Your 5, 6, or 7 year old is developing quickly and exploring new activities, mastering new skills, and gaining independence. As a parent you may be making choices about extra-curricular activities that complement their new school experiences and support their growth -- in music and in life. The Music Together Big Kids program helps your child take the next step in music development by blending the elements of Music Together that parents and children love with new activities, skills, and challenges that are developmentally appropriate for 5 through 7 year old children. (To attend the Music Together Big Kids class, your child must be 5 years of age by the start of the semester you wish to attend.)
As you may know, the Music Together mixed-age classes promote the development of tonal and rhythm competency, family music-making, and the disposition to be life-long music makers for infants through 4 year old children. The goal is to help children complete what is called Primary Music Development.
Big Kids classes are designed to begin what might be called Secondary Music Development and offer children 5-7 the opportunity to hone their music skills in a class that is lively, fun and developmentally appropriate. The program is designed to be challenging, yet accessible for older children at every musical level.
Big Kids is therefore uniquely suitable as a "next step" or interim study:
-- To prepare for formal instruction on an instrument.
-- As an accompaniment to beginning instrumental study, especially since the focus of "lessons" is usually limited to the basic mechanics of playing an external instrument. In Big Kids we continue to develop the player's personal "instrument" --voice, body, audiation--as well as his expressive skills and total musicality.
At Music Together we recognize your older child's new capabilities and provide a developmentally appropriate curriculum that includes:
-
music reading readiness - air drawing melodic shape / invented notation
-
solfege - using syllables such as do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti to represent tones
-
rhythm solfege patterns - macro/microbeat patterns in duple & triple meters
-
vocal development - a conscious 'singing voice' & vocal warm-up techniques
-
experimenting with instrumental solos and ensembles
-
choreography
-
harmony singing, i.e., ostinati / part-singing / rounds
-
drumming skills
The Big Kids classroom is a safe, familiar, fun environment where your child can experiment with new musical activities like conducting and , and game songs. improvisation, song stories, "silly operas"
Parent participation is the hallmark of the Music Together program, but many children of this age are ready for more independence in the classroom, so parent attendance in each Big Kids class is welcome but not required. You and your child will receive a songbook, CD and Home Play activities so that the entire family can continue the fun and learning at home and you can stay connected with what your child is learning in class.
Music Together Big Kids Classes
- Class are 60 minutes long and meet weekly for 10 weeks.
- During class, children learn musical skills and appreciation through a special Music Together curriculum developed just for 5, 6, and 7 year olds.
- Every family enrolled in class receives a Music Together Big Kids edition SONGBOOK with activities specially created for 5 to 7 year olds, two CD's, and weekly HOMEPLAY activity pages. (There is a NEW collection of music/activities for each new session).
- Younger children are not developmentally ready for the structure of a Big Kids class. To be eligible, your child must have turned 5 by the start of the semester.
- While this can be a 'drop-off' class, you (or another caregiver) should plan to attend the first and the last class
of the semester. You may attend any and all classes if you wish. However, due to the structure of the Big Kids class, we cannot accommodate younger siblings (except for babies younger than 8 months). You and any younger siblings are welcome and encouraged to attend the last 10 minutes of every class.
Music Learning Supports All Learning™
Although the primary goal of Music Together Big Kids is to support children's music development, the program offers many non-musical benefits as well. The Big Kids program supports development in the following domains:
- development of pre-literacy skills
- cognitive growth
- social-emotional growth
- physical development
