Children at Play: Development Continues Through the Summer with Kindermusik!

All children play. Whether it’s a child playing alone with an imaginary friend or groups of children playing favorite games such as “hide and seek,” all children engage in some type of play every day. But play isn’t purely for fun and entertainment – it serves numerous roles in the development of children.

Play involves diverse activity where a broad range of learning can thrive and flourish. Children use play to test ideas, discover relationships, extract information, express their feelings and ideas, define themselves, and develop peer relationships.

Play is incorporated into all of the Kindermusik curricula. Through music and movement activities, instrument exploration, and story time, children experience different types of play that nurture their cognitive, social, physical and emotional development and allow them to explore, discover and express in a variety of ways.

It’s easy to identify familiar elements of play in the Kindermusik Adventures™ camp series, that is offered in the summertime. What better time to experiment with play activities than in the summer when both children and parents are more relaxed and open to new experiences?

Kindermusik Adventures camps are for children ages birth to 7 years old and incorporate interactive arts and crafts and snack time as well as music and movement into every class. Play is a central focus and is incorporated into every music and movement activity.

Through music, movement, storytelling, playing “dress-up,” and instrument exploration, children birth through 18 months will experience how fun it can be to play Peek-A-Boo games or go about their Busy Day. Bubbles and bells are just a couple of fun things we use in these camps.

Children 18 months to 3 years old will discover “creatures” living in their own backyard or at the ocean in Kindermusik Adventures camp. They will even be able to visit the Binder Park Zoo with Zoo Train. Toddlers may imitate a crab walk, pretend to play in the ocean with sheet-simulated waves or jump through “rain puddles” made with hula-hoops. Sounds and movements of animals, sea creatures and the ocean are explored through lively music, active listening and instruments such as one-bell jingles and seashell handled castanets for dramatic and creative play. Creatures in My Backyard is held at the Kalamazoo Nature Center!

Children 3 to 5 years old will relish the festive celebration and fun they discover as they play along with a host of characters like Monkey, Giraffe, Elephant, Clown and Pony. Each week in Adventures camp, children use their own imagination as they actively participate in Story Time about the amazing adventures of Monkey and his friends. The 3-to 5-year-old’s curiosity is inspired and encouraged through instrument play-alongs, chants, poems with movement and pretend play with dress-up. OR - take your Adventure On The Road and join us at the Kalamazoo Nature Center.

Older children will delight in their own Adventure when “traveling” to different cultures and environments. Lively music accompanied by dance and drama will spark 5-to-7-year-olds’ imagination. Children will have lots of opportunities to explore and express as they pretend to visit other countries such as Japan or Germany and participate in customs native to each country such as decorating a den-den drum and performing a German polka dance, or as they discover different locales such as the arctic regions, mountains, meadows, rain forest, and ocean where they will pretend to build an ice house like an Eskimo and jump like a monkey in the jungle. NEW this Summer is Tell Me A Tale. Through storytelling, your child will develop an early awareness of rhythm, movement, singing, and drama. Each lesson features a new tale from around the world, explored through multi-instrument and multi-cultural elements. All told, it's an around-the-imagination adventure of the greatest stories from Europe, Malaysia, South Africa, and more.

Also new this Summer are Sign & Sing (birth to 3 years), and Family Time (birth to 7 years) camps! What a great way to spend time together learning how to interact as a family unit, whether it's using ASL signs or learning how to make musical experiences together.

Summer experiences like Kindermusik Adventures camps are wonderfully unique opportunities for your child to grow, discover and learn through creative play. Most importantly, encourage and reward your child’s imagination as she plays at home and feel confident in knowing that play is the heart of her learning. Visit http://musik4kids.kindermusik.net, email musik4kids_kzo@sbcglobal.net or call 269.808.7002 for registration information.