Surely you’ve heard of KinderBach? We reviewed them during the last Schoolhouse Review Crew tour and loved it. Our revisit has been no different. Now the youngest (2 1/2) has been allowed to join in and he is thrilled. He is such a musical child!
He loves to watch Miss Karri and follow along with the music. He tries his best when it is his turn at the keyboard. His hands are a bit small for ours, but he’ll grow into it. The other children are still loving it, too. The 4 year old sister and 6 year old brother are enjoying sharing this time with their brother. They are also showing off how much they remember from our last time around – a lot more than I thought it would be).
I have been keeping ahead of the lessons with the coordinating pdf’s ready to go. I had been printing them as we needed them. Now, I have at least 2 full lessons ahead of where we are ready to go. This not only makes it easier to move through the lesson while interest is high (no more waiting for Mama and the printer mid-lesson) . It also lets them keep going when they want to do more than one lesson at a time.
KinderBach is aimed at your younger learners (ages 3-7). If our youngest was so interested in music, it would be a bit above him. He turns 3 in January. In 6 months or so I expect this will be right where he is. This works so well as a pre-school curriculum, not just for early piano learning. The children are learning comparisons (bigger/smaller, louder/softer, etc.) counting, colors, shapes — all the things covered during pre-school. The focus on piano keeps it fun.
Frisco and the other characters – the Piano Pals, are fun for my children to relate to and learn with. The gradual change from seeing Frisco for the notes to actual music notes keeps things from being overwhelming or confusing. Now that my older son knows what the notes are and the values for different ones, he is trying to figure out other sheet music he has seen, too!
Even though my older girls are above the age recommended for KinderBach, they generally come in and join in the lessons. Is it the music itself? Is it the characters or is it that the activities are such fun? I don’t really care. They are being engaged, learning and enjoying it.
We have set aside 3 days a week to cover KinderBach. There are six levels with 10 weeks per level divided into four lessons per week. The designation of a week does not mean you need to take a full week to cover the four parts. We do at least 2 each time, sometimes more. For my youngest, one lesson each time would be a better pace, but that is just too slow for the others. He isn’t complaining, I just know he would get more out of our time if we worked a bit slower. And this is something to work together on. Though I know my children would enjoy watching just for fun, the lessons are meant to be done together.
There are a few different ways you can bring KinderBach into your home. We are using KinderBach Online ($19.99 per month or $95.88 when paying for 12 months at once – saves $12/month). There is nothing to download, just sign in and choose your lesson. It is easy to download and print the activity book for each level. There is also a new app (for iOS devices) that features the same lessons and adds games for review. I could use it on my iPod Touch, but it is best suited for the bigger screen of the iPad (reason #542 for an iPad in your homeschool). There are also DVD and CD sets as well. The same lessons viewed online and songbooks for more fun.
Through the end of the year (12/31/2012) you can save 30% off any order – online, DVDs, etc with the cod TOS_crew2012. This Friday, 19 October, the app will be 50% off – no code needed. Be sure to check out the free lessons and samples and take advantage of the discount if this is a fit for your family.
To read more reviews for KinderBach Online or the KinderBach App, check out the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog post.
