It's sharing time and the children at Kindermusik scan the faces of parents walking into Cheryth Robertson’s classroom, itching to demonstrate what they’ve learned in today’s class.
It's sharing time and the children at Kindermusik scan the faces of parents walking into Cheryth Robertson’s classroom, itching to demonstrate what they’ve learned in today’s class.
Robertson tells us they’ve done a module called The World of Dance and when we get home, my child demonstrates something that looks like a cross between a rugby tackle and a dog scratching its ear with its hind leg.
It’s possible he may not become a dancer. For all I know, perhaps not even a musician. And while local school music teachers bless Kindermusik when for¬mal instruction starts, the programme’s stated goals are about more than prepar-ing musical prodigies.
Okay, admittedly, show any vicariously ambitious parent the Kindermusik South Africa website and they’ll be saving up for pianos when mini-Mozart is just a twinkle in someone’s eye.
They say research proves music helps children develop skills that span language and comprehension; the spatial-temporal and reasoning skills required for maths, science, and engineering; social and emotional skills that are es¬sential for school readiness; and gross and fine motor skills. Basically, music makes you clever.
Personally, I’m delighted for my son to burst out in an impromptu jazz improvisation as he brushes his teeth, or hear him play through – sort of – a piece he’s just learnt.
Kindermusik is described on the website as “a gently structured, flexible curricu¬lum that allows children from birth to 7 years to learn and develop at their own pace”.
The programme has its roots in Germany in the late 1960s, where a music and movement curriculum for kindergarten children was developed, based on the work of musicians and educators from Europe and Asia, includ¬ing Shinichi Suzuki, Maria Montessori, and Carl Orff.
Apart from learning a wind, string and percussion instrument, children who complete the programme are also introduced to a range of musical traditions and gen¬res, and learn basic musical notation.
Robertson does Kindermusik’s Studio programme and this is the 10th anniversa¬ry of her introducing Kindermusik to Grahamstown.
She says the biggest revelation for her was realising how important parents are to their children’s learning.
Parent involvement is central in the Kindermusik programme. What happens to the Kin¬dermusik kids after the pro¬gramme? “Most of them go on to choose an instrument and take individual lessons and some take a break to explore other things in life,” says Robertson. “But what has become apparent to me is that most go back to music studies eventually – and stick with them.”
According to the Kindermusik website there are more than 10 million children in 44 countries worldwide doing the programme. In South Africa there are 160 teachers qualified to teach the programme, including Robertson.
