In The News
Christine Mullins
The Miracle Music Game
KSL TV Channel 5
Deseret News - Davis County - Newspaper
Whistle While You Work
By Tammy Walquist - Deseret Morning News
When Catherine Pitt of Centerville went to the hospital to have twins in August, she wasn't worried about her house being taken care of or her children not knowing what to do.
Her mother, Marilyn Barton, came to stay with the kids while Pitt was in the hospital and during her recovery. Instead of leaving a detailed list of instructions, Pitt told her mother to push play on the CD player at a certain time each morning and evening, and the children would know what to do.
To Barton's surprise, that's exactly what happened. Barton watched as her grandchildren happily got up in the morning, made their beds, helped clean an area of the house, made breakfast, prepared sack lunches, rinsed their dishes and fixed their hair without complaint and in a timely manner. This all came about because of Children's Miracle Music.
Children's Miracle Music is a program that disguises responsibility as a game. The program comes with two CDs, one for the morning and one for the evening, a magnetic chart to record points on and a wet erase marker. Children are awarded points for completing a series of tasks, all part of a morning or evening routine. When a child reaches his or her goal of 100 points, they are rewarded by having a private date with their mother or father on an activity of their choice.
"I feel like (using Children's Miracle Music) has helped (my children's) self-esteem because as they do Miracle Music, they earn points toward a private date they choose with my husband or I. Every day they're getting positive reinforcement," said Mary Burrows of Sandy, who has three children using the program. "My house gets cleaner because my children do chores, and the thing I really enjoy is that they help each other more."
The program was designed and developed by Christine Mullins of Pleasant Grove. Mullins came up with the idea after she noticed that many mothers tend to spend their entire day doing nothing but cooking and cleaning.
One day as she was sitting in the doctor's office, Mullins read an article about how children can't comprehend time frame. Their parents tell them to do something in five minutes, but they don't understand what that means, so they sit calmly and don't understand why their parents are suddenly so angry when they haven't done what was asked of them.
From this, Mullins came up with the idea to use specific songs to give children time limits to accomplish a task. She listened to literally thousands of songs searching for the perfect songs to fit each task. Mullins also spent many years researching different schedules people would use in the morning and evening and came up with the Standard Morning and Evening schedules the program uses. The entire point of the program is to turn work into a game so children would be much more likely to do it and do it happily, Mullins said.
In the morning schedule, children have the opportunity to earn eight points. They earn a point each by making their bed, using the bathroom, doing an act of kindness by helping clean an area in the house, getting dressed, fixing their hair, eating breakfast, rinsing their dish and brushing their teeth.
In the evening children can earn four points by doing an act of kindness, putting their pajamas on, using the bathroom and brushing their teeth. The CD also includes a song to write down points in the morning and evening, say prayers in the evening and has 24 minutes of relaxing music to lull children to sleep. The morning schedule takes a total time of 42 minutes while the evening schedule takes 23 minutes, not including the sleep music. When children get all of their points, they are rewarded with a star on their hand to remind them all day long that they did a good job.
With all the positive things the program has the potential to teach children, such as setting both long-term and short term goals, responsibility, to serve others, etc., Mullins still feels that improving the relationship between parent and child is the most important.
"The true treasure of this program is that parents get to be close to their kids and be their best friend," she said.
Some of the values to be learned from following the program include teaching children to be more self governing and responsible, increasing and/or creating a sense of emotional intimacy between parents and children, teaching children how to clean and develop a work ethic and giving them a sense of security through routine.
Angela Olson of Layton said it was difficult to get her daughter up and ready to go to charter school every morning. She didn't want to go and would dawdle so much that she was always late to school.
Olson said using Children's Miracle Music has made a night-and-day difference.
"She's never been late to school since we started using it. We've had a lot of success with it," she said. "It takes the fighting right out of getting ready and helps us to be on time. It gets us so much more at peace and in a better mood when doing stuff to music and helps (my children) remember what to do next. Earning their date night means a lot to them and they have fun with it."
