Hello, Everybody!

We’ve wrapped up our first three weeks, and hope to settle into a much greater sense of routine.  Registration is now closed for the remainder of this collection, and we will be happy to take registrations for the next collection of music – Maracas – which will begin on April 13th.

Our educational theme over the last three weeks has been on Engaging Your Child.  Three weeks is a very minimal time-frame to cover this concept in any depth, but the goal for us as a class is to stimulate your thinking about how to engage your children.  This is particularly important as they evolve into more sophisticated interactions, which means that your efforts at home and in class need to evolve with them.  Try to find a way to turn one activity a day into a musical one.  There are no rules, and your effort for a couple of minutes a day, will make  lasting impression, strengthen bonds, and encourage growth.  Remember – Musical growth is tied to lots of other growth – encouraging coordination, social interaction, language skills, and lots more that we’ll cover.  As long as you find a little time each day, you can accelerate, develop, and refine these things for your children, putting them ahead of others.

We’ve also now had 2 weeks of video recording in class.  We’ll be doing this throughout the year, as previously mentioned.  Our immediate purpose is to self-evaluate as teachers, to see where and how we can make your experience of classes more fun, more effective, and more encouraging.  We may mount a promotional video from the footage at some point, so if you have privacy concerns, please feel free to make those known.

Class Start Times

We’ve had a bit of a tumultuous few weeks with our schedule, adding new families, and migrating rooms, etc.  We’d like to ask you to please do your best to arrive on-time so we can start at your class start time.  Reasons for this are plentiful, but most important to us is our commitment to your planning for the weekend.  We promise you a start time, and would really like to be as close to it as possible.

Upcoming Educational Theme

Our educational focus for the next 4 weeks is going to be Listening, Hearing, and Seeing Your Child’s Musical Behaviours.  We’ll kick this off by making sure everyone has a copy of the growth chart, and go from there.  Your goal in this lump of classes should be to start to develop an eye for identifying behaviours that are possibly musical, or that are clearly musical.  This kind of watching will help you to encourage emerging, age-appropriate behaviours, and to enjoy those that are in full bloom.

As you know, Music Together is heavily researched in the areas of Music Education, and Early Childhood Education.  This research shows that children don’t learn well in a ‘sit-down’ environment at the ages that we have in our classes, and that the primary caregivers are the greatest influence on their development.  That’s why you are in class with us, but is is also why you define the musical behaviours that your child will develop and exhibit.  Your child won’t do the “18 Month” behaviour from the growth chart just because they have arrived at that age.  They are simply arriving at an age-range at which it is possible and likely that they can demonstrate those behaviours.  If you feel that they should be exhibiting those behaviours, then you should throw yourself into demonstrating them – at home particularly, but also in class.  We see your children less than 1% of the week, so you are way more important than we are in their growth.  We hope to be your guides, and to give you some ideas, inspiration, and guidance from week to week.

Upcoming Songs

Week 4

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  • Blow the Wind
  • Trot to Grandma’s
  • Tailor & Mouse
  • Mary Wore
  • Jack in the Box
  • Don Alfredo
  • Spin & Stop
  • When the Saints
  • Nigun
  • May All Children

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Week 5

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  • Spin and Stop
  • Roll that Ball
  • Mix it Up
  • Stick Tune
  • Jack in the Box
  • Happy Puppy
  • Love Song
  • Tailor & Mouse
  • When the Saints
  • Great Big Stars

[/listdot]

Week 6

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  • I’m Freezing
  • Ridin’ in the Car
  • Mary Wore
  • Happy Puppy
  • Don Alfredo
  • Follow Me Down to Carlow
  • Husha My Baby
  • Blow the Wind
  • Tailor and Mouse
  • Great Big Stars

[/listdot]

Week 7

[listdot]

  • Water Play
  • Mix it up
  • Trot to Grandma’s
  • Love Song
  • Jack in the Box
  • Nigun
  • Roll that Ball
  • Pop! Goes the Weasel
  • Great Big Stars

[/listdot]