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- Q: What is the idea behind Kindermusik?
- A: Kindermusik is a developmentally based method of enhancing a child's early years through family centered music making, offering an enriching environment in which the child can explore, create, and develop a love of both music and learning in general. We believe that children learn best when they have a love for the process, not just an eye for outcome. We believe that the family is the most important educator for the young child, and that they must be involved both as active participant and co-educator in order for a child to flourish in any early learning endeavor. We also believe that every child has the ability to find fulfillment in music, and that offering the proper environment early on develops the foundation for later confidence and success in more formal music learning.
- Q: What do you do in a Kindermusik class?
- A: Each Kindermusik class includes several important components. Singing and rhymes are used to develop language skills, encourage expressive vocal use, nurture the development of pitch, and increase awareness of the sounds and rhythms in speech. Movement, including free dance, patterned movement, and musical movement-stories, provides the physical experience which children need to explore and understand abstract concepts, allows expression of emotion in self and in the music, builds coordination, and assists in growing social skills. Instrumental play nurtures awareness of sound quality or timbre, allows individual exploration of ways sound is produced and how that sound can be modified, develops steady beat, and gives a basis for play as part of an ensemble. Early literacy is developed through active involvement in storytelling, both from books and from story boards. At all times, the developmental stage of each individual child is respected and encouraged within the wider scope of the activity.
- Q: Why is there a range of ages in each class level?
- A: Kindermusik firmly believes that children learn best when exposed to a group from which they can gain from a variety of perspectives, but where the overall group shares common developmental criteria. Each curriculum level is designed to best suit the stages and goals of the age range they address. The child at the bottom of the age bracket will be ready to flourish in the environment, and will be looking to the older children to provide them with a model of new ways to move, create, and explore concepts. The child in the upper end of the bracket benefits from the ability to fully involve themselves with the imaginative aspects of the lesson, the ability to take a leadership role in developing the ideas presented, and the chance to have true mastery before moving on to a new challenge. It is a true strength of the program that we are privileged to see many stages of concept development going on simultaneously, rather than requiring only one “acceptable” outcome. A well-matched grouping can understand the strategies needed to play and create together at their level, have a natural spontaneity while still maintaining the structure of the activities, and is stimulated by the varied abilities and perspectives of its members. What can happen in such a group is enriching musically, socially, and developmentally.
- Q: What are Kindermusik home materials, and what do we do with them?
- A: A foundation of the Kindermusik philosophy is the belief that young children learn best in a family environment, and that music needs to be a part of everyday life, rather than simply a once-a-week activity. In order to accomplish this, families must think of their Kindermusik class as the springboard for a week’s worth of play and idea development. Home materials, carefully designed to suit the child’s stage and the family’s needs, provide the tools for this portion of Kindermusik learning. Professionally recorded CDs provide music for dancing, singing along, creating and playing along with homemade ‘instruments’, or just for joyful listening as songs from class time are remembered, reinforced, and committed to memory. Story books enhance a home library and are much loved developers of early literacy. Home activity journals, books, and cards provide the family with tested ways to expand the week’s themes beyond the classroom experiences with games, parenting information, and craft ideas. Additional items suit each level’s developmental play style--whether wall banners/picture cards for infants and toddlers, specially designed instruments for older children, or play sets for the creative mind of the preschooler. The home materials are to Kindermusik what lesson books and instrument are to formal lessons, or shoes and leotards are to ballet class--an essential part of full participation in the class as a whole.
- Q: What background and training do your teachers have?
- A: Kindermusik teachers come from a wide variety of backgrounds, mainly music performance or education and early childhood education. Kindermusik educators are screened by Kindermusik International for musical ability and the ability to interact with young children. They are then trained in Kindermusik foundations and teaching philosophy, early childhood development, and teaching techniques. Once licensed by Kindermusik International, the educator maintains yearly license updates and continues to develop through inservice training, additional coursework, and seminars. We are not a franchise--we are professionals who have chosen this teaching technique and curricula as the one we feel is best for developing the whole child through music in the most complete way possible.
- Q: When Should My Child Begin Private Instrumental Instruction?
- A: As a general rule, most children are not ready to begin formal instrumental training before the age of 6 or 7 for piano or string instruments, and most instructors will not accept students younger than 8 or 9 for other orchestral or band instruments. Before that, they tend to lack the size, stamina, and outcome-oriented commitment to make lessons a pleasurable and successful experience. Children are individuals, with a wide range of aptitude, but all children possess the ability to enjoy lifelong music making, and this ability can be greatly influenced by how we choose to approach their earliest experiences.
Kindermusik contains all of the needed elements to develop a child who is musically aware and who has the solid foundation to make lessons a natural and joyous next step. Children who grow up in Kindermusik have had chances to succeed, be nurtured and encouraged in their early creative explorations, and develop a core of music theory instilled through voice, body, and mind. Music for them is a natural part of their environment, and they have gained the language of note, rhythm, and expression to help them as they select which instrument they most wish to make their own. Many experts agree that early musical enrichment lays a foundation for musicianship which may accelerate later progress on an instrument.
Children who graduate from Kindermusik for the Young Child have a strong basis in theory, musicianship, and instrumental technique. More importantly, they have been allowed to develop the whole child through music, in a supportive and reassuring atmosphere, which lays the groundwork for a lifetime of positive outlook not only towards music learning, but towards learning in general.
- Q: If I’m pregnant and my due date will fall during the next semester, should my older child and I take the whole semester off or should I plan to attend as many classes as possible and then “write off” the rest of the semester?
- A: When you think back on when your older child was born you probably can't imagine wanting to get out of the house immediately after. However, experienced mothers have said that it's much easier the second time around, and you will probably want to get your older child out. Also it's a really good idea if you can to keep the older child involved in activities they enjoy once the baby comes. The baby will most likely be content in the infant carrier during class, and you could have some time with your older child to dispel the feeling that the baby is getting all the attention now.
I will do what I can to make things work for your family. If you sign up for the Fall (or Spring semester) and miss classes because of the delivery/recovery, I will happily credit you for a future semester. If, after the baby is born, you find that you can't make it work to get back into class; I would be willing to credit those classes also. But I really think you'll look forward to an opportunity to get out. Most people don't even have their children miss the class during the delivery/recovery, as they have others (relatives or friends) bring their child to class.
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