I have experienced my fair share of music classes with Charlie and Eve when they were babies, toddlers and young preschoolers.
But never one with a live band!
Enter Kidville Bethesda‘s Rockin Railroad, or as we call it around these parts, 11 month old Alice McFadden’s ultimate happy place.
Once a week Alice has been jamming, laughing, clapping and making friends in this incredibly engaging music class. It is unlike any mommy and me, sing-songs-in-a-circle experience I have seen in my eight plus years doing the mom thing.
At Kidville Bethesda’s Rockin Railroad class for children aged newborn to five years (with caregiver), there are two lead singers, a keyboardist and a drummer. All are gorgeous, Laurie Berkner-bandish young people who are totally into their pint-sized audience. One of the leads plays guitar, the other intermittently leads the class in dance, blows bubbles and animates puppets.
The banter is instructive for little ones, and also pop culture-filled and funny (think those “for the grownups” quips on Sesame Street). The music is excellent. We have sung a diverse collection of tunes, including Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, Coldplay’s Viva La Vida, Row Row Row Your Boat and No Doubt’s Spiderweb.
I love Kidville Bethesda’s location in the heart of Bethesda on Bethesda Ave. (not to be confused with the now-closed Rockville branch of this franchise). When we are done with class, it’s beyond fun to split a salad at Sweetgreen or just walk and people watch around the adorable downtown.
Kidville Bethesda offers creative classes for babies, toddlers, and kids up to six years old. Developed by early childhood development specialists, classes are available in music, dance, gym, art and academic enrichment. There are open gym hours in the playspaces, a kiddie salon for fast and preppy-cute haircuts, a boutique full of educational toys and kid accessories, and they host birthday parties, too. This new local Kidville franchise is thanks to the hard work and community commitment of local mother and business owner Anjali Varma (pictured at right).
Anjali invited my family and I to Kidville’s Open House event this winter, which was a fun way for my daughter Eve and I to take a tour of the facility. Eve and a buddy had a blast playing in the open gym/playspace area, creating art in the arts and crafts center, and also grooving with the Railroad. Afterwards, Anjali contacted me and suggested that Alice and I take a class and review for you all here on A Parent in Silver Spring.
Alice loves jamming to the live band so much — she just lights up and belly laughs the entire time, crawling to front row by the small stage like a groupie! — that I will be signing her up (out of pocket, just like a regular non-blog-reviewer mom) for the Spring/Summer 2012 16 session class that begins the week of May 7.
And generously, Kidville is offering a sampler of three free class sessions to a lucky reader!
To be entered to win this giveaway of any THREE one-session classes for your family, go to the Kidville Bethesda website and then come back here and leave a comment citing the Kidville Bethesda class that you would most love to have YOUR child experience!
After leaving your comment, you can gain additional entries by:
The randomly-drawn winner from all entries will be drawn in one week on Sunday April 1, 2012 at midnight. The winner will be invited to choose three single sessions of any class he/she desires during the Spring/Summer 2012 16-week run (subject to availability). If you win, you may choose three sessions of that favorite class from your comment – a free mini-enrollment! – or you can skip around and select three single class dates from different age groups or class types.
I am confident that you will be as impressed with Kidville Bethesda as me, and your child will be as stoked as my Alice. Check out this face.
That expression? Sheer happiness.
Kidville is the best part of our week, even better than that one time we took a walk and we saw a FOX and then a bunch of VULTURES.
C’mon, when you are 11 months old, that is HIGH PRAISE.
Disclosure: Alice and I were gifted five sessions of Kidville Bethesda’s Rockin Railroad for review for A Parent in Silver Spring, an approximate retail value of $140. However, Alice adores this class so much that I will be enrolling her for the Spring/Summer 16 week session on our dime. Please join us!
It has been 10 months since Alice made her debut, which means it is high time for me to begin working out in earnest. Those walks around the neighborhood with the stroller and yummy-feeling yoga classes are just not cutting it. It’s time to sweat.
Alice is crawling all over the place and getting into everything, so the burning pain and jiggling around is actually worth an hour or so of babysitting by the blessed women in my gym’s child care room.
If you are looking for a gym that offers babysitting (an essential service, in my book), the following locations and local chains provide childcare while you work out on-site:
Washington DC Area Gyms With Childcare
Please call individual locations for ages, pricing and hours
And though I do not often get very confessional on this blog, I am going to share with you something that I find extremely personal: my work out playlist. These are the songs that lately are keeping me pushing through as I run hills, create my own spin class in my head on the bike, and slog through cement-like intervals on the elliptical.
I hope you enjoy, and that you do not judge me for having the absolute corniest taste in tunes. It takes a whole lot of cheese in my ear buds to motivate the queso of my thighs.
Cathy and Marcy are trailblazers in children’s and family music. They play dozens of instruments from banjos to mandolins to rockin’ electric guitar, steel drum and ukulele. They sing, yodel, chicken cluck in harmony, twirl a mean lariat rope, scat sing and inspire effortless participation from every audience. Most importantly, they love what they do and have been rewarded for their excellence with 2 GRAMMY® Awards, 11 consecutive GRAMMY® nominations and literally hundreds of awards from The Parents’ Choice Foundation, American Library Association, John Lennon Songwriting Contest, Washington Area Music Association and on, and on….
