I’m really excited to be offering Monkey Music's award-winning on-line classes here in Wimbledon, Raynes Park and Merton Park, covering all of SW19 and SW20. As a child I learned the violin and treble recorder and sang in school and local church choirs. Then for a long-time music wasn’t really part of my life, unless you count teenage rock concerts and dancing ‘til dawn to the latest tunes. However, as my children grew up and I found myself with a little bit more time I joined a local community choir and have been singing my heart out there, on Monday evenings, for the last 4 years. I know that my love of music stems from having been involved in it from an early age. And I really believe that it is good for your soul. When I sing at choir I forget everything else and my brain gets a rest from life in general. For our children the benefits are even more profound. I’m really fascinated and excited by the amazing benefits we can be bringing to our children through active engagement with music. Studies have shown that music affects the physical, emotional, and intellectual development of babies and children. It strengthens cognitive and sensory development and exposing your baby to music can activate the neural pathways responsible for many skills such as creativity and spatial intelligence. Coming to Monkey Music classes is such a fun and special way to have precious time with your little one as well as helping their development.

Our Monkey Music classes are for babies (from 3 months old), toddlers and children up to 4 years and have been honed over the past 25 years to ensure we are making the most of the 30 minute lessons.  The progressive lessons are written especially for each age group.  We offer a safe, supportive and nurturing environment, where parents, carers and children meet in small groups to enjoy our interactive musical activities.  Our classes are packed with learning opportunities, specially written Monkey Music songs and lots of wonderful instruments which the children play along with. We know that children learn best when they are enjoying themselves so our small classes captivate and educate through structured, social music making. Our live streamed sessions follow mirror our face to face classes.

Studies show that babies who engage in moving to music and music making use more communicative gestures, smile more and are more confident than babies whose experience is to listen more passively to music. Moving to music with our babies also triggers the release of oxytocin which is the hormone that helps us bond with them. Further research has shown that playing with patterns in music helps to set firm foundations for early maths and reading skills. As you can see the overall benefits to their development are really very profound providing the support for their development.

At our interactive lessons, kids learn to use their own instruments to make sounds and they move their bodies to the music, developing co-ordination and fine motor skills. Bring your own instruments – be as creative as you want! It’s always good to have something to shake and something to bang for your session. Our classes for babies, from 3 months, begin with our gentle Rock'n'Roll class where there is plenty of emphasis on using music as a lovely bonding exercise for carer and child, whilst providing social, interactive and musical learning experiences for both. Babies are encouraged to track the beautiful musical sounds and to reach out and grasp the specially chosen percussion instruments. At around 12 months our toddlers love to be up on their feet so they are ready for Heigh-Ho! In this exciting, up-beat class, they learn to play their instruments with greater autonomy and join in with the music by watching and responding to instructions and through their own wonderful creativity. By 2 years, our little ones are more independent and want to play for themselves! So in Jiggety-Jig we harness their sense of rhythm as they learn to play in time with the music and grow the confidence to contribute their own ideas and compositions. They learn to concentrate a little more and develop skills of sharing and turn-taking that they will take to Pre-School. Ding-Dong, our final stage for 3-4 year old children, introduces our very grown-up pre-schoolers to the wonderful world of the orchestra! We learn how to read and write music using graphic and traditional notation and the children play their compositions to each other.

Of course, it’s not just the children who love Monkey Music. All the adults (and siblings) who come along have a great time too, sharing precious time together and singing along with the children as well as having the suport of other parents around them. We all share in the milestones your "little monkey" reaches at each stage of development and we feel so lucky to be there for first claps, waves, steps and words.

Although I won’t be teaching much myself I am delighted to have a small team of amazing specialist teachers who will be leading the way, whilst I am very much running things in the background. You can read more about our teachers below.