my music man

Since January, Wesley and I have had fun every Wednesday morning at our Kindermusik class. It has been awesome. I was a little shocked at the tuition, plus the materials fee, but in all honesty, you get out of it what you put into it. We had a total blast and learned tons of songs and activities that we can do for years down the road. I consider it money well spent.

Our class was for infants up to age 3, and most of the kids were 1 or older. The "class type" was called "Our Time," (I guess there are lots of different classes) and the curriculum this semester was called "Away We Go." I really liked it. The "Away We Go" music program all circled around transportation means and methods and such. In the beginning, we seemed to focus on trains, then it morphed to horses and finally "pioneer" themes like wagons and floating down the river in tugboats and such. I noticed the copyright on the CDs was 1999 so I think Kindermusik works really hard on its programs and just cycles them through the years. I'm not complaining, it was fresh and new and fun for us.

Anyway, every class would start with these wooden sticks... I think they have a fancy name, though I have no idea what... and our instructor Miss Katie would have us "keep a beat." I even found some wooden things at home that Wesley and I can keep a beat with. Anyway, we'd keep a beat and then sing the "Our Time Hello" song where we tapped the sticks, drummed on the floor, swished them like windshield wipers, etc., and we'd go around the room and sing hello to all the children. I know all the kids' names in our class... none of the adults. So sad right?


The second thing we did every day was get out these bars. Big bar, little bar, big bar, little bar, and they'd hit them with mallets and we'd sing another version of "Our Time Hello" where Miss Katie would outline some of the things we'd do that day, like "we're going to go to Arkansas," or "we'll go on a wagon ride" or "we'll ride the horsies," etc.






I was pleasantly surprised that toward the end of the class Wesley "got" what was going on. He could hit the bars! He knew what they were for. At the beginning of the class, the mallets just looked like lollipops. So his growth was pretty cool.

Here are some of the activities I remember (plus commentary of course):

• Every day we'd do a bounce, where he'd sit in my lap and we'd bounce. At first we bounced to "New River Train" and we'd do it three times: normal, slow, and then fast. It helps the kids develop tempo. At another point, our bounce was "Bumping up and down in my little red wagon," and then a wagon wheel would "fall off" and we'd bounce again but flail them every so interestingly. Very fun.
  
  
• I first realized Wesley was having a good time when we did "I've Been Working on the Railroad" one class early in the year. For the beginning of the song, we'd march pretty slow and sing slow, then at the refrain when it goes "Dinah won't you blow, Dinah won't you blow," we'd scurry around the room and sing really fast. Wesley loved it. I think he loved the erratic frenzy of running the best, but he loved it. We even do this at home, singing while running circles around our papasan chair in the living room.
  
  
• We did some interesting "vocal play" activities, where Miss Katie encouraged us to use matchbox cars and make auto noises and have fun with our little ones. I like to do some on the rhymes at home: it talks about a little car going on a trip, and the car takes a trip to your nose, your knees, etc., as the adult drives the car around on the kid's body. We were really working on body parts for awhile so I added a lot to the song (Wesley laughs the most when we drive on his back).
  
  
• Our materials fee bought us a couple books we read in class, and they all have a rhythm to them. One particular book is about Shiny Dinah the choo-choo train, and I hear Wesley humming the rhythm to himself when he falls asleep at night sometimes. It's awesome. As this class has gone on, I've discovered that although the linguistic synapses in his brain haven't quite clicked (like he um, says no words), the musical ones have. He can "sing" Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Shiny Dinah and the "I love mommy, she loves me" song. It's amazing. Miss Katie says for some kids, music clicks quicker than words.
  
  
• We'd also do unstructured "musical" play with things like jingle bells, tambourines, drums, etc. She'd hand them all out, we'd play for a bit, then she'd put on a song and the kids just did whatever they wanted to do while listening to the music. Pretty cool.
  
