We offer age specific and mixed aged classes as research supports both for different reasons.
The Combo mixed age music groups appeal to families with more than one child and also to people who want a group that fosters natural family-style learning.
Research supports mixed ages of children working together in these settings to encourage social and musical engagement across developmental ages.
Every week you participate and celebrate making music with your family in our groups, from the littlest boppers through to the biggest ones.
We believe that you are your child’s first and most important teacher, and we aim to support you in this very important role.
Mimics and mentors
In these groups your little one can observe and mimic the big children, and your pre-schooler can help and act as mentors for the little ones.
You child will participate in all music activities (and yes we have enough equipment for everyone!) whatever their age AND will do so in a developmentally appropriate way.
As music therapists and early childhood specialists, we have designed our program so that we can adapt it to the needs of your child.
This means that we can pitch the one activity at children of different ages and abilities and everyone can still participate successfully.
What to expect
If we were singing action songs such as the much loved Twinkle Star, we would encourage your baby or younger toddlers to watch you do the actions and sing.
They can practise visual auditory tracking, then participate with hand over hand facilitation from you or play with a sensory prop such as a star finger puppet, book or tambourine.
This way your bub is working on ulnar grip, manipulation, motor skill integration, and sensory integration of the visual, auditory, olfactory and kinaesthetic experiences.
Your toddler would join in and do the key actions with us by holding up their hands, thus working on concepts and fine motor skills, as well as dancing to the song and vocalising.
Your older toddler would be encouraged to do all the actions, demonstrating competent fine motor skills while singing and follow basic melodic contours.
Meanwhile, your pre-schooler would sing from start to finish with relative pitch correctness, demonstrating leadership skills and complete actions or signs to the song (we teach our little and big boppers Auslan).
So in our combo group, all of the children participate in singing, dancing and playing a range of instruments, as well as using a range of props that reinforce learning.
They also participate in some quiet time at the end where little ones and big ones learn to regulate their feelings, bodies and emotions.