YOU Are Your Child’s First and Most Important Kindermusik Teacher (Not the Kindermusik Classroom Teacher)

​The Value of Your Kindermusik @Home Materials

Part 2

(Read Part 1 here.)

To be quite honest, in my early Kindermusik career, I wasn’t accustomed to the premium price Kindermusik classes typically had. I had a hard time charging for the price it took to keep my studio afloat, much less for the home materials. I even tried to exclude the home materials to lower the price, believing them to be secondary to the point of the class, but Kindermusik didn’t allow that. Further honesty: for a long time, I thought it was simply because KI (Kindermusik International) was just trying to build their bottom line. I believed that as an educator and even down the line as a studio owner. I thought so as a parent.

Here’s the kicker: I totally didn’t get it. I didn’t understand the point of the home materials. I thought they were a neat thing to take home and probably to boost the bottom line. I didn’t completely understand my role as teaching parents to teach their kids and I didn’t understand that the home materials are for the parents. Please, if I can bend your ear (or rather, “keep your eyes?”) for just a few more minutes, read on to understand this fully – to really “get it.”

Yes, of course, Kindermusik is a business. It’s not an entirely-altruistic organization that can exist without thought to the bottom line. It’s not a non-profit. It’s for-profit. Okay, now we’ve established that fact. But here’s the rest of the story.

Some educators think, “You shouldn’t talk about how much money families are spending to be in your classes!” But I’m a mom of three (expensive) children, a wage-earner, a home owner, a grocery-buyer, etc., and a frugal one, at that. I was raised by two penny-pinching depression-survivors. I think about the money. I’m thinking most of y’all do, too, to whatever degree you must. And Kindermusik ain’t cheap. So, is it worth the financial investment, especially when you can roll down to your local library and participate in a mommy-and-me-style music hour for free? Please (Please.) allow me speak plainly to you as someone who’s viewed it from every possible angle.

Read part 3 here.