Winter weather can give you the blues, but here at Bookmans, we've got the perfect remedy—song, dance and fun for the whole family! Bookmans Flagstaff will be hosting a Kids' Winter Jamboree on Saturday, February 20 at the Orpheum Theater! There will be food, kids' music, dancing, prized and lots of other fantastic events. Chuck Cheesman and Matthew Henry Hall will lead the kids in singing, dancing and a fun interactive story time!

We'll be celebrating the success and culmination of the Music in the Classroom (MIC) program, a Bookmans program that supports music educations in our schools by providing free music education to 400 students in 16 Flagstaff Head Start classrooms. The MIC program has been providing free instruction to preschool students for 16 weeks, and has provided each participating classroom with a ukelele, ukelele instruction for the teachers, a children's music CD and hours of great music and movement education, including singing, dancing and basic percussion.

Popular local musician Chuck Cheesman has been a focal point of our wonderfully successful MIC program. He is a former Chicago school teacher who has led several children's music workshops and even instructed the the Obama family in his Chicago program. Bookmans has enjoyed working with Cheesman immensely throughout the program, and is working on continuing and expanding the MIC program, and hopes to continue working with Cheesman and other great local Arizona artists.

“This is the kind of whole mind-body activity that really helps these kids develop, and have fun,” says Kate Beles, community liaison for Bookmans Flagstaff. “I hope we’ll be able to continue this program, and expand it to other markets.”

To learn more about Chuck Cheesman and the classes he provides, visit his “Dancing With No Shoes On” website here. For more about the Head Start program, visit their website here.

Bookmans believes that the Music in the Classroom program is an extension of our continuing support of literacy and education of all kinds within our communities. Our hope is that this program has, and will continue to, foster a deep and lasting love of music for all kids involved.

“Public schools are facing funding cuts and music education is often the first to go,” said Andrew Shkolnik, store manager of Bookmans Flagstaff. “Bookmans wants to find a way to help keep music in the schools."

For more information regarding our Music in the Classroom program, please e-mail us here. For pictures of our MIC program in action, check out our Flikr page here.