Miss Cathy (Cathy Hazard) sings a song about zoo animals at Sugar Sand Park in Boca Raton.
At left are Isla Chorzelewski, 2, and her mother, Alison.
Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
By Janis Fontaine
The experts at Kindermusik International — which has 5,000 teachers worldwide — say it’s never too early to benefit from music ediucation.
Over three decades, Kindermusik educators in the U.S. have taught more than 1.5 million students (some as young as 8 weeks old).
One of the local Kindermusik teachers is Cathy Hazard. She has been working with children for more than 20 years and teaching Kindermusik techniques to kids ages 2 months to 4 years in Boca Raton and Delray Beach for more than 10.
Hazard is a Kindermusik “maestro,” the organization’s word for a top performer.
Parents are partners in their child’s education, and the parents learn as much as the kids do in the beginning.
Mom or Dad, or Grandma or, in some cases, the nanny, take the techniques, the rhythms and rhymes, home with them to practice together — which strengthens the parent-child bond, Hazard said.
Studies proving the relationship between music education and improved verbal and reading abilities, spatio-temporal reasoning, even the ability to raise IQ have been widely performed over the last decade. They came to the same conclusion: Learning music helps students academically.
A study published in December 2014, by Dr. James Hudziak at the University of Vermont College of Medicine, found music education also provides tremendous benefits to children’s emotional and behavioral maturation. “What we found was the more a child trained on an instrument,” Hudziak told The Washington Post, “it accelerated cortical organization in attention skill, anxiety management and emotional control.”
So, less anxiety, better concentration and fewer mood swings.
Growing up, Hazard, 59, and her family were all musically inclined and loved singing together so much people compared them to the von Trapp family.
Hazard was naturally good at building businesses and she hopscotched through a few careers before an epiphany 10 years ago.
“I kind of lost my smile climbing the corporate ladder,” Hazard said. “I needed to do something different.”
She had a friend who had a Gymboree franchise and she needed help. Hazard took over its music program and found she loved it. She liked being silly and playing with babies and coaching stressed moms in connecting with their kids through music. When the company changed hands, Hazard struck out on her own. Kindermusik seemed like a good fit, and it was.
Now Hazard, who lives in Boca Raton, teaches nine 45-minute classes each week at either Sugar Sand Park on Military Trail or Patch Reef Park on Yamato Road. The symbiotic relationship with the parks system helps raise the visibility of both groups. “We have an amicable relationship,” Hazard said.
A 12-week session costs from $204 to $255, plus a materials fee of $50 to $75, so it’s not insignificant.
Jennie Kreger of Boca Raton enrolled son Charlie, now 4, in Miss Cathy’s class when he was a baby. Now Charlie has moved on to preschool and Kreger has been bringing her daughter Annie, now 2, since she was 6 months old. Kreger had seen the positive effects of the program on her niece and nephew and wanted to give her own children the same opportunities.
“It’s amazing how quickly they pick up the songs,” she said. Annie knows all the words and motions to I’m a Little Tea Pot. “Miss Cathy has a way of engaging even infants. She’s very encouraging to parents, and she grows the class at each child’s pace, to match the child’s ability.
“Another thing that was really important to me,” Kreger said, “was she was very liberal about makeups. Kids get sick. Things come up. She got that.”
Maybe because she was a mom herself. Hazard raised three kids (they’re 40, 37 and 35 now) and has five grandchildren. But she’s become a part of many of the families she taught.
“My belief is I am their very first teacher,” she said. “It’s my duty to make sure they feel loved, respected, nurtured and heard.”
She sees her role as a sort of bonus grandmother. “We work on core skills,” she said. Things that can be measured or quantified, like colors and letters and body parts.
The best part, Hazard said, is when a mom comes in and says, “You’re not going to believe what my kid did!”
“That makes my heart sing,” Hazard said.
Susan Pavao of Boca Raton also teaches for Kindermusik, but her kids are a little older, from 18 months to 3 years old.
“I average approximately 125-150 students per session and I have three sessions per year and I have been teaching for more than 13 years.” She also teaches music in Hebrew school to grades K through 3 as well as private guitar and piano lessons.
“Some of my families are on their third or fourth child with me. I have a lot of repeat families.” Pavao’s oldest student is 16 now and he started in music with her at 12 months.
“When children fall in love with music, it’s something they have their whole lives,” Pavao said.
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