For Saturday’s concert, Cathy and Marcy will be joined by local parent Joe Uehlein and his daughter Anna Grace, pictured here! The Uehlein/Windham family is also kindly donating two tickets to lucky readers!
This series on the first Saturday of the month features some of the best family musicians performing today, in an environment that lets parents and kids enjoy the show together (no toddler’s mosh pit!). Children one year old and up need to have a ticket. Infants under one year do not need tickets. Please be sure your child is able to sit through a hour-long concert without being disruptive.
To win two free tickets to the 3pm Saturday show, please leave a comment below! I’ll draw the lucky winner in 24 hours = at noon on Thursday, December 1.
Many thanks to the Uehlein/Windham family for the tickets for A Parent in Silver Spring readers. No compensation was received for this post.
Before baby Alice arrived, I was able to work part-time writing places other than this blog without hiring outside childcare. I busted out my assignments while the kids were off receiving their education. And then I worked some more after they went to bed.
Somehow I thought that this could continue with a baby. I would just write during naps and at night. Easy peasy. That would allow me about, oh, 20 hours a week for following my ambitions and bringing home some bacon, right?
Um, yeah. Not happening. Funnily enough, during the sleepy newborn “maternity leave” time is when I was able to continue to bust out assignments. But now that Alice is six months old and ready to rock this town, it was truly time to decide whether I hire outside help or dial back the clicking on my keyboard. I wrote about my decision in my last Mom of a Million Mistakes column on Wheaton Patch.
I feel more centered, less harried and happy with this call. I am looking forward to savoring the time with baby, rather than rushing through our interactions so that I can stash her in the crib for a nap and make my deadlines.
Of course, I will continue to write here at A Parent in Silver Spring Monday-Friday about the awesome offerings available for families and update the calendar. After almost four years, I love working on this website more than ever!
And thankfully you guys are very understanding about all the times Alice needs a walk or a Boynton book marathon or to catch Mr. Gabe for a singalong…because now I’m feeling all self-conscious that today’s blog post is all about ME! ME! ME!, so I am feeling the need to post something for YOU:
Where: Roda Movements, 7003 Carroll Avenue, Takoma Park, MD (above Ace Hardware)
Local children’s entertainer Mr. Gabe presents finger rhymes, sing-alongs, and dance music for children, ages 0 to 6. Tickets are $6 per child in advance. (No walk-ins, please.) To purchase, please visit www.mrgabemusic.com.
Alice and I look forward to clapping along with you to Mr. Gabe, as well as around town as we actually get out of the house, off the computer and re-experience all our great area has to offer families.
We’ll keep you posted on our findings and adventures right here on A Parent in Silver Spring.
Rock-n-Romp Kids Fest THIS Saturday August 27 at the Silver Spring Fenton Street Market
On Saturday, the celebrated Rock-n-Romp Kids Fest – featuring rocking music for parents and kids – is back! This series is famous for providing local families with a good time and featuring non-pandering live music played at a kid-friendly volume. This Saturday the lineup is fantastic local artists Ugly Purple Sweater, Lady Hatchet (the band you get when you combine Olivia Mancini + The Mates with The Scotch Bonnets), and Your Pal Pete.
The price? Totally free, baby!
In addition to the great music, there will be loads of booths for kids. There will be hot mini donuts, face painting, and even a model train exhibit for Thomas and choo-choo fanatics. There will also be a Community Roundtable with Paulette Mpouma, inventor of the Africa Memory Game. Ms. Mpouma and volunteers will be teaching children ages 4 and up and adults how to play the game from noon to 1pm. Local artisans will be selling lots of baby- and kid-friendly merchandise like art, jewelry, hair accessories, clothes, plush toys, cloth diapers, and more. What a perfect way to celebrate the end of summer and the start of school on Monday!
WHEN: Saturday, August 27, 9 am to 3 pm
WHERE: The Fenton Street Market, Veterans Plaza, corner of Fenton Street and Ellsworth Avenue, Downtown Silver Spring
KidzRock at The Rooftop in Rockville’s Town Center on Sunday September 18
KidzRock at The Rooftop is a seriously fun dance party for kids age 2-10 and their parents and favorite grownups. There will be dance instruction from street breakdancers, pro dance teachers from Studio-310 and a real live DJ spinning. The Culkin School of Traditional Irish Dance will also perform for the kids and Reptile World will be showing off their scaly friends.
This is also an event you can feel good about: Ticket sales raise funds for other kids through the City of Rockville’s Parks & Recreation Foundation and other local charities endorsed by the City of Rockville.
The event is rain or shine – if the rain hits, KidzRock will be moved indoors to the 2nd floor VisArts Event Gallery.
WHEN: Sunday September 18, 4-6pm
WHERE: The Rooftop at Rockville’s Town Center, 155 Gibbs Street, Rockville above the VisArts Event Gallery.
