Preschool/baby music classes. What do you love/hate about them?

[Ceolas]

I used to teach franchised classes but stopped last year to have DD3. I have a background in teaching and in music and DH is encouraging me to 'go it alone' and do my own classes.

I know what I like and believe to be educationally sound, but what do you as a parent love/hate about the classes you go to.

And also, what do you pay and for how long?

You don't need to say which class if you don't want to

I do Monkey Music. Kids love it - it is very active and involving. Only problem is disruption from other children. Quite major disruption such as standing in front of my children or stealing props or snatching instruments etc. I also struggle with the age grouping having two kids but appreciate that you must age group them.

tbh usually the price

I am a music teacher and can't stand it when they don't give the instruments their proper names.

If you're going to learn something, best to do it right first time round! My 3.9yr old can name many instuments so when he gets to reception he won't have to learn that a 'shaker' is actually a maraca.

we go to one which is a bit crap quite frankly ands we will probably be stopping. We only pay weekly.

The lady who runs it is very nice but just isn't 'active' enough' for my liking. I like to be entertained myself as well as DD
She doesn't intoduce songs even new ones, whcih I think is general bad practice.
I teach music two days a week and always go hoem thinking how much better I could do it.
On the plus side she has some lovely instruments and puppets

if you do go alone I can recommend these people - their younger children's instruments are very good value
MES
and these for puppets puppets by post although you can get good puppets on Ebay too.

I go to two classes, on and off with 16 month old DD.

One is Jo Jingles - pay around £6 a class for 45 mins. I like the structure, repetition each week of certain things, use of instruments etc. Don't like some of the tunes, or the rigidity of the class now DD is walking and just wants to wander round. May not renew next term due to this

The other is a local unfranchised class. Pay £3.50 a go for 45 mins This is much more laid back, lots more space, wandering encouraged etc. I do like it, but it needs sometimes more teaching - no point in telling me with 2 left feet and no rhythm to waltz around the room with the baby. No, you need to demonstrate how to waltz first. The teacher uses more props and encourages free playing with them, which is better. It is much less slick in operation, there are longer gaps between tunes sometimes, but no one minds this. More of an open atmosphere too, you feel you can ask questions as there is time to deal with them - Jo Jingles is so tightly run this just doesn't happen.

Is this is the sort of info you wanted?

Hmm, I went to a very very good one for a while but couldn't help feeling I could just do it myself at home. I hated the fact that it was £4.25 or whatever for a half hour (or wahtever)...felt that was having a laugh!

However, about 2 years on, we still have songs in our repertoire (complete with great actions) thanks to that class.

I liked the puppets, the instruments and the stickers at the end. I didn't like songs that involved the adults moving about as I was heavily pregnant.

We pay £3.50 for 30 mins but it is less if you pay for a block
I am thinking of trying another class out which is an hour for £5 but you get a cup of tea too

This is great, thanks.

I get the impression parents are happier when there's lots of 'things' i.e., instruments, balls, scarves, puppets in the class. You seem to be agreeing with this.

I can't decide between 30 and 45 mins. 30 is long anough when your child is having an 'off' day, but somehow not long enough when they're really enjoying it...

i liked the use of puppets and good instruments that i don't have at home (flat drum thing, egg shakers etc). we took ds and look forward to taking dd soon...

What about class size? Do you prefer a bigger or smaller class? I tend to think about 12 is good.

Oh, and shakers are definitely maracas in my classes

I went to one at Brockwell Park Lido in Brixton. It was nice enough but I thought really it was for the mums. We bashed the drums and shook the shakers. We also sang the songs and did the actions while all the babies sat their gawping, dribbling and crying. I think they were just too young to get anything from it.

I think it was called whippersnappers. Great for meeting people but I really didn't think the babies got much out of it tbh.

Thanks Ceolas
I am anal but my children loved using the 'posh' words as we called them!!

yeah yeah maracas - i'm hearin ya!

(have not long finished teaching p2 class about instruments and i was very strict about terminology )

about 12 sounds good. not many more than that tho'.

Class size of 10 -12 is good - given you are dealing with kids there will always be a few spaces on any given day. Jo jingles has 15 per class, and rarely has the full 15 there.

Now I hate to disagree with people but our class is now 8 which is the maximum I'd be comfortable with. Mind you this is the 6 months to walking group - may be more is better with older children. Also depends on the size of the room you're using I suppose

We go to Jo Jingles which is £4.50 a class here and I chose it over something called Rhythm Time partly because it was less regimented and much less crowded.

I think the atmosphere of the class has more to do with the individual teacher than which franchise it is.

