Today we’d like to introduce you to Melynda Gero.
Hi Melynda, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I have had jobs involving young children much of my life. While I’ve had some other jobs as well, these were the majority: babysitter, day camp counselor, day care teacher, tutor, school cafeteria worker, and most of my working years as a public-school teacher in first grade. I also grew up in a musical family and sang in choirs, played piano and violin, and got a music minor in college. I had interests in and tried out many of the Fine Arts.
My mom started teaching Kindermusik back when I was in High School. 25 years later we were again living in the same city and she was wanting to phase into retirement. I came to observe her classes and asked about the business and knew pretty much right away I wanted to be the one to take over! If you would have asked me at ANY time what my dream job would be, it would be teaching children while involving the fine arts. This definitely fit the bill. My mom was more than happy to keep her studio in the family and had known I would probably love it.
I got certified with Kindermusik and trained and student-taught with her studio and took over all baby and toddler classes, as well as administrative duties, officially close to 2 years ago. I started learning and teaching the preschool classes this past year. Lastly, I will learn the last set of classes for Kinder-1st grade called Kindermusik Musicians.
I love my job and find it really fulfilling to combine two of my great loves!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has been a lot smoother than it could have been having my mom be the one I am taking over the business from, and the fact that I was not starting one from scratch. We already had a studio space and a clientele base, and I was coached in administration duties. It has been a tremendous help having her to ask questions of when needed. The biggest struggle has just been the learning curve of taking over a business as well as teaching: lots of songs and activities to memorize, administration duties and online programs to learn, and an annual calendar of to-dos to keep track of.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Our studio teaches Kindermusik classes. We specialize in music and movement experience classes that help grow and strengthen all aspects of child development. The classes were designed with input from experts in each area of child development to make sure they are engaging, developmentally appropriate, and full of learning. What I love about our program is that the classes are so FUN; that children are engaged, moving, singing, exploring, and have no idea how much learning is taking place at the same time. In reality they are developing in all areas (social, physical, cognitive, language, etc.) in addition to creating a strong foundation for future music lessons (if that is desired) by growing areas such as: rhythm and patterns, musicality, inhibitory control, fine motor skills, discriminative listening skills, and vocabulary regarding instruments, composers, musical terms, etc. I love that the classes honor children for where they are and invite them to express themselves in many ways. Seeing the joy on their faces as they dance and sing is so precious.
We offer classes from birth to age 7. Adults attend the classes with their child to help enjoy the activities together, give them a special bonding time, and provide lots of ideas of ways they can repeat the activities at home with their child (they have digital music access to the music from class and many other units as well). As the children grow the parents step back a bit to help the children practice greater independence but still join in activities at the end of class to do some activities together, see what their child has been learning and why, and learn some extension activities they can try at home if desired. It is family centered in that way. The oldest class offering is a wonderful pre-keyboarding class as the children more explicitly learn some note names and rhythmic notation through fun games and whole body movement and learn to play songs on a glockenspiel.
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
At this point our studio can be supported most by spreading the word! We’d love to have more families join us. As the business grows more in the future we can look into expanding the number of teachers and class time offerings. At that point we could possibly collaborate with those teaching private music instrument lessons.
Pricing:
- Fall Baby Classes $89/month
- Fall Toddler Classes $89/month
- Fall Preschool Classes $91/month
- Fall Kindermusik Musicians 1 Classes $106/month
- Fall Kindermusik Musicians 1 Classes $101/month
Contact Info:
- Website: https://joyfulsoundstudio.kindermusik.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joyfulsoundstudio
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Joyfulsoundstudio
