, we will have a Festival of Tables covered with goodies to eat and drink in Fellowship Hall.

Bring friends and family as we prepare for the birth of Christ in the world and in our lives!