Monkey Chatter

Angie Coates, Monkey Music CEO and founder is thrilled to see classes re-opening in venues across the UK.  Angie shares her thoughts about how the past six months have impacted us all as we've navigated our way through Covid-19...

As a mum and business owner, Covid-19 has created a barrage of personal and professional challenges and I am sure that I am not alone when I say that I sincerely hope none of us go through anything like it again. But the challenges have also increased our appreciation of things we hardly gave a second thought to twelve months ago - all of us at Monkey Music are now incredibly excited about being back in the classroom. A few venues we use are still finalising their protocols etc, but most have given us the green light (click here to see) and that means we can get back to doing what we love in person. I apologise to anyone who has tried to book and been put on waiting lists – hopefully we’ll be able to add more classes in the coming weeks. The response to class bookings has been overwhelming, a situation exacerbated by the fact we’ve had to reduce some class sizes to ensure we operate safely.

I know many parents worry about the impact of the pandemic on the development of their little ones but I am often reminded how children, especially the youngest ones, are wonderfully resilient. With so little experience everything is “normal” and our children will always seek out opportunities to learn. Lockdown and even the current situation have been anything but easy for us grown-ups and most of us will admit to feeling jaded by the relentless claustrophobia and intensity but as far as young minds are concerned, their most important people have been keeping them safe and that is the best feeling in the world. Even if you don’t feel as if you have done the best job of being a parent during lockdown (a very common feeling), I assure you that your children will have grown and benefitted just by being held close to you as you did your very best for your family.

Now we are back up and running at venues, I hope that Monkey Music will add a little variety, take a little of the strain and make parenting both a bit easier and more fun as we share precious time together. While our classes are designed to give you a chance to focus on your little one without thinking about anything else, they also provide lots of ideas you can easily take home to help your child to develop. The music, songs and dances we’ve created are more than entertainment. Since I founded Monkey Music almost 30 years ago, we have continued to research how to develop fine and gross motor skills; how to encourage language development and numeracy; and how to stimulate social & emotional learning. That research is integrated into all of our songs and classes. 

If you have any questions, particularly about all the work we have done to make our classes as safe as possible, then please do get in touch. Otherwise we can’t wait to see you and your family for some singing, dancing and playing with Monkey and Mo.