01/15/2024
Winter semester starts this week, and it's not too late to sign up and join us!
Music Together isn't just a fun way to spend time with your kids and make friends with other families (though it sure is a ton of fun). It's also a research-based educational program that focuses on teaching basic musical competence; that is, the ability to sing in tune and move in rhythm. Our song choices, lesson plans, and activities are all carefully designed to give kids the opportunity to hear, see, and play with different rhythms, tonalities, and musical styles. Over multiple semesters in class, kids cycle between receiving musical information and experimenting with it, slowly learning how to sing the notes they hear, move in time with the actions they see, and even improvise in-key and on-beat.
With these skills under their belt, older kids can go on to make the most of formal lessons in instruments or dance, able to focus on learning specific techniques rather than the absolute basics of music. They can also just feel confident participating in regular, cultural music-making, like school dances or karaoke with their friends! Giving your children the chance to learn the basics when they're young opens up a whole world of opportunity, ensuring they can pursue whatever sorts of musical activities interest them for the rest of their lives.
Plus, musical learning supports all learning! Music Together classes encourage your growing child's linguistic development by giving them chances to experiment with everything from the basic syllabic and tonal building blocks of language, to rhymes and meter, to story-telling, to non-English languages. Our classes include a variety of fine and large motor activities, with special attention given to tricky tasks like crossing the midline, using your non-dominant hand, and controlling the speed and force of your movements. Our songs encourage dramatic play and can be used to teach children about tasks, emotions, animal actions, and any other topic that's currently relevent to their lives. Since our classes are play-based but still structured, they're also a great opportunity for young kids to practice the social skills they'll need when they move to more-formal classroom environments: things like taking turns, being careful of yourself and others, sharing, re-focusing attention, and self-regulation.
When kids grow up in this kind of encouraging, musical environment, their musical talents can blossom alongside other developmental areas, each skill strengthening the others. When they get to play with other families and children of other ages, they can learn from each other and become natural collaborators and leaders. Music Together is such an amazing program that benefits kids and parents in so many different ways! I'm so honored that I get to share it with other families in my community, and I would love to be able to share it with you this semester.
If you're interested in making music with us for the next 10 weeks, now's the time to register on our website! If you've never been to a Meadowlark Music Together class before and you'd like to experience it before you commit to signing up, you're welcome to visit on week one with no obligation to continue; just email me at [email protected] and let me know which class you want to visit and I'll make sure there's space for you. If the cost of tuition is preventing you from registering, please feel free to reach out and ask about our scholarships; we have a scholarship fund that I'm happy to use to make sure that every family who wants to join us gets the chance to do so, regardless of income level.
Have a wonderful winter! Let's make some music together this year!
https://meadowlarkmusictogether.com/register.aspx