Kindermusik

Sam has been a fan of music since he was an itty bitty babe. We sway and rock to Joshua Radin, Alexi Murdoch, and Adele. We dance around the kitchen to A Hop, Skip, and A Jump and Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed. We may even sing along to Call Me Maybe.

And so when I discovered a Kindermusik class in our town, I jumped on the opportunity to expose Sam to even more music.

We enrolled in a class designed for newborns to 18 months. There are six babies in the class, and Sam is the only boy! He doesn’t mind, though. In fact, he loves that the little girls fight for his attention.

Our instructor, Miss Uta, has been teaching Kindermusk for over 15 years. She’s from northern Germany and has a beautiful soprano voice.

Class begins at 10:00 am, which is not ideal (Sam typically naps from 9:30 – 11:00 every day), but we make it work. We go to Panera for breakfast, and he usually falls asleep in the parking lot for about 20 minutes before we go inside to see our friends.

We just finished our third of five classes in the “Busy Days” series, and Sam has already learned the class routine. We start with ten minutes of “social time,” in which he bangs on the drum and usually ends up sitting on top of it.

We then sing the “Welcome” song. We wave and clap our hands and tap our legs.

Next we transition into the activity of the day. So far we’ve visited the grocery store, the park, and the doctor’s office. Each “trip” includes songs (Pizza, Pickle, Pumpernickel and Dr. Knickerbocker) and instruments (tambourines, rattles) and toys (silk scarves, rubber balls). Sometimes the babies sit in our laps, and sometimes they crawl/walk around the classroom.

There are lots of little laughs as we toss the kiddos above our heads, spin in circles, and tickle their bellies. They interact with us, with Miss Uta, and with each other.

We love music class so much that we plan to sign up for another session in the fall — hopefully the “Sign and Sing” class for 6 months to 3 years. If you have a Kindermusik program in your community, I highly recommend it!

(Thanks to my Aunt Beth for taking photos of us this week.)