Beat the Heat!

Come see why this little boy is so happy in Kindermusik! We will be holding a free Kindermusik demonstration in Pelham at the Cherubs Clubhouse July 8! Come meet our new addition to the studio, Erika Stewart who will be conducting the class! Erika is a lisenced Kindermusik educator and piano instructor.

July 8
9:30 0 to 18 month olds
10:00 18 month to 4 year olds

Come beat the heat and join us for music class and 30 minutes of free Cherubs Clubhouse playtime afterward on July 8! Its the middle of the summer and the kids are getting restless. The park is only getting hotter. Join us for free music class and playtime at our indoor, air conditioned park!


We will be holding a drawing for a 15% discount on summer tuition, a free Kindermusik CD and offering an early bird discount for fall registration at the free demo!!


Our summer term of Sign and Sing for 0 to 18 month olds and ABC Music and Me for 2 to 4 year olds will start the next week.

Why Kindermusik before piano?

Today in our Family Time class I had a great reminder of one of the reasons we suggest taking Kindermusik before starting piano.

The children took a little extra time today with the instrument exploration during family jam. One thing we worked on with the older kids, was trying to exercise BOTH hands, not just the favored hand. Playing the simple instruments like a drum with mallet, rhythm sticks, castanets, sand blocks and shakers work on fine motor skills and hand eye coordination required to play the piano or any other instruments. Alternating egg shakers or rhythm sticks not only strengthens neural connections between the right and left sides of the brain, but it also strengthens coordination in the non-dominant hand which is essential for piano technique.

Another aspect of the instrument exploration is that the instruments are all played in different ways thus using different muscle groups in the arms. This strengthens the fine motor muscles that control the individual fingers. Finger independence and equal finger strength is also important to learning to play the piano.

This is also important in help the child learn to hold a spoon and feed himself or learning to write. Other activities that facilitate fine motor development are the pegged puzzles, stringing beads, putting beans through a small hole in an old can, using tongs to move cotton bowls from one dish to another, or using an eye dropper to squeeze out one drop of liquid at a time. Try putting these activities where they are worked from left to right. This helps prepare them to read text as well as music from left to right.

Kindermusik provides the perfect opportunity to work on all these skills in a free environment where there are no wrong ways to play an instrument and endless outlets for creativity.

New classes!

We have just begun our new term of Family Time this week! I enjoyed one of my returning students picking up brand new songs on the first day of class! Many of the Kindermusik songs are built on bi and tri-tonal melodies which are the first intervals that children readily pick up. Children all over the world sing various songs built on these 2 or 3 notes without even being taught: "
Ring around the rosie", "nanny, nanny booboo", "its raining- its pouring as well as rain", "rain go away." Since children so naturally sing these tones, this is where we start teaching them to match pitches.

We also worked on inhibitory control- which is the ability to stop and start according to directions. We worked on gross motor inhibitory control during movement time as well as fine motor with the instruments.

This term, we began working on some of our school skills at a new level. Instead of the children spending the entire duration of class in their parent's lap or by their parent's side, we encouraged the children to sit on the music squares in the front of the room for some of the activities. This allowed them to learn to sit in a classroom-like setting but still gave them the comfort of knowing that their caregiver was close by.

We do a variety of movements in a Kindermusik class. Most things we do have a specific developmental purpose. This week we talked about activities that cross the mid line of the body thus creating neural connections from the right to left side of the brain. Alternating hands to play the egg shakers, crawling on the floor, or bouncing both hands across the mid line from one side of the body to the other work on this.

We are still enrolling for this class! Be sure to register online today to make sure we order your materials!