How Kindermusik has impacted my family

By Leah Casey

Kindermusik has encouraged deep connections for me and my children over the years.  I found that classes offered a positive mental and emotional atmosphere where profound bonds between myself and my children were built.  I signed up for a Kindermusik class after I moved to a new town with my first baby girl. I was introduced to music at a young age by my mother, and I wanted to replicate the same experience for my children.  

My daughter was 7 weeks old when we joined the Kindermusik program and what we experienced together was mind-blowing. From the outside looking in, it initially appeared Kindermusik provided parents a place to be silly and free with their children.  After a few weeks of attending classes where we listened to multicultural music, participated in rhythmic drumming, and partook in play that inspired all the senses, I began to see and feel the deep connections that were taking place. I always desired deep intimacy with my children and I felt like I organically conveyed strong, loving energy towards them in our personal world. Kindermusik provided an additional space that promoted positive, loving, eye to eye, heart to heart bonding.  

My daughter’s loved listening to the classroom Kindermusik soundtrack in my car. My eldest child at three months old requested one song to be heard over and over, through baby talk that we all learned to understand. She would babble to let me know what she wanted to hear, I put the song on, and huge tears would stream down her face.  She was not suffering; she was connecting to the beauty of the music. The song was in Russian, a language foreign to us both, but she had developed a sensitivity that allowed her to transcend beyond language, she was tapping into the universal language of love.    

When my children began school, I noticed that they excelled in both mathematics and music.  Scientific data proves that children will be stronger mathematicians if they are engaged in music-making at a young age.  Music and math are both filled with patterns. Introducing simple rhymes, chants and games to early learners grow an ability to understand and manipulate patterns.  Listening for and responding to short patterns in music, expands a child’s understanding of patterns in math.

It is amazing how quickly my children can memorize songs.  They connect by singing and playing instruments together. They have confidence in their own voices. They have gained deep personal empowerment through their abilities. Because music was introduced in their infancy, it has always been apart of who they are and how they express themselves.  The confidence they demonstrate by learning new instruments, trying out for a solo in choir, is priceless. They may not get the solo, or master the new instrument, but they have the moxie to go after what they want. Years of consistent Kindermusik classes from an early age helped mold my children into the deep thinkers and enthusiasts that they are.

Kindermusik clearly had many benefits for my children, but it also was positive for me.  My husband’s job moved us throughout the country for many years. Every time we moved, I had to start a new life for myself and my children.   The first thing I did once the dust settled from moving was to join a local Kindermusik class. I found myself immediately drawn to mothers who participated in the program.  It was mom’s like me, changing diapers, cleaning up messes, and chasing after kids. It was filled with mom’s who wanted to connect heart to heart with their children and who were looking for similar connections with their peers. I was welcomed in with loving arms from a group of amazing women every time I moved.   Kindermusik will meet you as deep as you are willing to meet yourself.

 “Music is one way for young people to connect with themselves, but it is also a bridge for connecting with others. Through music, we can introduce children to the richness and diversity of the human family and to the myriad rhythms of life.”

-Daniel A. Carp