Parents and carers learn to relax with their babies and together enjoy musical games, songs and rhymes with a strong pulse.

Our classes stimulate babies' natural response to music and provide an introduction to music in an enjoyable, child-centered and stimulating environment.

Weekly Activites

Smiles, gurgles, kicks & coos result from the nursery songs, tickling rhymes, lullabies, peek-a-boo games, instrument playing and dances experienced by both parent & infant in this class.

All of these activities develop confidence between adult & infant, extend eye-to-eye contact, encourage motor skills, develop awareness of other babies, increase concentration and stimulate babies' natural response to music. Gather information each week on infant musical development.

Why begin music classes at such a young age?

The early years are now being recognized as the most vital stage of a human being's learning potential. Just as food nourishes a baby’s growing body, the elements of music — melody and tone — nourish a baby’s rapidly developing brain.  Newborns only one week old can already select their mothers voice from among a group of female voices and prefer their parents’ voices over anyone else’s in the early stages of their lives.

It's believed that the things babies learn very early in life are remembered many years later, and that stimulating activities can help shape a baby's brain to work more effectively in the future. What brain research says: Songs, movement, and musical games of childhood have been called "brilliant neurological exercises" that introduce children to speech patterns, sensory motor skills, and essential movement skills.

"All of the babies are captivated when Laura play's familiar songs to them on her violin. What a beautiful and exciting introduction to music" Wendy Allen, mother of Leila aged 6 months

Colourstrings music education benefits include:

- A dramatic impact on language development, improving vocal and speech development through singing. Most babies sing before they learn to speak. Songs and rhymes are pronounced more clearly - the speech is slower and therefore easier for the child to imitate. Babies and children learn best when songs are experienced through their bodies. therefore movement and music greatly enhance acquisition of language. Research has shown that a child with a greater knowledge of nursery rhymes is more phonemically aware: the greater a child’s phonemic awareness the more fluent the reader.

- Develop your child’s motor co-ordination through creative movement (clapping, moving to music, stamping etc) using large as well as small movements and hand-eye co-ordination. Movement is an indispensable part of learning and thinking. Without it children’s understanding of rhythm may not fully develop or become secure

- Enhance the child’s ability to memorize through the constant repetition of rhymes / songs.
 
- Create a sense of security - intellectual skills are linked to a child’s emotional growth (heart-head connection)    
 
- Develop focused listening skills - the child is concentration on the song/ rhyme and is focusing on you and will respond more readily to instructions.

- Enhance social interaction and cooperation skills through participation in group/ partner dancing and musical games. "Children who take part in music develop higher levels of social cohesion and understanding of themselves and others, and the emotional aspect of musical activities seems to be beneficial for developing social skills like empathy," says Dr. Alexandra Lamont, Lecturer in the Psychology of Music at the University of Keele -        

- Develop math and literacy skills through the use of repeating patterns and counting beats. "When children learn rhythm, they are learning ratios, fractions and proportions," says Professor Gordon Shaw, University of California, Irvine, after his study of seven year-olds in Los Angeles.
 
-  Increase confidence and self-esteem. Classes offer a means of expression to a shy or diffident child who finds it hard to communicate through speech