Mullins said going on private dates with her children has yielded many precious memories. In one instance her 11-year-old son wanted to go on his private date to the water park. Mullins was very busy at the time, but the rules of the game stipulate that the date must be immediately. She spent the day going down slides with her son and had a great time. They even developed a secret handshake, which involved turning their heads to the side to get the water out of their ears.
On another day Mullins went on a date to get ice cream with her 3-year-old. Mullins was amazed as she just sat and listened to her daughter, learning things she never would have learned without the date, such as the fact that her daughter's favorite colors are blue and white like the sky, that she liked wearing dresses best, and she wanted to be a lady.
Burrows said she had a wonderful time bowling with her 12-year-old and has loved watching her husband go on dates with her 5-year old daughter.
Olson said she thinks being able to spend time with her children is the most important thing. "To me it doesn't really matter what we do, it's the time to be alone one-on-one with (my kids)," she said. "My kids have had kind of a hard struggle. Their dad left when they were 5 and 3, so I had to start working. It took me away from them more than they're used to. I'm tired and stressed out a lot so it's nice to have an excuse (to spend time with them).
Daily Herald Edition
Children’s Miracle Music Teaches Work
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BEN CARTER – North County Staff
If parents could just press a button to get their kids to do what they’re asked, they would probably call it a miracle.
An Orem-based business is selling just such a miracle. Christine Mullins created Children’s Miracle Music, a musical game designed to teach children responsibility and hard work.
The game is centered around CDs of music that set time limits for children to do their chores. Mullins said even though most parents set time limits for their kids, the music is the key.
“(Children’s) brains haven’t developed to be able to understand time frame,” Mullins said. “They don’t know what you’re talking about when you say 10 minutes. Kids do understand time frames through music.”
The Children’s Miracle Music system gives children certain amounts of time through songs, to complete tasks like brushing their teeth, cleaning their room or getting dressed. Kids are awarded points for every task they complete for a total of 12 points a day. The points have a purpose as well. Once a child reaches 100 points they get to go on a private “date” with one of their parents.
Mullins researched the principle behind her product for about 15 years. She tested its principles out on her own seven children and got feedback from friends and relatives who tried it. One of the main ideas behind the system is making work fun.
She compared her product to football.
“Guys, on their only day off, would not go run around in the mud while it’s raining and jump on each other to the point of breaking bones if they didn’t have points and goals and strategies to make it a game,” she said. “When you throw those things in there, they call it football.”
One of the other main principles of Miracle Music is teaching children to serve out of love instead of just following orders. This goal is accomplished by a daily “act of kindness.” “It’s called an act of kindness because we’re not doing it because somebody is forcing us as a taskmaster to do it,” Mullins said. “We’re doing it because we love each other in the family.”
Miracle Music’s effects are not limited to children though. Mullins said she intended the whole family to complete tasks while the music is playing. Parents accumulate points so that they can have a private date with each other.
The goal of her product, which can be purchased at the Children’s Miracle Music Web site, www.childrensmiraclemusic.com, she said, is to bring families closer by teaching them to work together and by getting chores out of the way so the family can focus on each other. “It creates this overall closeness between the parents and children, which is being lost these days,” Mullins said.
Deseret News - Salt Lake life
Miracle Music — Program Makes Children's Chores A Game
By Tammy Walquist, Deseret Morning News
Mary Burrows was at her wits' end.
The frustrated Sandy mother of five felt like she was constantly nagging her children — to get up and get ready on time, to go to bed on time, to do their chores. Mornings and evenings were difficult as she seemed to have to force her children to do as they were told. Burrows remembers asking herself if this was really the way it was supposed to be. However, a call from an old college roommate changed everything.
Christine Mullins of Pleasant Grove called to tell Burrows about a new program she had just released called Children's Miracle Music. The point of the program is to turn responsibility into a game. At first Burrows' children resisted the idea of using the program, telling their mother it would be stupid. However, after starting the program, they went from fighting against it to begging their mother to let them earn points they had missed. "It took the fight right out of bedtime and turned it into a game," Burrows said, also noting that the atmosphere of her home has changed dramatically.
