Fun things with the kids
Music with your under-four Would you like to introduce music to your child’s life and enjoy music together? Want something other to do than baby-swimming, baby-yoga, kiddy gym? This may be for you. De NootjesTrommel run by Véronique Espitalier-Schneider is starting new courses in January. Véronique is from Germany and moved here 9 years ago with her husband and then one year-old son. Véronique first trained as a primary school teacher in Bremen, but gave that up to be able to study opera singing at Dresden Conservatory, where she also qualified as a singing teacher. “My two sons are in school now and I wanted to do something that combined my two passions: music and children. I found a course in Utrecht training to be a teacher in Muziek op Schoot (Music on your lap) and successfully completed that in 2013. I am very excited to be able to run my own courses starting in January 2014.” Each session is 45 minutes long and each child is welcomed with a song. Then songs (a mix of traditional songs and songs specially selected for the course) are sung and music is made. Sometimes they are songs for the children to listen to, sometimes they are for them to join in either by singing or doing actions and some songs are for the mothers/fathers/grandparents to sing to their children whilst caring for
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them at home. This is indeed the most important aspect to Véronique: that the parents and the children derive pleasure and reassurance from the singing/listening together and can do that on a daily basis at home. (Take-home sheets of songs and music will be available.)