At the recommendation of my friend Chris, I enrolled Chubbs in two trial classes of Kindermusik's "Village" programme. Last week was Chubbs' first time in music school! Or any school, for the matter. He spent most of his time quietly observing the goings on, and participated well in the activities. He particularly loved the clapping, drumming and rhythmic portions, which I incorporate into his play times at home everyday.
In class today, he was more independent and was more involved in the activities, maybe because it is no longer a foreign environment to him. He crawled away from me to play on his own many times, feeling comforted just hearing my voice behind him, and occasionally turning back just to check that I was still around, in case he needed me.
"I'm fine without Mommy."
He loved hanging out with the other babies (and chatting with their moms) during the songs and games where they were free to jiggy/roam around. It was a good place for him to interact with babies of ages up to 18months, and hone his social skills.
However, I'm contemplating whether to sign Chubbs up for the full programme. The main thing holding me back is that there are about 10 babies, or more, per session. The teacher has to make sure that every baby gets a turn in the activity; exploring a xylophone, beating with drumsticks, etc. As you can imagine, it is very rushed and each baby doesn't really get to take his time to fully explore the instrument or even comprehend what's going on before the teacher hurries on to teach something else. Which in retrospect, defeats the whole purpose of the excercise, doesn't it?
Hmmm... decisions, decisions...
