CHICAGO – Jean Clark Laube was a pioneer in the development of early childhood education. A graduate of The Ohio State University, she owned and operated one of the first preschools in the state of Connecticut. Jean created an environment that allowed every child to thrive. When she didn’t have what she needed she created it, including musical plays for her parent’s day performances. Throughout her career as a teacher, Jean wrote over 180 songs for nursery school programs and created ten adventure themed scripts such as the circus, zoo and mother goose land.
A half century later her daughter, Kay Laube Benson became a pioneer as well. Kay started a company in 2006 as a platform to fulfill her Mother’s lifelong ambition of bringing her original musical adventures to the world of teachers. Mr. Rhythm Musical Productions is named after an imaginary character Mr. Rhythm, who appears in most of Jean’s musical adventures.
MrRhythmsChildrensMusic.com is a web-based education site that sells digital musical programs intended for preschool and kindergarten aged children. They are designed to encourage all children including those with special needs to participate. The website provides teachers and counselors across the world access to complete performance packages that promote physical activity, imagination and learning through music.
“Westward Expansion – The Pioneer Years” is the eighth in a series of children’s musical adventures available on Mr. Rhythm’s website. Children are introduced to the Pioneers that moved westward as the United States expanded during the 1800’s. The children will sing historic songs, each telling a small story of the journey west or expressing part of the social culture as a festive folk tune. Costumes and props are simple to create, and the theme of the script is transportation and communication. The Pioneer has 15 prerecorded songs sung by children in the pre-school age group. The teacher can decide on the number of songs to include and the pace of the performance, and can incorporate the songs into their circle time to help the children learn the words and motions.
Kay spared no expense on her Mother’s vision and enlisted the services of several industry professionals in honing this educational product. From the world renowned composer Gary Fry, who directed and produced the musical recordings, to speech pathologist Claire Halloran, advisor on the adaptability for special needs children, and pre-school teacher Becky Duncan, who wrote the teacher lesson plans. Mr. Rhythm delivers one of the finest, user-friendly educational products available for pre-school teachers.
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