Kindermusik or Musikgarten?

[chewbacca]

Has anyone ever joined one of these groups with their children? I wanted to find something to go to with my DS (18 mo.) but we do not have a lot of choices around here. I tried for a local MOMS group but to no avail. I have also heard that they are pretty expensive. Any truth in that?

Thanks!

 

[mommyintn]

I did kindgemusik with ds#2 when he was about that same age and it was fun but it was expensive and I was in a class with a cliquey bunch that had been taking classes together for awhile (18mon-3 years in the same class). You may have better luck, see if you can sit in on a class and get a feel for it.

 

[DisneyDotty]

I did both--Kindermusik required me to be with my DS, Musikgarten did not. I preferred Kindermusik, though it was more expensive than Musikgarten. Good luck!
I remember desperately looking to fill the days with my DD when she was a babe--boy, those moments go fast! Now I'd love to have some days home alone with her again!
Ah well--enjoy whatever you do!

 

[Beth76]

I did 3 semesters (starting at age 5 months) of Kindermusik with my first son and we really liked it. I could tell he learned a lot from it and we met lots of great people. With my younger son, I've found that we enjoy gymnastics better. We go to The Little Gym. He still gets a little bit of music in with that too. I would recommend Kindermusik, but if you have any gymnastics places (Gymboree and My Gym are some other national chains) around you might want to look into that too.

 

[GEM]

I don't know anything about the other program, but we do Kindermusik and we LOVE it!! It's something we all look forward to every week. My husband takes Paul just as often as I do, and he has the best time! We sing the songs at home and it's really enriched our lives in so many ways. I've seen Paul's social skills, motor skills, speech skills, etc. just totally take off since we became involved with Kindermusik when he was about 18 months old. He did have some delays in speech and motor, but he's actually ahead in most areas now, and I think the class has really helped with that! It really is a great quality program. I love the way it's organized and set up. The quality of the teachers, music, instruments, books, etc. is just top notch. Our program is $200 for a semester, which is 15 weeks. (This semester our class is from 10am to 10:45am on Saturday mornings.) The $200 includes $30 for materials (a double CD set, some story books, a musical instrument, an at home activity guide, etc.) so the actual cost of the class is about $170, which works out to about $11 per class - which I think is very reasonable for the quality of the program. I'm sorry if it sounds like I'm rambling, but I can't say enough about how much I love our Kindermusik classes! They're such a bright spot in our week. Paul gets so excited on the days he knows he's going to his "music class".

 

[mskay]

Ditto to everything GEM above posted. Kindermusik is awesome. It is one of the highlights of our week. We've only been going since the beginning of January, but we absolutely love it. DD is 13 months and really enjoys it. When I start singing the KM songs (you get a copy of the CD that you use in class) she gets so excited. She claps and sings and has a great time. You really ought to try it. I know our KM teacher allows people to come a class for free to see if they want to continue. Hope you have a good experience if you try it. It's great!

 

[Pembo]

I took my dd, now 3, to kindermusik when she was 2. She loved it. We had a great teacher that was filled with energy. We tried it again this year and had a horrible experience due to the kids in the class. It wasn't the teacher's fault, she just had 2 very weird experiences with parents and kids.

Definitely call your local kindermusik and do a trial class but be prepared, the music is addicting. Just ask my boys (7 & 9) who had to listen to kindermusik cd's endlessly on our 20 hr drive to FL last summer. rofl...