Ready Steady News

We’re on Television!!

We’re on Television!!!

Last spring, Ready Steady Move! received a green light to graduate from kindergarten into a children’s television show. In conjunction with HOP! the popular Israeli television channel for preschoolers, Ready Steady Move! now has a life of its own.  Twenty-six episodes have been recorded and will reach over 1 million households. This has happened so fast that by the time you read this newsletter, the first few lessons will have already aired. We are sure there will be many reruns so stay tuned and look out for our program called ….. Ready Steady HOP!

The show features our own Ella Doron as the teacher, two adorable puppets, Max and Millie and the Ready Steady HOP! kids. Together with Ella, they learn new words in English, and dance and stretch to the music we all know and love.

This is an fantastic tool for any of you (in Israel) who are promoting the program in your towns, schools and community centers. Let your students know when we are on and watch your classes grow in size.  You may find the TV schedule at: www.hop.co.il

Here is a (very) short preview: Ready Steady Hop! 

Stay tuned for more…

Even Adults can learn with Ready Steady Move!

As teachers we have seen how effective the Ready Steady Move! method is and how fast the children learn words and concepts – but does this work for everyone and in any language?

At the latest Teacher Training Course in Jaffo we had an opportunity to witness Ready Steady Move! in action for adults.  Attending the  training were teachers from Israel and abroad – with four different mother tongues represented;  English, German, Hebrew and Arabic.   Just for fun, Julian asked everyone to teach the corners game in their native language.   The results?  Sara from Germany learned “not “ (hop) in Arabic and everyone learned “springen“ (jump) in German.  Even Julian has been affected: when he  came back from a TTC in Budapest, I believe I heard him chanting in Hungarian!  Gyerekek nek! (for the kids).  Wow!  Live proof of the effectiveness of the Ready Steady Move! methodology.

Recently Maggie Xu (left), our woman in Beijing, recorded the Ready Steady Move! Yoga stories in Chinese for our new DVD.  Who will be first to do the playground story in Mandarin? We are offering a      for the winner! 

Ready Steady Jump!

Sometimes, to the naked eye, RSM lessons seem to jump from one thing to the next without any continuity. Despite the impression, this is exactly what is intended. Children have a short attention spans and need constant stimulation to keep them engaged. Ready Steady Move! mixes high energy activities (dances, games) with periods of quiet ( breathing, yoga, workbook activities) to avoid over-stimulation and enable the children to practice focusing.

As the children glide from one activity to the next they are continually learning. Different types of children learn in different ways – some learn better when they are active – others need to be quiet. With Ready Steady Move! we maximize the effectiveness of the learning by using many different methods.

Celebrating the birth of our latest addition – the Ready Steady Move! Yoga DVD

Congratulations! At Ready Steady Move! we are celebrating the birth of our latest addition – the Ready Steady Move! Yoga DVD. As proud parents, we are showing it off everywhere! From the graphic design, to the animation, to Sharon Kanor’s flowing movement, it is simply beautiful and complements the RSM program perfectly. All of the wonderful yoga stories that were created especially for Ready Steady Move! are presented in both mother tongue and in English.

For our Hungarian students, we made a special recording in Hungarian so that the children can hear the stories first in Hungarian and then in English. Thanks to Klara Kiss, our Hungarian MF for the translations and to Katrin Varga for the recordings. Our Israeli students can listen both in Hebrew and in English. The Hebrew was read by Daniela Shibi from our customer service department.

The DVD first presents the poses in the “dictionary” and teaches how to hold each one. Our special yoga stories are told with the aid of the poses. The children can do them alone or together with the rest of the family for “extended” exercising.

Incidentally, the birth of our yoga DVD coincided almost exactly with the birth of Sharon’s own baby girl Noya, – who, if you look closely, you can see just starting to show as she recorded the poses in the second month of her pregnancy. Mazal tov Sharon!

Now-a-days many movies come with a warning – don’t try this at home. With this DVD we say the opposite! Just do it! For additional fun, we recommend you also listen in a language you don’t know yet – who knows – you may just pick it up!

Goodbye Song

Ready Steady Move! 1 lessons now end with the Goodbye Song. We felt something was missing to tie the lesson together and leave the children in a really positive, happy manner. So what could be better than a good-ole twist!  If you do not have the recording, please be in touch with Julian who will send it to you. Here are the lyrics:

Goodbye Song 

Let’s swing low

And jump up high.

Let’s wave our hands

And kiss goodbye.

Let’s dance the twist

Then off we fly.

Let’s wave our hands

And kiss goodbye.

So why not learn Chinese?