Children's Miracle Music is a program that turns normal everyday tasks into a game. The program comes with two CDs, one for the morning and one for the evening, a magnetic chart to record points on and a wet erase marker. Children are awarded points for completing a series of tasks, all part of a morning or evening routine. When children reach their goal of 100 points, they are rewarded with a private date with their mother or father on an activity of their choice.
"I feel like (Children's Miracle Music) has helped (my children's) self-esteem because as they do Miracle Music, they earn points toward a private date they choose with my husband or I. Every day they're getting positive reinforcement," Burrows said, noting that she has three children using the program. "My house gets cleaner because my children do chores, and the thing I really enjoy is that they help each other more."
Mullins designed and developed the program over the course of 15 years. She came up with the idea after she noticed that many mothers tend to spend their entire day doing nothing but cooking and cleaning.
One day as she was sitting in the doctor's office, Mullins read an article about how children can't comprehend time frame. Their parents tell them to do something in five minutes, but they don't understand what that means, so they sit calmly and don't understand why their parents are suddenly so angry when they haven't done what was asked of them.
From this, Mullins came up with the idea to use specific songs to give children time limits to accomplish a task. She listened to thousands of songs searching for the perfect ones to fit each task. Mullins also spent many years researching different schedules people would use in the morning and evening and came up with the Standard Morning and Evening schedules the program uses. The entire point of the program is to turn work into a game so children will be much more likely to do it and do it happily, Mullins said.
In the morning schedule, children have the opportunity to earn eight points. They earn a point each by making their beds, using the bathroom, helping clean an area in the house, getting dressed, fixing their hair, eating breakfast, rinsing their dishes and brushing their teeth.
In the evening children can earn four points by doing an act of kindness, putting their pajamas on, using the bathroom and brushing their teeth. The CD also includes a song to write down points in the morning and evening, say prayers in the evening and has 24 minutes of relaxing music to lull children to sleep. The morning schedule takes a total time of 42 minutes while the evening schedule takes 23 minutes, not including the sleep music. When children get all of their points, they are rewarded with a star on their hand to remind them all day long that they did a good job.
With all the positive things the program has the potential to teach children, such as setting both long-term and short term goals, responsibility, to serve others, etc., Mullins still feels that improving the relationship between parent and child is the most important.
"The true treasure of this program is that parents get to be close to their kids and be their best friend," she said.
Some of the values to be learned from following the program include teaching children to be more self-governing and responsible, increasing and/or creating a sense of emotional intimacy between parents and children, teaching children how to clean and develop a work ethic and giving them a sense of security through routine.
When Catherine Pitt of Centerville went to the hospital to have twins in August, she wasn't worried about her house being taken care of or her children not knowing what to do.
As a veteran user of Children's Miracle Music, she told her mother, Marilyn Barton, who came to stay with the kids while Pitt was in the hospital and during her recovery, to push play on the CD player at a certain time each morning and evening, and the children would know what to do.
To Barton's surprise, that's exactly what happened. Barton watched as her grandchildren happily got up in the morning, made their beds, helped clean an area of the house, made breakfast, prepared sack lunches, rinsed their dishes and fixed their hair without complaint and in a timely manner, all because they were using Children's Miracle Music.
Angela Olson of Layton found herself in a similar situation. She said it was difficult to get her daughter up and ready to go to charter school every morning. She didn't want to go and would dawdle so much that she was always late to school.
Olson said using Children's Miracle Music has made a night-and-day difference. "She's never been late to school since we started using it. We've had a lot of success with it," she said. "It takes the fighting right out of getting ready and helps us to be on time. It gets us so much more at peace and in a better mood when doing stuff to music and helps (my children) remember what to do next. Earning their date night means a lot to them, and they have fun with it."
