Welcome To

What We Do!

The Learning Groove does two wonderful things. We make delightful songs which are enjoyable, interactive, and designed for early music education. We also offer effective online teacher training preparing you to teach preschool music classes and parent & child music classes.

Our Music:

The Learning Groove uses educational songs and stories which empower children to reach their full music potential and energizes language development. We have a coordinated set of six amazing music CDs, each a different color, which can be enjoyed for fun as well as used in preschool music classes and parent & child music classes.

These CDs are: Rockin' Red, Bouncy Blue, Groovy Green, Yummy Yellow, Outrageous Orange, Perfectly Purple. The music on each CD features:

• Many styles of music including blues, classical, jazz, honky-tonk, hip-hop, klezmer, and so much more
• Major and minor keys
• Variety of time signatures, tempos, rhythms
• Focus on specific instruments
• Humor, kindness, lullabies
• Variety of interactive activities
• ½ original songs, ½ traditional songs
• Well produced music with awesome musicians

The six CDs can be purchased separately or as a set. But if you are taking the training you receive them as a download at no additional cost. We are also making new music CDs with educational themes such as classical music.

Our Online Teacher Training:

The Learning Groove offers dynamic online teacher training preparing you  to teach preschool enrichment music classes and parent & child music classes.

Preschool Music Classes: You will learn how to offer incredible music classes where children sing, dance, play instruments, and experience interactive literacy. These classes will help children develop music skills and strengthen their language foundation for speech and reading. Perfect for daycares and preschools.

Parent & Child Music Classes: We can train you to offer parent & child music classes where families learn and have fun together! Children sing, dance, play instruments, explore descriptive language, and experience interactive literacy. This is a joyful way for families to bond, while children develop their music potential and a strong language foundation.

Who We Are

The Learning Groove was started by two friends, over ten years ago, who were interested in music and language development.

Eric Litwin, author of the original four Pete the Cat books. Eric Litwin is the # 1 NYT best selling author of the original four Pete the Cat books, The Nut Family, and Groovy Joe. His books have won over 26 awards for literacy, have been translated into 17 languages, and have sold over 13 million copies. Most recently, Eric has published The Power of Joyful Reading, and The Poop Song.

Michael Levine, award winning musician and music producer. He produced the music for the original four Pete the Cat books, The Nut Family, and Groovy Joe. Michael plays the guitar, bass, drums, and sings. He is a popular musical performer who brings music and stories to live. Michael has over twenty years experience in early music education.

Our Story

By Eric Litwin

It Started with Lunch

Michael and I are good friends who enjoy lively conversations about the many connections between early childhood music and early literacy. (Geeky but true).Together, over lunch, back in 2009, we envisioned a dynamic music program that empowers children to reach their full musical potential and develop their language skills. Between sandwiches (turkey with avocado) and dessert (large oatmeal cookies), The Learning Groove was formed.

We Started to Grow

Both Michael and I were teaching our own parent & child music classes in Atlanta, GA, using The Learning Groove CDs we were creating. It was going well. So well, in fact, that many of our friends, also musicians, asked if they could teach classes using our music. We said yes and created our first training program which began in my living room.  In this training you will see some of these early training programs (and my former living room)!

We Grew More

Michael’s classes were completely full and his music production studio booked up. To make things every busier, he married a beautiful musician and soon had two musical kids. My musical children’s books became # 1 New York Times Best Sellers and international sensations. To make things even busier, I continued to give hundreds of performances every year, moved to Washington DC, and married a lovely pediatrician.  

Meanwhile, TLG was growing. We won an award for best music classes. New teachers were finding us online from all over the world. Many of these teachers had children learning to speak English as a second language. So our interest in music and language grew.  

Most of our new teachers were primarily focused on preschool music enrichment and so we began to adapt the training and include more about teaching preschool music classes.  

Time for an Update

We kept tweaking this and adding that to meet the needs of our students and teachers. This worked for a while. But at a certain point, (perhaps when our website gave up and crashed) we knew it was time for a major update. This training is the major update. We decided to organize our content more effectively, including more comprehensive material on preschool and language development.

Technology also changed and we moved our training to an online teaching platform. We hope this newer online platform will be more effective. Our updated training will provide you with a full understanding of how to teach your own preschool music enrichment and parent & child music classes. The training includes:

• Early childhood music theory
• Songs and activities
• Early language theory
• Early education teaching skills
• How to offer preschool music classes
• How to offer parent & child music classes

You will have the option to use our songs, stories and curriculum in your classes from our six-CD set. But you do not have to. You will also gain the knowledge and skills to adapt the classes and use other music to best serve your students.

After the training you will get a certificate of training completion. And, you may choose to use the logo showing you are “using, The Learning Groove, songs and stories” .

We hope you enjoy the training and songs. And we hope you help many children reach their full music potential and joyfully develop their language foundation.

Be Well, Eric Litwin

We Want You To Be Happy

We want you to be happy. We want you to understand what the training “is” and “is not”.

• This training is supported by research and teaching experience. This includes music research and language development research.
• This training is authentic, made by two guys who love and care about early music and early language development.
• This training is thorough, with approximately ten hours of video content. You will have a broad and deep understanding of how to offer your own preschool music classes and parent & child music classes.
• This training is pragmatic and grounded. We are training you on what we actually did and do. We give you both simple and more in-depth lesson planning options.
• This training is flexible. You will have the ability to use our songs and activities. You will also have the ability to use different songs and activities that you choose.

A Little Old and a Little New

This training has the best of the old and new. Many of the videos were made while we were younger, still enmeshed in teaching parent & child classes and preschool music enrichment. Please forgive some of the lower tech videos. Things were a little different then.

Other videos are new, benefiting from what we have learned over nearly a decade of teaching, performing, researching, and writing. They also reflect the changes we made to serve the variety of teachers who have taken our training.  (But don’t be surprised if you see a few more grey hairs - for Eric anyways, Michael not so much.)

After the Training:

After the training is complete you will have a solid knowledge with which to teach preschool music enrichment classes and parent & child music classes.

However, teaching requires both knowledge and practical experience. So you will still need to practice, practice, practice for these lessons while you improve your actual teaching skills. And, once you get started we hope you will never stop learning about early childhood music and language education.

After the training you will receive a certificate of training completion, and you may advertise your music classes as “using, The Learning Groove, songs and stories.”

Songs and Stories Logo

Certificate of Achievement

Here are two examples of using our logo in your marketing. This is from a wonderful teacher who completed our training and is offering her own classes.

Poster and Website for Music with Ms. Deb

From Ms. Deb's Website Showing Class Dates

After the training we also encourage you to join our community of teachers on our forum, Facebook page, and other social media sites where teachers support each other and help each other succeed.