I suppose my rules would be

1. don't overcrowd the room
2. remember they're babies not students at a conservatoire.
3. don;t make an arse of the parents. I personally find this kind of thing excruciatingly embarrassing and only go so that DD doesn;t grow up with the same hang-ups I've got

Have you thought about how you might market yourself?

I much prefer the ones that provide tea, coffee and biscuits at the end.

I used to go to Rhythm Time and we were pretty much turfed off our chairs at the end of the half hour for a swift finish. I felt the class was more about the exchange of money rather than anything else. I am not naive, I am sure you are not doing this for the love of the babies and their exhausted mothers, but I would at least like the illusion of being cared about.

The best class I went to was the one where the teacher remembered the names of the babies and was happy to coo about over them at the end. She also provided excellent biscuits.

I don't like the franchise type ones because I don't like having to pay for a certain amount of sessions at a time and then losing money if I don't go.

I don't know one week to the next what I will be doing, so don't know if I or DD will want to go for the next 10 weeks! I usually ask her the night before if she wants to go to x the next day and then take it from there.

I dont like groups to be very structured ie children not being able to wander off and do as they please but having to take part with all songs/dances.

I have one group that I go to regularly and which has a good reputation around our way. Plus points being a leader who seems to actually enjoy what they are doing (I have been to groups where the people running them just look bored tbh) and you need to mix things up every now and then or the children just get bored with the same songs/dances. Another good point being the flexability so pay per session not signing up for x amount each time.

Good luck if you do go ahead with it

We pay £3.50 for an hour which also includes crafty stuff which I think is very fair.

I go to non-franchised classes with 6mo dd (£3/40min but you pay for a term up front) and they are generally fab.
The only things that annoy me are:
trad nursery rhymes where they do a surprise second verse but never tell you the words so everyone mumbles (Ride-a-cock horse in this case)
ones that go too high (ditto)
nearly-but-not-quite-standard tunes
the next class (of 3yos) storming in while you're trying to get dd into a snowsuit, into the pushchair and out the door
I wish ours did coffee but we normally all go to a cafe afetrwards anyway

Like: we're given carpet squares to sit on as well as fleecey rugs to put the babies on
informality - no-one minds if you have to stop and feed / soothe / nap etc
lots of songs with thr children's names in
new songs every term
puppets and props
good mix of a capella, guitar and cd backing tracks
good mix of trad and novel songs
no stupid actions that make mums look silly when children are so small, just good ones

The paying in advance thing is tricky. If you have demand for a class and places are limited, you have to know a family is committed for a certain length of time to hold their place.

The other thing is when you have hall rent to pay, it's the same whether you have 2 or 20 in the class!

There is pressure on me now to make a little bit of money at it, whereas in the past I've done it because I genuinely love it and haven't charged people enough.

What about familiar/new songs? I tend to think that parents like something they can identify with straight away e.g nursery rhymes, but feel they want to learn something new for their money too.

And backing tunes? Do you like really jazzy stuff or singing unaccompanied? Or a mix of both?

Just been to a musical group thing today. DIdn't like some of the backing tracks as people were unsure of their first note. If they don;t get the first note, they feel silly and don't join in the rest.

The person leading the group has to have a confident, loud and in tune voice.

Jazzy, sickly sweet music children seem to like though I personally hate it! But, if the children like it you're more than halway there!

Lots of instruments. Make sure there is enough for 1 each.

I would get dishawasherable instruments as far as you can as they are easier to wash as babies stuff thing in their omouths and by the end of a few weeks I dread to think what would be on them. If not sterilising them in a lrge bucket would do.

The kids LOVED the wolf hand puppet today that was used with the song we sang.

Make sure the place you hold it in is warm -today was in a village hall but was freezing.

Familier songs with different words are always good. People will know them and feel more confident.

I take my 2 year old to an independent music class run by someone with a background in music. The classes are small and intimate (max of 10) and booked up half termly in advance. They are sectioned into small age groups and each class is 45 minutes long.

The teacher does a lot of songs that are not familiar to me but she repeats them over the course of the half term so you soon learn them enought to sing along. She includes the children and allows them to think of things to do, like clap hands, stamp feet, skip around - so there's a lot of movement in the class too. She uses lots of props like hoops, puppets, chiffon scarves, and percussion instruments.

It's great. It costs about £4 per session.

oh i forgot the most important things of all. this may seem obvious but i say them from experience:

the teacher / leader has to sing well and loudly and confidently

there should be somekind of backing music to add atmosphere (no, honestly) and so that i cannot clearly hear myself or the other adults singing.

have been to some very painful music classes as well as brilliant ones!