My own kindermusik brought up girls are outside practicing their violin!!!  It’s in my quality world picture!

Singing with little ones and their caregivers … dancing … twirling …. standing on my head (my only party trick) … quacking …. clapping (in case those other ideas seemed tooooooo silly) just being, that’s what it is all about.

Why kindermusik?

Social time —  theirs (and yours)

Musical time — crucial for their optimal development (there is research to support this!)

Surviving car trips — ask my current mommies!

Physical time — their gross motor and fine motor (your gym day .. ask my current mommies)

Intellectual time — memorizing songs, finger plays, stories

Anytime — pop in the CD, sing the songs to entertain or soothe!

Packing away this fall semester’s kits, makes me sad … a marking of time in the lives of little ones for whom 16 weeks is 1/2 their existence, or 1/4 of their existence or an 1/8, a 1/16.  As adults (the fractions are too small) but for the babies and toddlers in our classes, they are manageable.  WOW!

Come along and dance with me & other like minded folks who find joy in making the day go more smoothly with song, dance, cajoling, caroling, jumps that gradually become 2 feet off the ground.  (and off the sofa)

We watch milestones, sitting up for the first time, shaking the stick to see if it rattles too like the shaker sticks, falling & having mommy to comfort & having a song to distract and dry the tears.  Tools for our daily journey with these little people. 24 hours is a LONG time.

I remember my first night as a mom in the hospital, a baby was crying and being brought down the hall to be comforted.  I thought to myself, “Would someone please quiet that baby, I’m trying to sleep, delivery was rough enough, and now I’m awakened by someone’s crying baby!”  Well, the nurse turned that baby into MY ROOM!  I had to do something to get that baby to stop.

Thankfully, I succeeded that night.  But those first weeks of a new born and the isolation were soooo long.  I only could remember Amazing Grace, only a few verses (out of order I’m sure).  Thankfully, a friend told me about her Kindermusik classes, & I joined her one day.  I was hooked.

Each of my 4 children took kindermusik,  we still sing the songs, as I am going through each curriculum as a teacher, the songs stay in my head and I sing them at home.  The kids join in (with creative lyrics now that they are older).  It’s been a gift.  And an answer to “would someone please get that baby to stop crying!”

Join us.

Perhaps a new year’s resolution should be to update the web site weekly.  Too lofty, how about once a month!  So much goes on in our Kindermusik classes, plenty of fun anecdotes, heavy lifting, spins and grins.  Excellent dancing!

One little one carries her mom’s Ipad around and listens repeatedly repeatedly repeatedly to the Zoom Buggy music.  So much so, that even when we switched to our next 8 week unit in the Village classes, I throw in a Zoom buggy just so she knows she’s come to the right place!  She even has her own sign language for music, clapping hands and pointing to the radio.  Actually, I don’t think she even points to the radio unless you do not acknowledge her sign.  Amazing little creatures!

Many moms have told me the music has saved their car rides.  Hearing the same CD repeatedly does not bother the little ones at all.  It’s a security blanket of sorts.  As adults, we grow weary of it, but how did we learn to talk and sing?  Someone else played the same things over and over for us.  Boredom is a learned word and behavior.  It shoud be a 4 letter word!!!!

Can you plant a cabbage seed?  (pretend dig with your right hand)

Just like this, just like this … (pretend cover up the seed with your left hand)

Can you plant a cabbage seed with your elbow (pretend dig with your right elbow)

Just like this, just like this (pretend cover it up with your left hand)

Cross laterals a kindermusik favorite … for engaging both sides of the brain!  

All the songs we sing, dances we do, while fun and entertaining (and a work out for mommies and daddies and nannies and grammas), are done with the littles in mind and their growth.  

You thought your were just getting out of the house!

Our family hasn’t slept in our own beds 6 nights in a row this summer, and we’re don’t aim to stop yet, but we’re home for a quick spell & the kids are doing violin camp in Chesapeake!  I do think that their kindermusik exposure makes some of their violining easier, especially getting songs into their heads & just finding them on their violins!  I’ve even learned “O Susannah” … from a fiddler that has played with Charlie Daniels!

