A few weeks ago we attended some fabulous sessions run by Paula from Monkey Music! Another wonderful gem in Winchester, I was lucky enough to visit these classes with my daughter and fully endorse the Monkey Music approach to introducing babies and children to music. 

We attended the Jiggety-Jig, Heigh-Ho and Rock’n’Roll classes on Monday morning and it was the most wonderful way to start the week, babies as young as 3 months up to toddlers of 3 years, its always such fun to work with a range of little people and their parents. Paula is a teacher, a musician and a mother and her passion truly comes through from the moment you step through the magic Monkey Music doors.

There were scarves, tambourines, boom pipes, shakers, parachutes, chimes, ribbons…. It was jam packed with the most wonderful props for us all to enjoy. Images with these items are always sightly more tricky to capture, not only is the subject moving with the music but the excitement of the sensory material overflows in their their movement and they barely stay still for more than a second. With determination, I was pleased with the amount of little ones whose precious moments we captured. 

The classes are all filled with wonderfully catchy tunes, sensory and stimulating visual experiences which are varied and creative. In the older classes, there is a focus on language development and independence as well as self-expression is encouraged. It was great to see children working independently and really getting involved, communicating use music, and throwing themselves into every single activity.  

Although the babies and children will continue to come to their classes, they will never come to this class again, the class they attended on that day. The day they will have learnt something new. Whether it be gripping a shaker or shaking it in time to the music, standing unaided for the first time or independently playing the gathering drum, playing peekaboo with a bright coloured silk or laughing with glee in the autumn leaves, the moments from today's session have been captured to be treasured forever.

There were hundreds of smiles from both parents and little ones and the room was filled with so much warmth and creativity. There were such an incredible range of activities in each class it was hard to believe that they only last 30 minutes, it was like being transported to a magical musical land which no one wanted to leave. The education aspect which Paula brings to the class enabled everyone to understand the purpose of the activities and the way in which they work to aid development, some of which is fascinating! 

Monkey Music explain that ‘children who attend music class show improved memory, they smile more, and develop better communication skills’. If that’s the case, then what better way to start their educational journey than popping along to a complimentary class and seeing what you think!

So many special memories are made in classes like these and it was fabulous to have the opportunity to witness some of them in the session and allow parents the chance to truly treasure them forever.