Posted on Sun, Mar 07, 2010 @ 07:00 AM
After two years, I still get a little nervous before each Kindermusik class I teach. Will the children have a good time? Will the parents think the activities are silly? Will I remember the melody to the goodbye song? But once the class is over, and parents linger to chat and children beg for a hand stamp on their tummy or say "thank you for class, Ms. Michele" I am reminded why I love this job.
Kindermusik class is where I hear giggles, see smiles and watch parents at their most playful. Imaginations flourish when Mom and child decide to swing each other with a hoop, or fly around the room like a butterfly. Vocabulary grows, manners are practiced, sharing is attempted (and sometimes succeeds) and all kinds of learning takes place. I am so impressed by these parents who have taken precious time from their busy lives to tickle until they can't stop laughing, or dance until they are out of breath. It makes my day when daddies step out of their comfort zones to share a cuddle, a bounce or a favorite story. And when I hear that the music from class is being listened to in the car or at home, I know that the Kindermusik magic has left the building and is continuing the learning and fun all week long.
What more could a teacher ask for?
Michele Collins, Kindermusik Educator at HAA
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Posted on Sun, Feb 28, 2010 @ 08:05 AM
Kindermusik--the leading program in early-childhood music education--has been
offered to families in New Jersey's Hunterdon County since 1981, when it was introduced to the local community by Donna Cooper. Teaching at first out of her home, Donna grew her Kindermusik studio from just a few students to one of the world's largest Kindermusik programs. As operations outgrew facilities time and again, her "Cooper Music Studio" was to move a total of four times until in 2007 it became part of Hunterdon Academy of the Arts at 4 Minneakoning Road in Flemington.
A visionary with a great passion for children's education, Donna was among the first educators in the U.S. to teach Kindermusik, a program that as it name suggests, originated in Germany, before spreading around the globe.
We were deeply touched when one day we noticed that we actually had children in our Kindermusik program whose parents themselves had once been Kindermusik students of Donna Cooper's! What's more, when in 2008 we appointed Kimberly Hill to conduct our long-standing Hunterdon Youth Choir, she revealed that she, too, began her musical training as a child in Donna's Kindermusik classes, and that conducting this choir had been a life-long dream of hers!
Although we are great believers in the scientifically documented benefits of Kindermusik training, there is no stronger testimony to the awesome power of Kindermusik than seeing it manifest across generations.
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