In the spring I asked Karri at Kinderbach (intro to music/piano program) if I could do a review of her product. Personally, I rate a BrillKids parent’s view on a product higher than any that I see on actual product sites. I thought some of you would appreciate a review by a fellow BK forum member.
Let me first tell you that my son (three years old) loves, loves, loves music. We have taken two terms of Music for Young Children and intend to continue (he is in love with his teacher). He is taking violin & piano lessons (only about 10 minutes of violin followed by 5 of piano – one “lesson” a week). He HATES violin and likes piano. At home, we have three shelves of instruments that he plays with daily (often Karaoke style with Readeez). He comes up with very interesting lyrics – sometimes they even rhyme. My boy loves music. I, personally, can sing and clap to a simple rhythm, but other than that I’m pretty much hopeless…never mind read music or know what key is what note.
I became interested in the Kinderbach program because at the time my son seemed interested in the keyboard that his auntie sent him for Christmas. For months it had sat pretty much untouched because we didn’t know how to give him guidance with it. He basically just pounded on the keys randomly saying “This is FORTE (or piano), Mommy!” (language he learned at MYC). Now, thanks to Kinderbach, he deliberately tries things that he’s seen on her program. He searches out keys and tries to reproduce patterns/rhythms that he’s seen and heard . Music terminology is also introduced, as are note/key names (C,D, E, etc). If you’re interested in seeing their curriculum outline it can be found here:
http://www.kinderbach.com/Classroom/curriculum.htmlUnfortunately, we began our “studies” with Kinderbach as spring was heading our way. We have become quite distracted by the beautiful weather and seem to spend far more time outside than in front of the computer screen as of late. We have not advanced as quickly as we could have – but most of that is because of me and my own discipline issues as far as taking advantage of the sunshine goes!
I like the program, particularly because of the “feel.” If you want to attend an IRL class like MYC, KinderMusic or Music Together but can’t for various reasons, this has a great classroom feel. Her lessons are divided up into segments that you do entirely at your own pace. You can do one segment a day and be done in 2 or 3 minutes, or you can do a few consecutively and be done in 7 – 10. As for what we’ve done, we vary what we do depending on the mood/schedule/sunshine
. Each segment has something different – one will have a keyboard lesson about various key/finger placements, one may have a colouring aspect, one will have some sort of instrument interaction or physical movement, but all of them have a high dose of cheer and fun. Karri is a perfect “little kid person”. There’s just enough silly and smiles to make you like her but not feel that she’s over the top.
This is NOT a right brain program in that it does not flash/communicate information rapidly. However, it IS a creative program and, if you do take the time to look at her site, you’ll see how very much she/they believe in creativity. We have not advanced to the higher levels yet, but the newsletters I’ve been receiving intrigue me.
If you’re interested in finding out more, I would highly recommend visiting this link
http://www.kinderbach.com/atHome/index.html and doing their two week trial so that you can see for yourself before signing up. I can see older children not liking it as much as my three year old, but according to some of the reviews on her site, they DO take to it as well.
As for our family, I think we’ll continue this program in the fall, together with MYC and private violin (shudder) and piano lessons. I really like that we can access musical training at any point in our week – not just on our class days. Plus on the “I’M NOT PLAYING MY VIOLIN” days I don’t really have to feel too bad if we’ve had at least a bit of Kinderbach! And, just so you don't think I'm a terrible mommy for making him take violin lessons - he does show glimmers of excitement every now and then and he is excited for class to start up again in a few weeks...so he can't hate me too much...right?
Digg
