 | |
| Company type | Corporation |
|---|---|
| Industry | Music education |
| Founded | 1970s |
| Headquarters | Greensboro, North Carolina |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Scott Kinsey, Chairman and CEO |
| Website | http://www.kindermusik.com |
Kindermusik International, Inc. is a corporation headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina. Kindermusik is a method of early childhood education and is one of the most widely recognized music education programs for young children.
In the 1960s in West Germany, a group of teachers developed a program they called "Musikalische Früherziehung" (early musical instruction). The goal of the program was to teach children about music before they were old enough to begin formal music instruction. This program was eventually adapted for use in the United States and was renamed Kindermusik.
In the 1980s the Kindermusik program was rolled out to countries around the world. In 2002, the company's employees purchased the company from its 96 investors. [1]
Today, there are over 5,000 licensed Kindermusik instructors teaching classes around the world. [2]
Kindermusik offers classes structured around singing, games, movement to music, and listening activities for all age groups (and their parents) between birth and 7 years. The philosophy of Kindermusik education involves parents as the most important teachers and the home environment as the most important place to learn. [3]
The following classes are typically offered:
Winter, spring, and summer sessions are usually offered. A theme is chosen for each session and home materials are provided. Typically, home materials include a music CD, books, an instrument, and a carrying case.
In 2003, Kindermusik International awarded a grant to two professors in Applied Developmental Psychology at George Mason University (Fairfax, VA). The professors conducted a study titled "The Role of Music in the Development of Self-Regulation in Preschool Children." The study concluded that children that were currently enrolled in Kindermusik exhibited more self-control than those not currently enrolled. Musical exposure seemed to increase self-control in the four-year-olds included in the study when compared to those with less music exposure.
The study also tested the effect of "clean-up" music which was played while the children were putting toys away, concluding that the music had no impact on the children's willingness to clean (or lack thereof), but did make things easier for parents. [4]
Baby sign language is the use of manual signing allowing infants and toddlers to communicate emotions, desires, and objects prior to spoken language development. With guidance and encouragement, signing develops from a natural stage in infant development known as gesture. These gestures are taught in conjunction with speech to hearing children, and are not the same as a sign language. Some common benefits that have been found through the use of baby sign programs include an increased parent-child bond and communication, decreased frustration, and improved self-esteem for both the parent and child. Researchers have found that baby sign neither benefits nor harms the language development of infants. Promotional products and ease of information access have increased the attention that baby sign receives, making it pertinent that caregivers become educated before making the decision to use baby sign.
The Suzuki method is a mid-20th-century music curriculum and teaching philosophy created by Japanese violinist and pedagogue, Shinichi Suzuki. The method claims to create an environment for learning music which parallels the linguistic environment of acquiring a native language. Suzuki believed that this environment would also help to foster good moral character.
Child care, otherwise known as day care, is the care and supervision of a child or multiple children at a time, whose ages range from two weeks of age to 18 years. Although most parents spend a significant amount of time caring for their child(ren), child care typically refers to the care provided by caregivers that are not the child's parents. Child care is a broad topic that covers a wide spectrum of professionals, institutions, contexts, activities, and social and cultural conventions. Early child care is an important and often overlooked component of child development.
A preschool, also known as nursery school, pre-primary school, play school or creche, is an educational establishment or learning space offering early childhood education to children before they begin compulsory education at primary school. It may be publicly or privately operated, and may be subsidized from public funds.
The Early Childhood Education Act is the name of various landmark laws passed by the United States Congress outlining federal programs and funding for childhood education from pre-school through kindergarten. The first such act was introduced in the United States House of Representatives by Congresswoman Patsy Mink of Hawaiʻi in the 1960s. The theory behind the act is that the years before a child reaches kindergarten are the most critical to influence learning. Many children do not have access to early education before entering kindergarten. The goal of the act is to provide a comprehensive set of services for children from birth until they enter kindergarten.
The Orff Schulwerk, or simply the Orff Approach, is a developmental approach used in music education. It combines music, movement, drama, and speech into lessons that are similar to a child's world of play. It was developed by the German composer Carl Orff (1895–1982) and colleague Gunild Keetman during the 1920s. Carl Orff worked until the end of his life to continue the development and spread of his teaching method.
A pre-school playgroup, or in everyday usage just a playgroup, is an organised group providing care and socialisation for children under five. The term is widely used in the United Kingdom. Playgroups are the same as preschool education and nursery schools. They can provide full-time care, or operate for only a few hours a day during school term time or all year round. The business model of a playgroup has changed across the year and they are now very similar to pre-schools, nurseries and schools. They are staffed by nursery nurses, nursery teachers or qualified nursery practitioners, and are run by private individuals or charities, rather than by the state or companies.
Universal preschool is an international movement supporting the use of public funding to provide preschool education to all families. This movement is focused on promoting a global, rather than local, preschool program. The goal is to provide equity across all socioeconomic backgrounds, enabling children to improve their academic and social skills before they attend kindergarten. Universal preschool, funded by the public, would allow more families to send their children to preschool.
Mary Dinsmore Ainsworth was an American-Canadian developmental psychologist known for her work in the development of the attachment theory. She designed the strange situation procedure to observe early emotional attachment between a child and their primary caregiver.
Music education for young children is an educational program introducing children in a playful manner to singing, speech, music, motion and organology. It is a subarea of music education.
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Founded in the United States in 1978, Kindermusik is an early childhood education music and movement program for children from infants to 7 years of age. It is based on a kindergarten music and movement program developed by educational experts in Germany in the 1960s. When developing Kindermusik's curriculum, the original creative team drew on the works of esteemed musicians and educators from Europe and Asia, including Shinichi Suzuki, Maria Montessori, Zoltán Kodály, Emile Jaques-Dalcroze and Carl Orff.
Music Together is a musical education program for children aged newborn through second grade. First offered to the public in 1987, the program is now offered in over 3000 communities in the United States, as well as over 40 other countries around the world. This expansion has been accomplished through independent centers which are licensed to use the program.
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Dalcroze eurhythmics, also known as the Dalcroze method or simply eurhythmics, is one of several developmental approaches including the Kodály method, Orff Schulwerk and Suzuki Method used to teach music to students. Eurhythmics was developed in the early 20th century by Swiss musician and educator Émile Jaques-Dalcroze. Dalcroze eurhythmics teaches concepts of rhythm, structure, and musical expression using movement, and is the concept for which Dalcroze is best known. It focuses on allowing the student to gain physical awareness and experience of music through training that takes place through all of the senses, particularly kinesthetic.
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