Mullins said going on private dates with her children has yielded many precious memories. In one instance her 11-year-old son wanted to go on his private date to the water park. Mullins was very busy at the time, but the rules of the game stipulate that the date must be immediate. She spent the day going down water slides with her son and had a great time. They even developed a secret handshake, which involved turning their heads to the side to get the water out of their ears.
On another day Mullins went on a date to get ice cream with her 3-year-old. Mullins was amazed as she just sat and listened to her daughter, learning things she never would have learned without the date, such as the fact that her daughter's favorite colors are blue and white like the sky, that she liked wearing dresses best, and she wanted to be a lady.
Burrows said she had a wonderful time bowling with her 12-year-old and has loved watching her husband go on dates with their 5-year old daughter.
Olson said she thinks being able to spend time with her children is the most important thing. "To me it doesn't really matter what we do, it's the time to be alone one-on-one with (my kids)," she said. "My kids have had kind of a hard struggle. Their dad left when they were 5 and 3, so I had to start working. It took me away from them more than they're used to. I'm tired and stressed out a lot so it's nice to have an excuse (to spend time with them)."
Olson fully believes in the program, especially because of her background with music and working with kids. "The music is really well done as far as stimulating the brain. That's another benefit of it," she said. "Anything you can do to get music into the lives of young children is a great thing."
Deseret News - Utah County - Newspaper
Creating Family Harmony - Music Program Keeps Children On Task
By Tammy Walquist, Deseret Morning News
Mornings were not happy at the Fransen home.
Janette Fransen of American Fork had to fight to get anything done — from getting her daughters out of bed to choosing what to wear to fixing their hair. By the time her 7-year-old left for school, she was in tears.
A friend suggested Fransen try a new program called Children's Miracle Music. Children's Miracle Music turns responsibility into a game. Children earn points doing tasks in the morning and evening. When they reach 100, they get private parent time.
"It's taken the whine out of the morning routine," Fransen said. "It's created these good habits with (my girls)."
Christine Mullins of Pleasant Grove designed and developed the program after she noticed that many mothers spend the entire day cooking and cleaning.
One day Mullins read an article about how children can't comprehend time frames. From this, she came up with the idea to use specific songs to give children time limits to accomplish a task. Mullins spent 15 years researching schedules people would use in the morning and evening and came up with the standard morning and evening schedules.
The program comes with two CDs, a magnetic chart for recording points and a wet erase marker. In the morning, children have the opportunity to earn eight points by making their beds, using the bathroom, helping clean an area in the house and getting dressed.
In the evening, children can earn more by doing an act of kindness, putting their pajamas on, using the bathroom and brushing their teeth. The CD also has 24 minutes of relaxing music to lull children to sleep.
When children get all their daily points, they are rewarded with a star on their hand. The program has the potential to teach children the value of setting long and short-term goals and responsibility, but Mullins feels improving the relationship between parent and child is most important element.
"The true treasure of this program is that parents get to be close to their kids and be their best friend," she said.
Denise Curtis of Eagle Mountain uses the program with her three children. She sees the difference the program makes in their home as astounding.
"Instead of having the children spend half the day with me saying 'Have you done your job?' and telling them they can't play because they haven't done their job, they run around happy doing acts of kindness. After we'd done it for a week or two, I felt like my children loved me more. It changed the attitude in our home," Curtis said.
The dates with the children are relationship builders. Curtis said her boys like her to hunt lizards with them.
"I think the main thing is that they just love to have that one-on-one attention," she said. Fransen's children go to the library and to the park to play Rook and have a snack with Grandma.
"It doesn't have to be expensive," she said. "It's just a matter of spending time (and) . . . fills them up for the next run."
The program is for the whole family, for teens as well as younger children. Mullins has a grandmother who uses it.
"I think for anyone who has children who wants them self-governing and children who don't rely on mom for everything, this is great," Fransen said. "I want children who grow up and can do it themselves . . . for me to have independent and self-motivated children is fabulous."
