Music Together

This morning the kids and I participated in a Music Together class at a library. It was a sample class. The woman who teaches the class is a music therapist, and she started teaching these classes in our area a year ago. She's starting two new classes in our town this fall. We had attended one of her classes before at the Early Intervention picnic, but that was a bit chaotic as the class was held at a playground (and the kids were very distracted). The class involves the kids using various rhythm patterns (through spoken words as well as clapping and such), various tonal patterns (particularly one/five), playing different instruments (resonating bells, sticks, etc.), and singing various songs. The class usually lasts 45 minutes. It went for one hour today. The youngest child there was 12 weeks old, and the oldest were I'd guess about 4 years old. Ian didn't participate too much. He wandered around the room a lot. However he loved the parts that involved instruments. He wasn't keen on the resonanting bells, but he loved banging the two rythm sticks together and also playing with several different instruments when she got out a large tub of all different types of instruments (drums, cymbals, etc.). He was drumming his hand on two drums right along with the teacher when I thought - get out your camera, Ruth! Sadly he was done with that before I got the camera out. The class is interesting, but I feel I can give them a good experience with music myself. My main objection is the cost. For both kids it would be $26 a class! In comparison, ballet costs $30 a month (also for a 45 minute class)! If I'm going to pay that much for a music experience, I'm expecting a private lesson not a group class. It was fun though to experience the sample class today.

After that we ran a couple of errands and then drove to Maryland. The kids did well thanks to the dvd player. Ian slept first, and shortly after he woke up (around 1pm), Nadia fell asleep. She slept until 1:45. We arrived at my mom's house around 3:15pm. Ian fussed a little now and then, but neither child cried at any point. That counts as a big success in my book! Well it's time to head to bed as our flight leaves Baltimore at 7:50 tomorrow morning!