Thursday, September 6, 2012

Baby Music Classes

Children love music I have posted previously about singing and dancing with my girls (http://happyplayhappychildren.blogspot.sg/2012/06/dance-to-your-childs-tune.html) and of course the gorgeous identical twin girls featured in the Wednesday Warming Moments who found online fame for dancing to Daddy’s guitar (http://happyplayhappychildren.blogspot.sg/2012/09/wednesday-warming-moments-dancing-twins.html)

My girls have loved music even in the womb as we used to listen to the Ipod and they would groove along to their familiar playlist ☺ so music has been a big part of our play from the earliest age. 

And at six months we began to attend baby music lessons. 
**Disclaimer Time** and I am ashamed to admit that before I had children I used to think baby music class was a plain waste of money what would a baby know but now as a mother who is passionate about children playing and having fun I have changed my tune (pun intended) 

We attend a class called Musical Monkeys (http://www.facebook.com/musicalmonkeys) where we sing songs, do dances, explore a new instrument of the week, learn a song in another language and play various instruments (with Mummy’s help) like the shaker, triangle, clickers and finger cymbals. 

Each week as the children get older and through the repetition of activity, which is so important for baby play they have started to respond and get real enjoyment from it.

Music classes are great for:-

Motor skill development as they grab for the shaker or try to bang the cymbal. In fact at our recent class I could of burst with pride as Annabelle was the only baby who used the drumstick on the hand snare (the instrument of the week) to bang all by herself, the only baby to do so!

Social Interaction as children have to get used to being around others, being patient and sharing as each child has a turn at the instrument of the week.

Verbal and language skills are heled through the song component as this teaches your children how to pick up on patterns. It is also much easier to memorize song lyrics than to memorize a string of spoken words. It has been researched that listening to and learning lyrics helps improve early memory skills and brain functions associated with speech.

Mental and physical stimulation the children have to concentrate on learning new things and also using their physical attributes through the dance and play activities (we have very tired babies that are easy to settle for the night after music class afternoon)

You can recreate music classes in your own home with some of these simple tasks.
- Buying some cheap instruments to show and allow the children to play with and/or creating your own with household objects and pan and wooden spoon make for great music time. 
- Playing CD’s where you sing and dance together.
- Singing and acting out nursery rhymes.
- Showing clips on YouTube of songs and dances of other cultures.

I hope this post will help stimulate some ideas you can try and share to bring the joy of music into your child’s life.

Happy Play Times :-)




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