Eat your dessert.

If the Activity Guide is the “meat and potatoes” of the At Home Materials, then the CD’s are dessert.  This is the part that your child loves best, remembers, and asks for every day. And just like dessert, it is the culmination of a well-balanced meal of classroom activities and organized play from the book (or your own creative process) that you and your child do together at home.   

I hear regularly from parents that the CD’s are a staple of all commuting, and that they are listened to at home, and at bedtime as well because their child will actually LISTEN to the CD’s over and over again.  

My gut instinct tells me that they listen to their curriculum CD’s with such attentiveness because almost every song on the CD is related to an activity from class; there is something going on in their memories when they listen to “Lukey’s Boat”. They are doing the steps of the dance in their heads when they hear “The Keel Row, and their hands become their fish and bloop, bloop, bloop, as they listen to “Above the Sea.” 

It is not just background music.  I am quite sure if you gave a Kindermusik CD to a child who had never attended a class that they would enjoy the CD, but not like your children will.  The combination of meat and potatoes followed by dessert is classic for a reason - it works! 

Your child may not actually be interested in the CD at first; they may still want to listen to last semester’s CD.  But as soon as we’ve covered enough of the music on the CD with activities in class, your child will begin the process of transferring their love from Zoo Train to Wiggles and Giggles.  Most of the music on the CD is in a similar order to how it is introduced in class.

 There are always tracks on a Kindermusik CD that we won’t use in class. These pieces are there to round out your child’s listening experience and to expose them to music they may not hear regularly.  They also make the CD much more interesting to listen to. 

 In addition to the CD’s that come with the class, you will find some wonderful listening suggestions in your Home Activity Guide.   I especially love the three suggestions on page 33.

1.  “Rodeo” by Aaron Copland (We are BIG Copland fans in our house, so I would recommend anything by him)
2. “The Grand Canyon Suite” by Ferde Grofe (don’t let the name fool you- he is American and wrote some of early Hollywood’s grandest and best soundtracks as well orchestral works that are breathtaking! He and Aaron Copland were good friends.)
3. “The William Tell Overture” by Rossini.  That one is on your home CD, but it is just an excerpt from the whole overture.  The entire piece is really fabulous.     

The other listening suggestions are by Johann Strauss.  You’ll enjoy his lighthearted take on the world of the classical music. His dance music was the party music of the late 19^th century. Multiple generations of Viennese loved him, and they love him still a 110 years later.  So he is definitely worth checking out, especially on a cold, gloomy, rainy day.  A little Strauss can brighten any day.  It’s as good as hot chocolate with marshmallow cream on top – and as sweet, too!

 So, enjoy your CD’s and listen often.  The more familiar your child is with the music, the faster they learn a new activity in class.  And the more they learn, the sooner they are ready for extensions to those activities. 

 -posted by Miss Allison, who thinks that dessert is the best part of dinner!