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Finding the answers to this eternal question can be a daunting process. There's a plethora of conflicting advice and opinion on how to rear happy children and picking your way through it can cause more sleepless nights than colic, teething and soggy nappies combined! My own answer was music. As a trained classical musician and having taught music to very young children, I was aware, long before becoming a mum, of the importance of introducing babies to music as soon as possible. All children are born with an innate musicality and only if this is encouraged early enough will a child fulfil their natural musical potential. But the benefits of music for very young children, particularly when taught within a group, go much deeper than this. Early exposure to singing, listening to and playing music can stimulate a whole range of educational skills.
The spin-off benefits for that first group of little monkeys were immediately obvious. Language and numerical skills flourished through action songs and rhymes; fine motor skills were refined through playing hand-held percussion instruments, while an awareness of space and one another was developed through movement. The children´s confidence and self-esteem grew rapidly as their involvement in the classes increased. By 1998, just five years after those first classes began, the demand for Monkey Music had grown at such a rate that the natural progression was to franchise the company. By this time I was fortunate enough to have built up a unique team of highly motivated, talented teachers who were the very first group of franchisees. Our franchisees are the inspirational backbone to the company, running classes for thousands of young children and families across the UK and Ireland. In many areas, Monkey Music is also taught in nurseries and schools, and some teachers are also available for Monkey Music parties. For many parents, music has gone a long way to answering the question 'what is best for my baby?'. For others, the classes are simply a time to enjoy being part of a local community and meeting new parents. As for the children, they´re having such a good time at Monkey Music that they barely seem to notice how clever they are!
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When a new baby arrives your world is never the same again. Suddenly there's another voice to be reckoned with. Not the screaming one in the cot beside you that keeps you awake at night, but the niggling voice that buzzes around inside your head repeatedly asking, 'what is best for my baby?'.
That's why I developed Monkey Music. When my first baby was born, I wanted to create a class which would introduce her to the power of music in a lively, imaginative and social environment. I am now lucky enough to have five children, each of whom has been responsible for different aspects of how the curriculum has grown.
