In April I started some lovely classes for babies (0 -1.5 yr olds), I have been doing music with babies for years in Glenone Montessori but this has been the first series of ‘public’ Me & You Music classes for babies and their parents. And it has been received fantastically well, as one of the mums put it: ’All the other well-known baby classes aren’t a patch on what Mischa is doing’… pretty proud of that!
Here is what we have been doing:
Well, we are nearing the end of our (sold-out) Me & You Music music sessions. It’s been such a pleasure working in the Draiocht and a real treat meeting all the parents with their absolutely fantastic and music loving children. Every week has been a musical journey full of fun and enjoyment.
We have done so much in the past weeks, the babies have:
- learned some lovely little rhymes and songs using their hands and fingers,
- bounced and galloped on their parents laps,
- gotten their hands on some real musical instruments like drums, shakers and bells,
- been swayed and danced around in mummies arms,
- played peekaboo with their parents and with their fellow babies in the class,
- have been pleasantly surprised by puppets and happily watched rainbow streamers waving to the beat,
- listened to lots of songs, some ukulele and even a little saxophone playing.
The toddlers have been working hard too… they have:
- used their hands and feet in lots of action songs,
- rolled, marched and danced,
- rowed their boats in real wavy water, walked through the jungle and buzzed around like bees,
- played musical instruments like shakers, drums, bells, claves, and chime bars,
- bounced teddies on trampolines together,
- played peekaboo and pretended to be jack in the box,
- danced together in our circle,
- met my puppet friend Freddy and his friends,
- learned lots of new songs.
It really looks like they had so much fun and I hope to have awoken their curiosity and enthusiasm for making music, singing songs and dancing. The idea behind the classes is that the parents bring the music and songs home, to encourage this I have emailed songs to the parents so they can continue singing long after the classes have finished. Songs for in the car, for walking to the park, action songs and songs just for the pure joy of singing. Children love nothing more than the voice of their own parents… apart from the sound of their own voice!
