Music Classes near Broomfield, CO

I also had a great experience with Jane Smolens and Music Together and the Mountain Song music studio. Music Together is a national program and there are other places in the area that offer classes is you are looking for something a little closer to you than Boulder (go to musictogether.com to find everyone offering the program). In Boulder there is also the JCC's Shalom baby and Shalom family program which has several (nondenominational) music classes. We are about to start a music class there this week and have enjoyed the sign language class they offer (go to boulderjcc.org for shalom baby program info). good luck & have fun!
-J.

I just enrolled my 2 yr old daughter in an awesome music class in Boulder. It is called Music Together. Both your 1 yr old and 3 yr old can be in the same class too if you want. The best part of the class is the teacher. Her name is Jane Smolens and she is great with the kids. Check out the website at www.mountainsongmusic.com for more information. I've had my 3 yr old son in other music classes that weren't as good as Jane's class. To me, the most important thing is the teacher...Jane really motivates children to enjoy music.

Hi T.,
My name is M. and I moved to Boulder 8 months ago from Iowa. I moved here as my 2 kids are now both in college in Washington state so I'm alone and thought this would be a good time to make a change in my life. Anyway, the music class I would recommend is called "Kindermusik" and they are all over the country and are geared for very young children (I hope I spelled it correctly). I feel that introducing children to music at a young age is one of the most important things you will ever do for you child. Both of my children were very involved with music in their lives since they were young. Both of my kids were involved with "Kindermusik" and at age 4, my daugher started piano classes with the Yamaha music school and it's a group experience with parents participating. There are also Suzuki music classes for children which also involve parental participation. My son was diagnosed with learning disabilities when he was in kindergarten and when he was in elementary school, he started piano and drum lessons. These music classes helped me son so much (you can google "Mozart Effect" which talks about how music helps children with math, etc.)and continued music all through middle and high school and graduated from high school with honors! Music classes helped his brain process information in school and his language and math skills improved dramatically. Sorry that this e-mail is so long but I am so passionate about starting very young children with music (introducing a foreign language at a young age is very important, too) and I just wanted to share my personal experience with you since I can look back now over the last 22 years and see what helped my children. You can google "Kindermusik" to see where the closest classes to you are as I'm sure Broomfield has a class. Good luck! M. Johnson, Boulder, CO

T.'s message reminds me of how much I think that young moms have a lot of pressure these days to "produce" the right kind of child. Who knows if this really relates to T.. It's just that her question made me think of this"

I am now a social worker (and I've done just about every kind of social work) but I used to be a special ed teacher. I still teach, but at the college level. I am now a grandmother. My daughter is an adult. I was not a stay-at-home mom. I would have stayed home longer than I did, but finances would not allow it. But I would not have made the "staying at home permanently" choice, anyway.

I really think that in our area (I lived in T.'s county for a long time and now live close by) there is a huge belief in scheduling all kinds of things for babies and older children. There is "stuff" and "gadgets" for everything. Kids don't just get to be kids. There's a shove to "achieve", a belief that "a parent-especially a mother--just has to" do a lot of things that I think create stress for kids and undue pressure on parents to measure themselves in ways that takes the humanity out of being a human being. It also forces parents to spend more money than necessary.

Kids are over-scheduled. Kids are forced toward reading and other educational skills far too early. Public school (and the training for the newest crop of teachers) has focused on a "pour the info in and have them spit out the answers on a test" instead of education being about a well-rounded person who has knowledge, but knows HOW TO THINK. (The last crop of freshman I taught made it abundantly clear that critical thinking and facts about subjects like geography or the appreciating of art or music is really slipping, due to the educational track we've been on in recent years.

Here's some words from an education activist from our area-
"In 2000 when Governor Owens pushed SB186, and then again in 2002 when Bush passed the No Child Left Behind Act, I recognized that the purpose of our public schools was changing from serving children to reporting to the state. Over the last decade I have struggled against a paradigm that defers the responsibility of our children to artificial measurement tools (CSAP) and generalized school labels (SARs). Last year, after a new governor and democratic majority, I felt myself still shouting to the mountain tops. I felt exhausted and hopeless and I wasn’t sure how to continue to do the important work for children. So rather than turning blue in the face and wasting my breath, I began instead to whisper into the wind. It was as if I quit fighting the bully on the playground and I quit hiding too. I responded only, "you will not define my struggle and I will not be used as a vessel for battle." Then I ran off to share the good news with the others. I have discovered that place of peaceful resistance Dr. Martin Luther King described. This seems to have made all of the difference in my activism. I have found other whisperers too, and our voices are being carried even to the tops of those mountains..."

BE YOURSELF. LET YOUR CHILD DEVELOP INTO HIS OR HER SELF. If you love music, play music at home. By child's musical instruments. Read him/her books about musical themes. Dance with your baby. Take your baby to live concerts in the park, even if it's just for a little bit at a time and you have to sit far away from the music because of the volume. Decorate with music-oriented decorations. Buy animals/dolls that play music. And at least wait until the child is old enough for something like Suzuki violin lessons (age 5 or 6) before you start classes of any kind.

The beginning of life is the beginning of learning. What track are we putting our kids on?

My take on it...

I attend Music Together classes with Petite Musician in Wheat Ridge. My 3 year old son and I both love the classes. I believe they have other locations but mainly south - Highlands Ranch direction. Their web-site is www.petitemusician.com and although they're more expensive than other classes, they are so worth it to our family. Each semester we sign up, we are given 2 new CDs of the songs that are sung in class so that we can enjoy them during the week. My 6 year old loves the music too and he doesn't attend class. The husband-wife team who runs Petite Musician are professional singers - they are great!

We take our 13 month old to A Child Song. It's near 120th & Pecos. It's lots of fun! It's ~45 minutes long on Saturday morning (they have other days and times, too). When you join you get take home CD's, books and musical instruments so you can "practice" what you learn at home. The teacher that teaches my sons class is great with the kids and also explains the benefits to the parents.