  
  
• There was this "horsie" section which Wesley didn't like at all. I couldn't get him to "get" any of the activities. There was this jingle we'd recite, "Giddy-up horsie, giddy-up horsie, giddy-up horsie, go go go!" At one point it was our daily bounce, and he never liked it and got off my lap and ran around the room instead. Another time, Miss Katie brought in these plush horses with tails the kids could ride (you know, a pony on a stick?), but when I tried to put it between his legs and get him to "giddy-up" he was astounded at the thought. He froze. The look on his face was priceless. No. Thank. You. Mother.
  
  
• I enjoyed it the best when Miss Katie would bring out the parachute. I can't do fancy parachute activities at home! We'd all gather 'round and sometimes sing this song about an "Old Brass Wagon" that would circle to the left, then circle to the right, etc., but my favorite one was an activity that taught tempo using a riverboat metaphor. The song started out, "we're floating down the river," a real lazy and slow tempo, and we'd sorta swish the parachute together very smoothly, and then the song would speed up, "two in the river and you can't jump Josie," and we'd go nuts swooshing the parachute up and down really quickly. I re-created that at home with just a fleece blanket that I sway over his head. He loves it!
  
  
• Miss Katie would get out bouncy balls and we'd sing about a steamroller and a jackhammer... the steamroller would be "rolling along to my steamroller song," very smoothly, and the jackhammer would be "bumping along to my jackhammer song," and we'd bounce the balls. Very cool metaphor for the smooth and staccato.
  
  
  (Wesley and various people in our group with their steamroller/jackhammer balls)
  
  
  
  
• Omigosh I almost forgot this one. This one was my favorite. The song was "The Egg Shaking Blues," and it's this hilarious song about shaking eggs essentially. We started singing it around Easter, and I came home and put rice in some plastic eggs and we "shake our eggs" all the time at home. Wesley even broke an egg the other day and Shane came home from work and asked, "why is there rice on the floor?" Oop.
  
  
• Every class ended with a snuggle: Miss Katie would turn off the lights and put on a sweet slow song, and we'd hold our little ones. Ahh it was nice. Sometimes we'd sing and sway. And sometimes he would run circles instead of calming down. That's life.
  
  
• One more lesson learned: moms need to be ready to move. I rolled around on the ground, I marched, I fell down then got up again (repeatedly!), I jumped, I did crazy cardio in circles, I sweated. It was fun. But hot. After the first class I never wore long sleeves again.
  

There you have it, some of our awesome memories from Kindermusik.

You know, honestly, a lot of class, Wesley ran around the room in circles. He didn't "get" a lot of things. He loves to run and laugh and trip over his own two feet, then get back up and repeat. There was a big wall-to-wall mirror and he loved to go up to it and stare at himself and try to lick it. (Tangent: Miss Katie actually told me that speaking and singing in front of a mirror can help some kids develop language, since they can see what their mouth is doing when they make noises. Interesting). Basically, some days it was very frustrating. But, we got so much out of Kindermusik at home, I know it was completely worth it, and it was an awesome experience for us.

We have three more classes, with another instructor and in another location, that we get to "make up" for some sick days. I'm kind of glad we're not 100% done. We might sign up again, but Miss Katie is moving so she won't be teaching and that's sort of sad. We could try another location. Wesley had four friends in this class he already knew from playgroups before, and it's just nice to have friends already, so I wonder if I'd like another teacher in another location as much. Katie was really sweet, very enthusiastic, and of course very talented at singing. I tried my best to be an involved and excited momma, and I sung right along. I guess she doesn't get that a lot, since I noticed not a lot of the other moms would sing, and they'd just sort of hang out and make sure their child wasn't tearing the place apart. But something else that is interesting and a bit crazy, is that after class today Miss Katie spoke to me and said, "I don't know if you work or are interested, but you have a wonderful singing voice and should consider becoming a certified Kindermusik instructor!" Isn't that funny? Maybe in my next career. It would be so fun, of course I'm super busy now and it doesn't seem right right now. But it was still the nicest compliment ever. Since they need to hire someone to replace her, she said they like hiring "people we already know," which made me feel like if I was interested they'd really consider me! Wow!

OK enough of that. Long story short: we had a dang good time.