Beth Blenz-Clucas blogs about music for kids that grownups will love too
As swimsuit season approaches, parents are trying to figure out how they’re ever going to work in a workout. Music can help. There’s no shortage of “Mommy and Me” kinds of classes (think Kindermusik, Music Together and even Gymboree) where parents can enjoy music and movement with their kids. Heck, you can even use your (little) child as a weight while listening to your favorite tunes.
One enterprising musician-mom in San Francisco offers something a little different with her JAM music and movement classes and camps. When she’s not instructing kids on jumping and clapping along to a groovy beat, Charity Kahn heads up an indie kids’ band. Her soulful songs invite movement, including “Happy Fluffy,” “Cake” and “We Like Mud.” Charity and the JAMband albums have won numerous awards, and she even wrote a book about the music-math link for growing minds. Charity produces a regular outdoor family concert series in Golden Gate Park, and she is an active member of a newly formed independent kids’ music coalition in the SF Bay Area, which just launched a “Patchwork” family music series at the venerable Freight & Salvage Coffee House in Berkeley.
