Adoptive Parenting, Child Parenting

01/09/07

Kindermusic review

Posted by : Lauri in Adoptive Parenting Blog at 05:24 am , 431 words, 144 views
Categories: Activities

Ever since winter has forced us indoors I have been looking for a program to get Livi involved with as a way to allow her to socialize and burn off her copious amounts of energy. The later being the most important for me. We have three popular programs close to us. I will attempt to review each of these. This review is for Kindermusic and is only my opinion from one class.I’m looking for something to meet my busy toddlers needs. I emailed the local director and arranged a free class. There was no hard sell.

I really loved Kindermusic however I don’t feel it was the best class for Livi’s needs. This was an hour-long class and it was roughly $10 per class plus a materials fee. With the materials fee you get a songbook & Cd to learn the music at home. When we arrived the children had some free play with the instruments, then it was clean up time. The children then had a circle time and each child was greeted. The teacher had a pleasant melodic voice and was excellent with children. She loved her job and you could tell. Everything was sung to the children.

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A new instrument was introduced and the children took turns with it… not easy for toddlers. I personally felt that each child should have had its own instrument to explore. I think its hard to expect toddlers who rather parallel play to share. There was some movement, a story, some quiet time and more fun with music. The parents are very involved in this program, singing and dancing along with the teacher. Minus the instruments this was very similar to the story hour our local library offers for free a few times a year. As a former early childhood educator I really loved this class but I think it was too structured for my girl. While the teacher alternated between sitting & standing activities, my daughter needs to move and it’s very hard to get her to sit still. This may be something we do next winter if she is a bit calmer. I loved this class and Livi enjoyed herself but needed to move more.

Cons

To structured for my child

Expensive

Pros

The music was great, the exposure to the instruments and dancing were really fun

I love that a story time was included.

The children were encouraged to learn sharing… which is hard for toddlers but a good lesson anyway

The teacher was educated in the field of Music and she knew her stuff.

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2 comments

Comments, Pingbacks:

Comment from: momof2russiancuties [Member]

We did two years of Kindermusik,
starting a few months after we
brought the kids home. I really
wanted to get them hooked on music
early. When we started, they were 13 months and 20 months old. Also, it
was one of the few programs where
I could manage two kids together
by myself.

The kids enjoyed it, but for the
first several months, my son
totally refused to do the circle
dances (he would lie on the floor
in the middle of the room, and
we'd all have to avoid stepping
on him). Later on, he started
loving the dancing, and was the
first one up when the music started.
My daughter sometimes loved it,
and sometimes preferred to run
laps around the outside of the room.
This summer, I decided that
gymnastics might be a better idea,
especially for my daughter. That
went well (it was more active).
But she still sings a lot of the
songs from Kindermusik (even
some that we learned when she
was about 13 months old!), and
they both seem to have a great
sense of rhythym and a pretty good
sense of pitch, so I think all of
that Kindermusik at an early age
had a good effect, and we will
probably go back to it (or another
music class) at some point.

Permalink 01/09/07 @ 18:08

Comment from: bethbriand [Member]

Lauri,
When I adopted my "spirited" son two years ago, we tried music but all he wanted to do was run around behind the circle. We tried art class as well and that didn't work. The best thing for him was gymboree play...the cost is a bit high but I took advantage of the playgyms, sometimes twice a week. This was important during the winter when we couldn't get outside enough. They run a great program with the ability to makeup classes and you can get 50% off after you enroll for 6 sessions. If you use the playgyms, your cost per session is very reasonable. I had my daught in the gymboree playgym classes ( 2yrs old adopted from BH #1) but the schedule is not good for winter so I went to the first gymboree music class on monday. She did very well! I will supplement the structured music class with the playgyms that my husband can take her to in the evenings. My daughter is not as active as my son so I think music will be fine. My vote for your daughter is gymboree play!

Permalink 01/10/07 @ 08:49

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