UK Success Stories
Vanessa Webb: 
I decided to change careers whilst my children were young. I have always been musical and wanted to find a job that used my previous business skills but also involved teaching music to children. Kindermusik impressed me because of the quality of teaching and amount of childhood development learnings built into the programme and stood out for me versus other programmes in the area. I started teaching Kindermusik in 2002 with just 2 classes - I now teach all Kindermusik curricula to around 130 families in Camberley and Chobham, Surrey with waiting lists for many classes. I often wish there were more hours in the day to meet the demand.
I believe the programme is popular because parents recognise how much thought has gone into the lessons based on the latest research. Importantly, parents can continue the Kindermusik experience at home with quality CDs, story books, home activities and instruments. Many families have been with me since they were very young and its great to see the benefits of Kindermusik on their development as they move through the different curricula. I only wish that more families could experience Kindermusik and as UK Area developer I am committed to making this happen.
Jan Holt:
About six and a half years ago I trained to become a Kindermusik
educator while I was living in Canada. Before getting married I had been
a Junior/Middle teacher in the UK specialising in Music. After having 4
children of my own I became more interested in the under 7 age group. I
visited my local Canadian Kindermusik programme and was impressed by the
educators and their joyful and creative approach to teaching. I also
recognised that a curriculum developed by experts in the fields of Music
and Child Development would be satisfying to teach and would far out
shine anything I could try to create by myself.
I decided to train to be an educator in Canada and shortly after this my
family and I moved back to the UK. I was fortunate to know a woman in my
town who had been running her own nursery rhyme sessions for local
families and was needing to leave the area. She asked if I would teach
some of her sessions and gave me the opportunity to introduce the
families to the Kindermusik Village and Our Time programmes. I kept one
of her sessions going and 50 of the families decided to change to
Kindermusik. I began by charging £2 a week plus home materials. As the
parents began to trust me and saw how the children really enjoyed the
new programme and benefited from the materials I then put up my prices.
At first I wanted to run 5 classes a week and found that word of mouth
was adequate to keep these full. As the children grew I then started to
open Imagine That and eventually Young Child sessions. I decided to not
have long waiting lists but to open up more sessions. When two new
preschool Music groups opened in the locality I decided to advertise in
the local GrapeVine magazine, a directory for all local events.
When my 7 year old son suddenly developed juvenile arthritis my husband
Scott and I decided that we needed to be as flexible as possible with
our work hours as our son needed constant hospital appointments and was
off school at least 2 days a week. With a strong Music and Performing
Arts background,( he had already been working as my administrator) Scott
decided to train as a Kindermusik educator and to concentrate on
teaching the 3 - 7 age group.
As our business continued to grow we took on another educator Kim who
teaches an Our Time class. We will be running 20 sessions a week after
Easter which will cover all the Kindermusik age groups and we run
Kindermusik camps in the summer. I teach two Music Box sessions as
lunchtime clubs in a local primary school.
We are fortunate to have a great facility where we can keep all our
equipment and instruments. We have a reception/play area area outside
the hall where classes take place and so there are families usually in
both areas through out the day.
As an encouragment to those considering teaching Kindermusik or just
starting. If you cannot find the perfect facility at first don't be too
dismayed. When I began teaching I rented two halls. One had no adjacent
parking and I had to unload and then park some way up the road. My
youngest child was at nursery school and I would run after classes to be
able to pick him up on time. The hall would be chilly in the winter and
too hot in the summer but despite these difficulties parents kept coming
and my numbers kept growing. The quality of musical experience they were
having with Kindermusik was the most important factor for them.
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