So why not learn Chinese? I mean a billion people can’t be wrong. And while you’re at how’s your Spanish, Hungarian, Russian, Arabic, Hebrew, French, German, Italian and Japanese? Personally I would love to be able to speak more languages but I started too late and was forced to sit and soak up endless lessons of boring French and pointless German. Oh to be a polyglot, it makes you seem so intelligent doesn’t it? So why not start early, when your brain can still assimilate any language as well as your mother tongue?

This is where Ready Steady Move! comes in. This program uses movement to enhance language acquisition in kids from four to eight years old. Here at Helen Doron we say that “an active body is a learning body.” We get those kids out of their chairs and away from the endless grammar lessons and into a fun environment full of music, dance, yoga, Pilates and games. The kids don’t realize they’re learning a new language, they’re just having fun, but at the end on program of Ready Steady Move! they can have a vocabulary of 300 words and be healthier in the process.

Personally I’m jealous. When I think back to all that time wasted supposedly learning foreign languages when I could have been outdoors playing and here we have a program that does both, well it’s a crying shame. But I’m not giving up. The Ready Steady Move! programs will soon be available in 10 languages suitable for children (adults can take part too, we promise not to tell) and if can learn 300 words of Chinese I’ll really be able to make an impression the next time I order a take away.

Yoga Stories

We’ve come a long way from that day three years ago when the first Ready  Steady Move! program was born. Originally conceived as a movement program to improve language skills, Ready Steady Move!  has come a long way since then.
The first version was based on dance and movement theatre but as time went on we saw the benefits of adding yoga to the syllabus. This happened when the kids reacted so well to the small yoga sections introduced by chance to the program; they really got a kick out of the asanas! We didn’t call it yoga and of course we didn’t call the postures asanas but the love for yoga was obvious. Since then the yoga has developed into an integral part of the program, performed using specially written yoga stories that will soon be available on DVD called Yoga Stories for Children. Both the kids and their parents will be able to practice yoga at home, with any luck it will become an integral part of their lives.
And then came the Pilates! As usual the best things happen by accident. Helen Doron and Ella Doron started to learn Pilates with Ganit, got hooked, dragged me along and before you could say Hokey Cokey, Pilates for Children was introduced into the program as well. Children really benefit from the Pilates method especially as they spend so much time stuck behind desks, computers and TVs. This sedentary life style is ruining their posture as well as reducing their overall physical fitness, balance and body strength. Pilates can counter this. Naturally the three minutes of Pilates in each lesson aren’t enough so…..we’re making a Pilates DVD. The kids and grown-ups participating in Ready Steady Move! will be encouraged to do Pilates at home as well as in the lessons. If you have to watch the “box” then you might as well get fit at the same time.
Of course Ready Steady Move! One begat Ready Steady Move!  Two, I mean how could we produce just one successful program? So we have a new program, 32 new songs and chants set to music from around the world, but no choreography. Along came Tal and Ganit, combining Jazz dance techniques with traditional Indian dance movements, they produced a series of entertaining and challenging dance numbers keeping the kids and teachers on their toes, literally. The second program is more difficult than the first and is suitable for older children (and their parents) of up to eight years old (or eighty).

Dear Teachers,

Wow! Has the year flown by. As we begin 2010, we wanted to fill you in on what is going on with Ready Steady Move! and of course wish all of you a very Happy New Year! 

First we would like to welcome all the teachers who have joined us since our last newsletter: 

In Israel: (April 2009) Dorit, Ella, Ilana, Nurit and Kate; (July 2009) Alice, Angela, Ori and Zahava (October 2009) Liora, Liron, Oshrat and Julia. 

In Hungary: (June 2009) Mariann, Gabriella Lollok, Tunde and Istvan;  (October 2009) Barbara, Bogata and Edina. 

Welcome aboard! 

In addition we would like to welcome Aggie Tron as our first Teacher Trainer in Hungary. Meet Aggie in our “feature teacher” below. 

This year also saw the first ever Ready Steady Move! teacher conference held in Israel at the Benyamina Winery. Eight teachers attended along with Julian and myself and we were quite fortunate to have a guest appearance by Helen Doron who inspired the teachers with her vision of Ready Steady Move! 

Also in this issue: 

1. We’re on Television!  

2. New Ready Steady Move Yoga DVD 

3. Ready Steady Jump  

4. Discipline tips – when is a chair not a chair? 

5.  Ready Steady Move for Adults! 

6.  Aggie Tron -  our feature teacher 

7.  Julian’s column - lessons from the classroom 

8. The Goodby Song 

Scheduled TTC’s for the coming months (will be conducted in English): 

RSM 1 March 21-23 Israel 

RSM 2 March 24-25 Israel 

Looking forward to your feedback, suggestions and questions, 

Susan