Sound of Music

Bought Kris to her second trial at Kindermusik, she enjoyed herself tremendously listening to the powerful vocal of teacher S, dancing to the rhythm of the different tunes of songs, touching and playing with the different type of instruments such as shakers, drums etc and most important of all she fitted right into the session the moment we stepped in! 

She was cooperative with no hints of tantrum nor grouchiness throughout the 45 minutes. We were sold! This trial is a far cry from the first one we attended when she was 6 months. 

The session started off with a few of the usual activities: (1) Free play where the kids are given "roaming" time to interact and play with the loosely scattered colored stretch balls. After 5 minutes, the balls are quickly packed away. (2) Everyone will then be sited into a big circle and sing the “welcome” song, where each kid choose its own action style and sing to the tune. Kris absolutely adore this session, she was bouncing, clapping, laughing and staring at teacher S and her newly acquired friends. 

After which, the activities for the week started. This week, we handled egg shakers, drums, colorful pieces of cloth and sing and bounced to Chugga Chugga train and other songs.  I would range the involvement of parents to kid participation as 8: 2. 

The session ended with bubbles blowing which is one of the kids favorite activity. Kris was busy popping the bubbles and was screaming at the sight of freshly formed bubbles. One suggestion though, the studio should invest in an automatic bubble blower instead.

Verdict

The lesson was a cosy session with no more than 8 infants and the good thing is that both papa and mama are able to join. There are some places which only allow 1 parent participation.

Time passes too fast, lesson should be extended to 1 hour instead.

After the session, I didn’t feel as exhausted as I thought I would be.

Kris was still fully engaged after the session, still ready for more.  

We signed up for the village program which is designed for newborns to 18 months, however from my personal opinion registering the child earlier then 7-8 months is not beneficial as the kid crawling skills in not developed to roam around the classroom setting. They will instead rely more on parents during activity time, suckle on their fingers and toes, drool continuously and put everything in sight into their mouth, at least that is what happened to Kris during her first trial. 

Each term consist of 8 lessons and cost $345 + $68 for materials (which I felt is too pricy) + $38 for registration fee. The materials depending on the theme of the term consist of a musical instrument, a board book, flash cards and a CD-ROM consisting of all the songs that will be covered for the term. 

After we went back to the car, we played the CD. Kris absolutely love the music flowing in the background, she sat there quietly listening to the music. Yeah, no more screaming Kris I thought, but urghhh after 30 minutes, she started yelling and yes screaming Kris is back to terrorize us.