Rowan at Concert
I am Cecilia Middleton, mum to two beautiful boys, Samuel and Rowan. I live in Dawlish, South East Devon.
The aim of this site is to give ideas of ways to share music with young children. You don’t need to be an accomplished musician. Music is about having fun! (There are many transferable skills too, for example improved speech and language development and social skills- but I won’t go into that!) The ideas are not original. I have read them somewhere, or seen someone else at various baby groups doing them or I picked them up on a course, or adapted ideas for myself….. I haven’t accredited them, because I don’t know which idea came from where! To my knowlegde, the songs are traditional and well known but if you think that I have used a song that has been written by you and I’m not allowed it on the site, please let me know and I will take it off (or I can put a link to your site?). Hopefully everything is easy to follow. You don’t need you to be able to play an instrument or read music. If you have ideas that have worked for you, please contact me and I will include them too.
More about me…
Many years ago (at least it feels like that!) I studied music at Birmingham University before completing a PGCE at Warwick and becoming a primary school teacher. I was instantly made head of music (those in schools who play the piano will relate to this!) and quickly realised that I loved singing with children. The highlight of my week was singing assemblies. It’s great to have something that anyone can do and join in. Singing was always a main part of my music lessons too. The voice is something that is natural, and a fabulous way for children to express themselves musically. Many transferable skills can be learnt through singing, useful for playing instruments, but also for increased levels of concentration, listening, turn taking and other social skills.
Before having the boys I played Viola in the Warwickshire Symphony Orchestra and The North Warwickshire Symphony Orchestra. This is something that I would love to take up again, when children are a little Older.
After having my second child, I decided that I wanted to be at home all the time, but I missed my old job. I set up Little Music Makers in North Warwickshire, fun music sessions for babies, toddlers and their mums (or dad or whoever wanted to join in!)
We then relocated to South Devon, and things have been so busy I haven’t started the classes again. I have therefore decided to change my site into a place to share musical ideas and resources. Hopefully it will be helpful both for people who run their own music classes, and parents who want to share the joy of music with their little ones.
Have fun!
Here are my two beautiful Boys at a teddy bear’s concert in Birmingham. Rowan is listening carefully with Archie the teddy. Samuel had a chance to play on all the percussion instruments during the interval.