If you had told me a year ago that by 18 months, my daughter would be singing entire songs, I probably would have said no way. We started Music Together® when she was about 6 months old, and, to be honest, sometimes I felt like it wasn’t worth the money or the effort of loading an infant in and out of the car. It’s hard to see the wheels turning with a little non-crawling blob. Her first semester she appeared to focus solely on slobbering on as many instruments and props as possible. But as she has grown into toddlerhood, I have watched her embrace and love this activity that is now just a normal part of our schedule. Neither me nor Jude is very musically inclined, so I love that she has learned these musical skills without us. For those of you with little ones, wondering what activity will give you the most bang for your buck, Music Together has been such a force in H’s life, and has taught her so much already.

Love of song and singing. She requests songs in the car.  We sing and dance all the time in the house, and her pitch is better than mine. In the middle of the night (yay for us), I hear her singing full songs like she’s practicing. She also recognizes familiar melodies quickly. If your LO hasn’t watched Beat Bugs on Netflix, I definitely recommend. Every episode features the cute animated bug crew singing Beatles songs, which are recorded by well-known artists. The other day I played The Beatles (the real ones!) during our afternoon jam session and she paused, looked at me and said, “Like Beat Bugs?”

Cooperation and sharing (at least a bit). For the first year of Music Together, she refused to put the props away after a song. She would clutch those shaker eggs with all her might. I was nervous that she was going to be that kid forever. But she finally got it, and now she helps the other kids put instruments away every time and sometimes (only sometimes…she is a toddler, after all) humming the Music Together bars that signal clean-up works at home as well.

Rhythm. She has been dancing and tapping to the beat since the beginning, like an innate skill. At home and in the car, she loves to tap things to the beat or clap to the beat. We put her on a real drum kit at a friend’s house and we were dying at how much she was actually using the sticks and playing correctly. (Side note, afterwards I saw that Jude had put said drum kit in our Amazon cart, and I promptly deleted it and asked her if she was insane. Let’s give ourselves a few more years of relative peace and quiet, please!)

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Halloween music class!
Halloween Music Class

Musical confidence. I can’t think of any other way to say that in Music Together class, she is her most comfortable self. And this means that she is a normal toddler who ignores some songs and tries to steal the teacher’s clipboard and supplies, but it also means that she dances like nobody’s watching while people are watching. She doesn’t have embarrassment or self-consciousness while dancing or singing, and that is so golden to me. How many of us have that freedom?

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We will never know if Music Together created her love of music, or if our little one is a natural “performer” like her teacher once said, but I’m so glad we gave her the avenue and outlet. Anyone else love what music class has done for their kiddo?