*There's a cute video of M in action at the end of this post! :)*
Anyways, M has been enrolled in a Toddler Music class through the Eastern Iowa Community College's Continuing Ed. department. The class (for 1.5 yr. old to 2.5 yr. old) met once a week for an hour. She started back in January, and has now completed 3 six-week sessions. There was another class for older children after ours.
A lot of family and friends have asked about the class, so here's my 2 cents. The teacher was SO great about guiding the children, but also being firm with repetition and helping the kids learn to share and to follow direction. She always started with circle time where she read/sang a book. Then, she introduced an instrument, followed by a variety of activities (singing, dancing, parachute, activities with balls, bean bags, scarves, etc.), and finished with a closing of dancing and learning to "freeze." And of course, the children got stamps from her...M loved it all!
The teacher was also helpful in talking/teaching the parents about ways to engage our children and or/explaining why she does what she does. I've really seen Madison grow and learn so much from these simple yet fun 1 hour sessions, and it was nice to interact with other children and make new friends.
I'm SO thankful an old friend of mine told me about the classes and encouraged us to sign up. (That's my friend (we were besties elementary) in the picture with her son, the teacher, "Miss Tina," M, and her classmate and classmate's older sister. This last session had a small class...but the other two sessions had probably 8-10 children.)
Josh observed us 2 weeks ago and got a few great pictures.
She loved looking in the tunnel...but refused to ever go through it!
For her last class, I only had my cell...but I managed to get a few good pictures.
She's not doing so great here in sharing and passing the bean bags...but she did give them up...eventually. :)
Oh, and here's that video. During class, the kids listen to a song that teaches them to engage in different movements to different music (walking, running, tip toeing, galloping, etc.) M has her own little side-step way of "galloping" that everyone in class got a kick out of! Here she is!
The next session will be this fall. Depending on our schedule, we may sign up again. We loved it! M will surely miss Music Class this summer. Up next for us is SWIMMING LESSONS! Yikes! Not sure how M will react...should be interesting. :)
