If you're like us, your musical skills peaked somewhere around learning to play Chopsticks on the piano. And you want more for Baby, because you realize that music benefits language, confidence, creativity, and so much more.

It's never to early to start on the path to becoming a musician. If Baby's brain is like a sponge; why not fill it with tunes?

A new philosophy to teaching music from birth to age nine, Musikgarten makes use of developmentally appropriate lessons and activities so that children are not only entertained by songs; they discover the art of music. The youngest Musikgarten students, newborns through eighteen months, attend classes with a parent once a week. You bounce, rock, wiggle, peek-a-boo, and, of course, sing! The songs in Musikgarten are from the folk tradition, beginning with such familiar tunes as "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." Musikgarten students move through stages until they mature out of the program. At age three or four, dramatic play is incorporated, maximizing on the child's language spurt. Next, children learn to read music. Then, at age six or seven, they learn to play on the keyboard the songs that they've loved for a lifetime.

"A really great thing about the Musikgarten program is you can start as a baby, and it's probably going to be the one school where a child can go and be with the same teacher for nine years. A child grows up knowing this teacher, almost like a relative, and they feel so comfortable. That's why there's such success with this program. The children who stay with it are really literate, functional musicians," says Kubo. Bravo, maestro!

Musikgarten
10 locations around the Puget Sound region
206-691-0621
www.NWmusikgarten.com