This is Jessie's 5th week of classes with her son.  She has learned that even in as little as 5 weeks, even a 16 month old child can become comfortable enough in the process of a Music Together^® class to be engaged in the majority of the 45 minute class. 

We teachers always see the biggest progress in week 6 of a session.  No matter how many sessions a child takes with us, it is in week 6 that they finally really know the songs, really know their peers in class and really get accustomed to the classroom and their teacher.  That is when we start to see some really amazing things from all the kids in a class.  Unfortunately, the summer session ends on week 6.  We encourage everyone to continue to make music with their children on a daily basis until the fall session begins in September this way they don't lose what they have already gained.

Week 5 – Let’s All Click Our Sticks Today!!

By Jessie Ansley

We are continuing to make great progress!! I am happy to report that my little man spent far LESS time checking out his own reflection in the mirror and far MORE time with the group enjoying the music.

This week we got to use sticks again. We used them last week in our make up class and the rules were no sticks unless sitting. It took two times of my son standing up and me snatching his sticks last week for him to get the concept. This week, he was spot on! He knew he had to sit. The entire class loved using the sticks. Some of the creative things we
did with them were: hammer in a nail, tick tock like a clock, crocodile bites and buzzing like a bee. However, if you are my child, you added in the addition of teething toy. Haha! Thank goodness for the slobber bucket!

We enjoyed free dance time this week during the Spanish track. I ended up dancing with my friend’s son and my son ended up dancing with her, but we all had fun!

We also got to try resonator bells for the first time. Basically, they look like individual xylophone bells.

I cannot believe that next week is the last week. I have to say that seeing my little guy on week 5 compared to week 1 is quite amazing. He went from barely staying with the group maybe 1-2 songs on week 1) to engaging and participating with the group (for ALL songs except 1-2). I have to admit that I was skeptical of the “keep modeling and they will eventually follow” philosophy, but it DOES WORK. I just needed to learn a little patience.