Babble and Squeak - Thanks... and sorry

[kpjigsaw]

Hello,

Thanks so much to everyone who came down to the Mag this morning. We had a real blast and it was great to see so many mums and dads hanging out with their little ones and having a good boogie at the end.

We were slightly caught by surprise by how good the turnout was - thank you all for your interest and support for our project - and unfortunately we did reach maximum capacity and had to turn a few people away. We wanted to apologise to those who did not manage to get in - we do know how difficult it is to get out of the house with a baby, and extremely annoying to not be able to get to where you were going! Hopefully you won't be put off coming back and trying again next week - if numbers of people coming remains high we will look at ways to make the system work better for everyone, and in the meantime we suggest that if you're sure you want to come it might be best to try to come as close to 10am as possible.

Thanks and hopefully see you all soon!

Kate and Tina

[redjam]

We were one of the lucky ones who made it in - and really enjoyed it, though it was a bit TOO busy (hardly the organisers' fault). Nice mix of free play and singing/dancing/rhymes, and Tina did a great job holding the kids' attention during the circle time despite the big turnout. My two-year-old was rather sweetly trying to teach her older sister the 'banana banana' rhyme when she got home from school (missing half the words, natch) so it obviously made an impression!

Thank you to Kate and Tina for setting up this new session a stone's throw from my house as winter draws in and the parks get too cold; much appreciated! We'll be back...

[redjam]

We were one of the lucky ones who made it in - and really enjoyed it, though it was a bit TOO busy (hardly the organisers' fault). Nice mix of free play and singing/dancing/rhymes, and Tina did a great job holding the kids' attention during the circle time despite the big turnout. My two-year-old was rather sweetly trying to teach her older sister the 'banana banana' rhyme when she got home from school (missing half the words, natch) so it obviously made an impression!

Thank you to Kate and Tina for setting up this new session a stone's throw from my house as winter draws in and the parks get too cold; much appreciated! We'll be back...

[lorraineliyanage]

Any plans to run it on an additional day in the week perhaps?

[lorraineliyanage]

Any plans to run it on an additional day in the week perhaps?

[kpjigsaw]

Hi Redjam and Lorraineliyanage and thank you very much for your comments.

We're delighted that you and your little girl enjoyed the session Redjam and well done her for remembering the "banana" rhyme! We look forward to seeing you both along at the group again and we definitely take on board the feedback about the numbers.

With regard to an extra session Lorraineliyanage, as we've only just started up, for now we think we should probably focus our energies on trying to make the Friday session as well-run and enjoyable as we can but it may be something to bear in mind for the future...

Kate and Tina x

[budur]

hi we went to this first class and i think you need to iron out a few things:

1) i thought kids were too small for the songs you were doing. you obviously didn't know the age of kids that will come to the class but with crawlers, toddlers they need to be much simpler

2) there was only one carpet area and everyone was on top of each other. the floor is not carpeted, so i think you need to have a few mats like they give in other classes so that kids are scattered around and there's more space

3) there were too many people, if it's a drop in class, probably best to operate on first come basis.

it's difficult to get something new off the ground so i hope you don't mind my views. i'm very happy you are starting something close to home and would be happy to give it another try.

good luck.

[kpjigsaw]

Hi Budur,

Thank you for taking the time to post your feedback and no, we don?t mind your views at all. It?s always good to hear what people think, especially if it helps us to make our sessions more enjoyable.

We completely take on board the feedback about the numbers and the space. We were somewhat taken aback by the take-up of our initial session but we now have a better idea of how many people to admit and will be limiting the numbers in future sessions accordingly. In addition to the drop-in option, we also plan to offer a pre -booking/membership option for those who would prefer it. We will be posting the details ASAP. As for people sitting on the mats (which were there though hard to see under all those bums!) we will be asking people to move their conversations to the side to give the kids and adults room to play on the mats.

Thank you for your comment about the songs, and don?t worry, all the old-favourites will pop up over the weeks and requests are always welcomed!

While many of the songs we sang may not have been familiar they were entirely age appropriate for the full range that we had there that day. Every child is different but it is amazing what they are able to absorb and benefit from at a very young age, particularly where this is reinforced in a natural and fun way by their parent. I have used these and similar songs for this age group extensively and have found that children become very comfortable with new songs and activities once they have done them a few times, especially if parents support this learning in-between sessions. I do include a mix of familiar and adapted material as children love repetition but also benefit from opportunities to learn something new.

Whilst I do use music throughout the session, it is not a music class and the aim is not to teach the children to dance or to sing specific songs. I am a Speech and Language Therapist, and the session I run has a communication development focus and includes activities that differ from other groups. The aim is to target the crucial skills underpinning early

communication development such as attention and listening, turn taking and comprehension . We do this through the children?s exposure to songs, music and stories and participation at their own level in the session.

Obviously parents/care-givers have the biggest influence on a young child?s development and so a very important aspect of the session is to offer parents new ideas, songs and activities and to illustrate how these can be modified to extend language learning opportunities ( e.g. changing/ missing out words in songs, or doing call and response), and each parent can then choose how to adapt these ideas to use at home with their own child if they wish.

I hope that this information is useful and puts what we are doing into some kind of context. I thought that the children (and parents) were fabulous at last week?s session, paying attention and joining in really well, which is what it?s all about.

Thank you for your good wishes and I do hope that we get to see you at the group again. Please do come over and say ?Hello? as it?s always nice to put a face to a (user) name!

Kate and Tina

[LoobyLoo]

Dear Mrs Babble and Mrs Squeak. I've been meaning to drop a line all week to congratulate you on an outstanding first session of Babble and Squeak Playtime. My LO LOVED it and he's only just 1. He beamed the whole time and - although it was definitely rammed - I didn't feel that was detrimental at all to the group. If anything, it made everyone get involved and I thought the vibe was fantastic. The space was very user friendly and the mix of free play and organised session worked really well, in my opinion. Well done girls. Keep it up. It is different, relevant and just what the area needs. See you tomorrow.

[millsa]

I second the post above - the vibe was fantastic. I liked your vibrant songs and 'silly' rhymes very much, and that many grown-ups seemed to have a lot of fun singing, repeating and dancing. I only have one 'but': you advertise it as 10am-11.45 class, whereas the actual session didn't last more then half hr (10.30-45, and then the speech therapist disappeared, returning around 11.15. It was all finished by 11.30.

I guess that half hr break was the 'free play' LoobyLo mentioned above, but perhaps you should mention that at the beginning. I felt a bit disappointed about it as we were not sure why the break, and what to do ('will the class restart? do we have time for coffee or should we wait and how long? etc)?

wishing you all the best

m

[mothercourage]

Could you tell me what age range B&S is aimed at? Sounds great.