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Kindermusik is more than just a music class
By Marjorie Preston, Today’s Family Writer
 If you’ve taken the free introductory Kindermusik class with your child, you know how much fun this music-based child development class can be. A program for newborns through age seven, Kindermusik is more than just a music class. Kindermusik International runs programs in seventy-seven countries and has been evolving since beginning in West Germany in the 1960s and coming to the States in the 1970s.
Each studio is independently owned and operated. Cathy Huser, Director of Kindermusik of Cleveland, operates locations in Kirtland, Solon, Shaker Heights and Pepper Pike. She began working with the program in 1996 and has just been named a top ten Kindermusik program worldwide for the tenth year in a row. “We have research and continuing education at our fingertips and the program is adaptable and follows the child,” Huser says. She has a staff of six plus a music therapist on call. She adds, “Our teachers must be able to connect with families and facilitate a class with their voice.”
Classes for younger kids are parent-child classes, and classes for those ages three and up are drop-off classes, with the last ten minutes set aside as family sharing time with the parent involved. Huser understands that parents have different needs depending on the age of their child. For a parent of a baby, Huser offers “community, development and research-based child development information.”
For a parent of a toddler, she offers “the social aspect plus a place where a child can be active.” Huser notes that moms of babies and toddlers want a program they can take home with them to keep their toddler engaged. “The program teaches appropriately presented skills that will help the child succeed in school,” she adds. For the parent of a preschooler, she offers a program that helps with turn-taking, conversational skills, inhibitory control and language skills. “These are goals, but we use music to facilitate it,” Huser says. For the parents of big kids ages four-and-a-half to seven, Huser says, “We offer everything in the other levels plus more musical theory and direction.”
“We recognize that every child has a different learning style, whether they’re a watcher, listener or mover,” says Huser. “All activities are adaptable and once a child is comfortable in their own learning style, they open up for learning.” She shares an example of how the concept of staccato (“bumpy”) and legato (“smooth”) might be presented with movement, then singing, then word play, then instruments, then moving the whole body and pretend play, all centered on learning the concept of smooth and bumpy.
“It is the most fulfilling, magical emotional thing when you see a child light up,” Says Huser. “I’ve seen it for fourteen years. Music makes a huge impact in a child’s life.”
Visit www.kindermusikofcleveland.com or call (216) 991-1063 to sign up for a free introductory class.
Kindermusik
SUMMER SESSION
June, July and August
Kirtland
Thursday and Friday days
Pepper Pike
Thursday and Friday days plus
Thursday evenings
Shaker Heights
Monday-Saturday days plus
Wednesday evenings
Solon
Tuesday and Wednesday days
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