Family Music for Babies (Newborns - 15 Months)

12 week session

All babies are born with an aptitude for music. But research shows that their aptitude diminishes if it is not nurtured. The best way to nurture a child's music aptitude is through active music making. By singing and dancing for and with our children in a variety of tonalities, meters and styles we are helping our children reach their full music potential.

This class offers adults the opportunity to play with their babies in a musical setting, experiencing music and movement activities designed to delight the child and awaken his or her curiosity about music. By singing, dancing, bouncing, and rocking, the child's music aptitude is being carefully nurtured, laying the foundation for beat awareness, vocal production, and aural discrimination.

Activities include singing, bouncing songs, rocking songs, dances, finger plays, body awareness games and echoing tonal and rhythm patterns.

Family Music for Toddlers (16 months - 3 1/2 Years)

12 week session

This class is designed to bring the joy of music and movement to toddlers and their caregivers.

Activities include singing, dancing, focused listening and simple instrument playing, creating an environment in which the child's music aptitude is nurtured and skills are developed. 

Fall 2014 we'll use "Sing With Me".   Spring 2015 we use  "Dance With Me"

Last year (2013 - 2014) we used "Play With Me" and "Clap With Me"

Cycle of Seasons (Age 3 - 5)

12 week session

This class is designed to nurture the emergent independence of the 3 and 4 year old.  Five year-olds also enjoy the class!

Activities include lots of singing, chants and rhymes, listening games, patterns to echo, and movement games, all of which nurture the child's musical development while satisfying the child's need to learn in a holistic environment.

Parents stay for the class, although some of the activities are designed to have the children participate independently of their parents.

Home materials: a packet containing 2 CD's, a songbook, and manipulatives that allow the learning and fun to continue at home.

Music Makers: At Home in the World (Ages 4 - 6 Years)

12 week session

This class cultivates the child's musical development through songs, tonal and rhythm patterns, poetry and stories, movement activities, listening games, instrumental play and manipulative games. Rudimentary music skills such as pitch matching, beat competency, ensemble development, and music notation are dealt with using themes taken from the child's home environment and natural surroundings.

Material packets include a CD, a poster and game pieces, notation games, instrument pages and a book. Children receive 2 packets throughout the 12 - 13 week session.

Music Makers: Around the World: British Isles, Amerindians (Ages 5 - 7 Years)

12 week session

This class is designed to accommodate the 5 and 6 year old and is a perfect follow-up for children who have completed Music Makers: At Home in the World.  In this class, children explore the music, dances and stories of different cultures -- The British Isles, Amerindians, African-American cultures and Germany.  As always, the key ingredients are singing, listening, playing instruments, lots of movement, and tonal and rhythm patterns. Through echoing patterns, the children will build a vocabulary of musical phrases which they can recognize aurally and visually, which leads to an understanding of musical notation. At the end of the year, the children will be introduced to the keyboard, using the same method they'll use in Music Makers: At the Keyboard next year!

Materials include a CD & a map, song pages, and notation games. Children will receive 2 packets to use throughout the 12 - 13 weeks (4 months). 

Music Makers: At the Keyboard Year I (Ages 6 - 9 Years)

12 - 13 week session

The final step on the pathway to music literacy, this program is designed to teach the children to play the songs they've been hearing, singing, and dancing to throughout the years of early-childhood. An extension of the work done in Music Makers: Around the World, this class follows a very sequential approach to building piano skills and understanding musical notation as set forth in the books, Music Makers: At the Keyboard.

Children will receive 1 book, including 2 CDs and notation games plus a Parent Handbook to be used throughout the semester.

Music Makers: At the Keyboard Year 3 (Graduate of Keyboard Yr 2)

12 - 13 week session

Music Makers: At the Keyboard Year 2 (Graduate of Keyboard Yr 1)

12 - 13 weeks

In Year 2 of the Keyboard classes we usually will go through Book 3 and much of Book 4..  We will also add music from other sources.    

All Together Now - A Mixed Age Class (Babies - age 5)

30-40 minutes for 10 weeks

Two eight week programs of 30-40 mins each: 

1. Nimble & Quick
2. Twist & Turn

Musikgarten’s All Together Now recaptures the magic of nursery rhymes (a wonderful part of our cultural tradition featuring delightful language and playful rhythms) in a versatile mixed-age curricula for children birth to four.  There is lots of movement for those toddlers, while three year-olds and older will learn language skills and use their imaginations in fun new ways.

Each program is full of music, movement, imagination, and class time fun. The unique Music for Movement compositions on the CDs will enable children to explore walking and jumping (Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack jump over the candlestick), twisting and turning (Oliver Twist, you can’t do this!) and many more concepts which are just right for your toddler movers and shakers!  Both children and parents will find that after just one class, they’ll look forward to many more! 

Parents will receive a family packet with CD, parent book and either an instrument or manipulative.

God's Children Sing (Ages 16 months - 5 years)

30 min. weekly class for 12 weeks

• Addresses the spiritual aspects of the young child's life through inspiring songs and joyful dancing.
• Focuses on the experience of those closest to them, such as family, friends and nature.
• Nurtures a child's ability to use language and participate in dramatic play within a musical context
• Enhances a child's musical aptitude and listening abilities.
• Stories from the Bible are accompanied by appropriate prayers, songs and rituals.
• Enhances moral concepts in daily life. Helps direct energy to expression of feelings. 
• Religious tenets will be learned by the chilren in a joyful manner.
• CD features dancing, rocking, finger plays, bouncing, patterns, focused listening and beginning instrument play. 

Barnekor (children's choir) (age 5 - 12+)

Barnekor

Barnekor means "children's choir" in Norwegian.  This choir is for children and youth, age 5 - 12 (and older).  We sing and dance Scandinavian music, but also folk and church music from the U.S. and other countries, and in other languages.  We usually meet weekly after school for about 45 minutes and we really have fun! 

We welcome new children and youth to join us -- the main requirement is a love for singing and doing music and a willingness to learn!  We do some performing, especially at Nordic Fest and Lucia Festivals.  We are actively looking for new singers.

We performed at Nordic Fest in 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2010.  We have also performed at nursing homes and retirement communities, an annual Lucia Fest at Lutheran Church of the Master, Pasco, at Sons of Norway meetings, and at the opening of ACT's "Snow Queen", at Martin Luther King Day at CBC, and other community events.

There is no fee charged for participation, though donations toward music, costumes and occasional refreshments is appreciated.