Kindermusik

Make baby's first class musical! Our foundations classes offer a sensory-rich yet caring and gentle environment where infants can explore and react to new sounds, sensations and objects. Shared activities for babies and their caregivers provide the opportunity to strengthen your connection with your child through joyful music-making experiences.

Activities

• Listening to and experiencing songs and rhymes
• Back-and-forth vocal plays and other parent-child interactions that build neural pathways in a baby's developing brain
• Exploring baby-safe instruments and other object play
• Baby-caregiver bonding exercises, including story time, massage and relaxation activities

Skills and benefits

• Increased balance and control over movements and strengthened core muscles
• Ability to embrace both familiar and unfamiliar social experiences
• Development of listening and back-and-forth communication skills
• Introduction to a variety of spoken sounds and rhythms that will support language and literacy development

These classes offer young toddlers a stimulating environment to explore their new movement and language skills with a sense of security, comfort and confidence. As your child thrives in a music and movement-driven environment, you'll have the opportunity to connect with other parents and caregivers and learn to use music to create and simplify routines at home.

Activities

• Discovery and play with scarves, hoops, mirrors and more
• Instrument play and introduction to basic music concepts such as high/low, fast/slow and holding a steady beat
• Singing songs that include motions, repeated words and different meters and modes

Skills and benefits

• Heightened body awareness and beginning competence in self-regulation of movement
• Development of various basic gross-motor skills, fine-motor control and coordination
• Growing ability to recognize and follow patterns in music and move to a steady beat, fundamental skills that have been linked to math and language

These classes encourage older toddlers to initiate their own ideas and explore their creativity. Each class offers plenty of fun outlets for toddler-style energy, promoting cognitive development through singing, dancing and instrument play. You'll have the opportunity to connect with other parents and caregivers who also are experiencing the joys and complexities of these busy years, while learning to use music to create and simplify routines at home.

Activities

• Exploring movement concepts and participating in musical interactions with objects and others
• Discovering different ways instruments can make sounds and experiencing a wide range of musical concepts
• Identifying and vocally imitating sounds and learning to describe them
• Learning to associate a picture with a sound
• Singing songs with language patterns that explore rhythm, speech sounds, syntax and rhyme

Skills and benefits

• Increased alertness, self-control and ability to regulate their own movements
• Stabilization of muscles necessary for healthy posture and overall balance
• Improved coordination and locomotor skills, fine motor skills, and finger and hand strength
• Strengthened ability to memorize, sequence and predict patterns
• Development of early pre-literacy and number skills

These classes engage preschoolers' natural love of music and activate their imaginations. A wide range of learning opportunities boosts language skills, confidence, independence, social-emotional skills and self-control. You're invited to join the fun for a portion of each class, sharing in the joy of music-making and learning how your child is developing, all while strengthening your relationship with your child.

Activities

• Experiencing a variety of sounds and learning how sounds are produced by playing musical instruments, speaking or singing
• Playing instruments with an emphasis on steady beat, repeated rhythm patterns, graphic notation and ensemble music
• Ensemble Development, an activity that builds the skills preschoolers need in order to create music within a group
• Engaging in creative expression and language play, expressing feelings and ideas through movement and music
• Pre-reading music and learning to interpret graphic notation symbols, a precursor to learning traditional music symbols

Skills and benefits

• Increased attention and focus; growing ability to memorize and recall
• Growing ability to detect patterns, nuances and timbre in sounds, a critical skill for music and language development
• Experience waiting patiently, taking turns, working cooperatively in a group and communicating effectively and respectfully
• Wider vocabulary and knowledge of story structures; critical thinking and problem-solving skills
• Learning how to decode and interpret symbols, skills necessary for reading, math and music

These classes offer children exciting first experiences with musical symbols and more complex instruments, laying the groundwork for formal music instruction. You'll join the fun for the final activities and watch as your child begins to master music terms and concepts, building a strong foundation for learning in other subjects like math, reading and writing.

Activities

• Listening to a variety of sounds, including music from individual instruments and complete compositions that highlight specific genres, cultures, composers or concepts and sharing their listening observations
• More complicated instrument-play, such as dances that include instrument play, back-and-forth rhythm conversations with instruments and songs with accompanying instrument patterns
• Experiencing various types of movement, including creative movement, movement with a partner, group, instruments or props, and movement that explores concepts like high/low or staccato/legato
• Singing a variety of songs in an appropriate range and engaging in call-and-response, echoing and instrument play
• Pretend play through music, vocal development, storytelling, listening and movement
• Introduction to music concepts and vocabulary

Skills and benefits

• Enhanced self-awareness, refined listening skills
• Heightened sense of creativity
• Development of sensory, motor and cognitive skills
• Increasing pitch accuracy, memory recall and sequencing abilities
• Ability to cooperate within a group, exhibit self-control and listen attentively
• Stronger foundation for language and literacy skills, such as phonological awareness, focused attention, effective communication and vocabulary
• Strengthened brain connections used to integrate new learning, make decisions and think critically

Provided by Kindermusik International, Kindermusik@Home is a special way to keep the fun and learning we experienced in class going at home!

Upon enrollment, families will be subscribed to Kindermusik@Home and receive account login information to access songs, rhymes, and stories experienced in class.

You also will have access to each activity's information on child development and the benefits of the experience.

There is no additional cost for these materials; the subscription price is included in our tuition rate.

All Kindermusik classes are ongoing, year-round. Once a child is enrolled, they continue to stay enrolled.

Cancellations

Requests to cancel must be submitted in writing at least one week before the start of the next four-week unit, either by visiting the Music Prep House office or by emailing musicprep@sfasu.edu.

Cancellation requests received that don't give at least a one-week notice before the next unit begins will be charged for the following unit.

Refunds and make-up classes

Refunds aren't available for missed classes. However, there are always unexpected appointments, sick days or vacations and families are encouraged to attend another class of the same age group to make up any missed classes.

Contact the Music Prep House office for make-up options or view the class calendar online for dates and times. Families are welcome to make up missed classes anytime throughout the year as long as their enrollment is active. Families are responsible for keeping track of missed classes.

No make-up classes are offered to families who have unenrolled in the program.