School will begin again in 21 short days, so I have home work to get done … kindermusik schedules, book reports, math problems, dinner to make …

Let me know what fun your family has had this summer.  We’ll sing about it.  August 30 starts our first classes!  Do have some changes, Mondays instead of Wednesdays.  If we’ve got folks that need Wednesdays, we’ll see what we can do.  St. Patricks changed a schedule this year & I tend to be flexible.  

Look for a park day the week of August 23 – 27.  We’ll play and visit & perhaps sing a few songs.  I’ll let you know!

I’ve been working on the railroad, skip to my Lou and many more. The toddler class and the baby class have become exercise classes as well, just ask some of the mommies & nannies that are enrolled with their little ones in our Spring semester.

Music grows these little ones from the inside out, we stimulate their minds and their bodies and smile while we do it. We all remember songs so well, those songs translate into language development and practice for the young child.

Bring along a friend and come on and try it out. Your little one will thank you later.

I’m an eleven year veteran of Kindermusik, my son is playing violin scales to songs he learned in Kindermusik when he was 4 months old. I didn’t know that would happen!

I have often described having Kindermusik in my life as having another set of tools in my parenting tool box.  Counting to 5 only takes  you so far!  But singing and dancing unabashadly is sure to get them moving!  ”It’s Our Time to sing together” (our welcome song) can easily be turned into “It’s our time to eat our yummy beans”.  I’ve gotten to the point that a song jumps to my mind when I see a leaf falling, goose flying, butterfly flapping, and the list is endless.  Just ask my kids!

Come add tools to your tool  box and meet other families who are all in “Lukey’s Boat” (a song from the Wiggles and Giggles Our Time curriculum) together.

Classes begin September 8, 9 and 10th.  Meet weekly (16 weeks) until January.  Tuesday’s Our Time class is full.

Who else is enjoying summer as much as my children and their cousins?  Who else is buried under a mountain of laundry  because the kids are having so much fun?

Several road trips have been survived with the aid of our Kindermusik library and it’s off shoot Do Re Mi and You — look for the Do re mi & you materials on the Kindermusik website.  Ned Red took us through the mountains of North Carolina, America the Musical rescues us often with the kids vying for parts.  And a little history thrown in, make excellent birthday gifts too!

September is coming, sooner than I’ve realized and classes will fill.  Tuesdays’  Our Time is already almost at capacity.  I’ve found that only 10 families can comfortably fit into our classroom.

Tell your friends, neighbors and benefactors (just kidding) to join us for a preview class, then they’ll want to come again.  (And you’ll get a free gift to build your instrument collection.)

See you in September. 

As I write today, it feels like spring — on January 7.  This fickle weather could be likened to the changing whims of the children we are all diligently raising.

I’ve always been glad Kindermusik has been a part of that raising, the music comes in handy on the cold rainy days (as there is a song for everything!)  Kindermusik’s weather unit in the Imagine That! series takes care of that for me.  And there is always Mister Sun Sun Mr. Golden Sun, not a Kindermusik exclusive, but makes us smile when we sing it. I call Kindermusik one of the tools in my parenting tool box.

Our Spring semester begins the week of January 13 and continues until the first week of May.  Can’t believe another semester is just finishing, all our Milk & Cookies friends and Dream Pillow/Zoom buggy folks can add to their Kindermusik archives new tunes next week!

Our journey continues next semester with the Our Time crew enjoying animals galore (a toddler fave), the  Village folks putting the classic nursery rhymes to work with some Calypso beats thrown in & our NEW Imagine That! class heading off to the city!

We’ve built wonderful communities within our classes and welcome newcomers with ease as we greet each other each week watching the changes in each other’s children (and ourselves).  Come along on the journey.

Our Time Classes, 18 months – 3 1/2 years old, experience music through all of their senses. Keeping a steady beat to The Muffin Man, dancing up high & down low to Great Big House in New Orleans, and even eating muffins.  These little friends follow the routine of class and excitedly help with the instruments, dances, clean up & quiet rest time.  And they are all just 3 and under.  Amazing when little ones know what we expect of them and know what to expect.

The Village classes, 0 – 18 month olds, have  been feeling the rumble rumble zoom zoom of music these past 5 weeks and now ride in the buggy all about the room.  Cardboard boxes  make great buggies.  Moms and kids alike all smile as the little ones travel around the room.  We’re all  making new friends, first friends, mommies &  babies.