Musical learning baby class

Last week I talked about how we use music with our babies in the nursery. This week, I’m going to focus on our lovely Musical Learning baby classes.

These are a real treat for us as practitioners to deliver, as we get to see beautiful little people growing and developing. Every week we notice a little change at this age and it’s lovely to see. Musical development, as with all areas of baby’s development, comes on so quickly during this formative stage.  That’s why we believe exposure to appropriate live music is so important for babies.

Although they aren’t singing along with all the words yet, the little ones at our baby class are taking everything in, and we see so many examples of this. We see smiles, excited giggles, and cute gurgles from even the youngest babies who are just a few weeks old. The slightly older babies are proactive in showing us which instruments they want to explore, and how they want to play them (not always the way we expect!) and we always follow baby’s lead at do re mi.

What the babies don’t know, while they are busy bonded with mum and exploring the world around them, is that they are developing an internalised pulse – which means they are gaining the ability to feel the beat of the music. This is so valuable for when they are a little bit older, not just giving them an advantage for their musical education, but also with really important implications for speech and language development too. If they can feel and anticipate a pattern, they are closer to being able to express themselves and communicate effectively.

At baby class, we try to provide an environment where parent or carer and baby can bond in a really relaxed and informal setting but with all the benefits of a structured activity. For this reason, most of the session is led by the music practitioner who leads rhymes, songs, and musical exploration activities. We introduce new rhymes and songs gradually, and deliberately repeat each one a couple of times to help build that all important familiarity and security for littles ones. There’s also free play time for babies to explore instruments and listen to carefully selected pieces of music.

Despite the well-planned structure of each session, we are keen to make sure grown ups and babies feel really comfortable so feeding, changing, burping, crawling and giggling are all encouraged as well as singing! We have a baby change unit available and want everyone who attends to feel welcome, relaxed and at home whilst enjoying our chilled but uplifting musical sessions. 

If you’d like any more info about our baby class, or any other sessions we run at do re mi, please contact Lizzie via our facebook page, or email us at info@doremimusicallearning.com