Music for Your Children

Jonah loves listening to music, ranging from kid tunes to Bob Marley. One of the great music activities we found for him is Music Together class at Holbrook-Palmer park in Atherton.

I was skeptical at first. Just another music class, I thought. And then my wife loaded a Music Together CD half way through a six hour car trip. (Groan!) To my surprise, the music was not only relatively un-annoying, but catchy. The tunes started off simple and got more complex. I could hear how the music was structured to teach kids basic rhythms and scales as building blocks for more interesting tunes.

I later learned that each session of 12 classes has a different musical theme with a different corresponding CD. My wife, who goes to the classes with Jonah, likes that the music has a lot of international variety and that the teachers are very competent. Plus, the price of admission gets you a duplicate set of CDs -- so you can keep one at home and one in the car.

Jonah gives a big smile when he hears this music, so I recommend that you learn more about it yourself. Check out the Music Together web site or go to Music for Families, the organization that actually teaches the classes at many sites in the Bay Area (you can register for classes here, too). It's not cheap -- more than $200 for a session -- but I think it is worth it for the class time, the quality of the education, and the CDs that keep Jonah happy in the car. And Music Together classes are taught globally, so your kids can participate even if you live in Taiwan.