Kindermusik is a pioneer of Arts Integration!
And in my opinion Kindermusik is still one of the best after more than 40 years. To illustrate this I want to tell my personal Kindermusik story…
About 25/26 years ago my first child was a toddler and showing interest in music. He also had a love of books and fascination with science. I went looking for a programs for him… schools, teaching ideas, and classes/activities. You know all those things super type A, high achieving parents do. But then I found Kindermusik and it changed our lives- my kids, my parenting, my career path, and my family.
I tried out different things along the way. But Kindermusik was different- special. It made me a better and more zen parent by showing me the path to integrating all different aspects of learning and life in one package. In Kindermusik all three of my children were encouraged to think creatively and make music about EvErYtHiNg around them. It used music & books & arts to connect and balance the whole child. This did so many important things. *it InSpiRed their play making play a more efficient teaching tool;
*it fine tuned their SenSes;
*it gave them a way to express Emotional and Socially;
*it gave them and me a supportive Community;
*there are so many ways it’s hard to be brief about it.
I was a trained musician and fine artist and a new parent. Kindermusik changed how I looked at parenting and it fit with my eclectic upbringing and life. My husband was a military pilot and trained engineer. My parents where scientist and educators- my father a physicist and my mother a science educator/communicator/writer. And we were all active in music. I believed in integration before it was even a thing most people talked about, it was how I was raised. But in traditional teaching it meant taking on a lot of classes. Kindermusik took/takes the best of different techniques, different tools, different subjects and weaves them together so expertly and beautifully. This program was/IS simply the best I’ve ever seen at integration.
I was hooked early on with my children and for myself. Parenting was hard for me at first- partly because I was a new parent and partly because my child was a challenge. Later I would find out my oldest has Autism and my middle child has a genetic difference. Kindermusik became a safe space not just for musical play & learning but also for my children dealing with different learning needs and myself dealing with learning to parent them.
I became a Kindermusik educator for my children. They needed it and we where moving where there wasn’t already a Kindermusik educator. I was determined to provide them this program. When I was training and starting my program I became pregnant with my youngest. I was singing & moving & training constantly during his pregnancy. Almost immediately my youngest was keeping a beat, responding to musical transitions, and quickly hitting bench marks. It made me such a strong believer in Kindermusik as something special and unique for early childhood and I never turned away.
25+ years after becoming a Kindermusik parent and 22 years after becoming an educator, I am still in Kindermusik today. I’m getting older and hoping to pass on what I’ve learned to the next generation. Not just the next generation of children & parents but also the next generation of Kindermusik educator- at least one for here in south TX.
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