The Largest Kindermusik Program
in Australia & New Zealand is.....Musikids!

As I stood waiting in line, holding one award, with recipients of other awards at the Kindermusik gala awards night at the Mantra Hotel in Mooloolaba, Qld, on the Saturday night, I listened intently to the woman presenting the final award of the evening.

My heart leapt into my mouth as I heard my name. I did know that Musikids had the largest Kindermusik program in Australia & New Zealand, based on enrolment numbers. However, I don’t think I actually believed it....until it was formally recognised.

It was quite an emotional time. There has been so much love and work gone into developing Musikids. I was so glad that Margy was there to be a part of it.
Out of over 250 educators in Australia & New Zealand, Musikids is the largest. Right here on the border! How fabulous is that?!
So what were the other awards?

The Awards:

• Largest Kindermusik Program 2007 & 2008
• Largest Imagine That (3-5yrs) Program 2007 & 2008
• Kathryn was awarded a Recognition of Outstanding Achievement, Kindermusik International Award (Maestro Certification); representing the top 1% of Kindermusik educators in the world for building a truly expansive program, providing masterful in reaching a large number of families.
• Kathryn was awarded with Recognition for Outstanding Service & Dedication on the Advisory Board of Kindermusik Educators 2006 – 2008

How much fun did we have?

Margy, Ed and their 2 children, Stephen & Annie travelled up to the Sunshine Coast a day before I arrived. We had a week of fun in the sun (see one of our great sandcastles right) and attending the conference. We ate seafood every night. YUM! My shopping feet got to work as well. I did a little bit of that therapy.

Margy & I had a fabulous time at the Conference. It was the best Kindermusik conference ever! Although each speaker was inspirational in their own way, we had a lesson in life from Barry Bull (pictured below); were taught techniques in how to look after our voices from Ann Sparks; Aileen Ryan – founder of Hands Can Talk, gave us lessons in signing using Auslan – we even learnt how to sign to “What a Wonderful World” as we sang. It was really beautiful to do this.

We had a taste on technology in the classroom and I took choir every day. It was humbling to coordinate around 50 voices that are used everyday. It was glorious! AND – you should have heard us all play dun dun drums and djembe drums!!! We had this awesome workshop on percussion, with around 50 – 60 instruments playing at the one time. We sounded sooo good....if I might say so myself!

All the while, Margy & I sat together digging each other in the ribs, laughing, listening and learning. We are looking forward to painting you in some of the things we learnt, and are inspired to make Musikids the best that it can be.

Kathryn