Let's Make Some Noise...

Next up from the Miniature Music Music Bag Club is the 'Let’s Make Some Noise’bag. I'd explained that we were going to return the 'Zoom' bag, but that we would still get to see Kate and the rest of the toys during Miniature Music classes. Honey was fine with that but Ace got a bit upset and wanted to hug Kate the astronaut goodbye, which was super cute.

Honey and Ace were really excited to open up the new bag and even more exited to see what was inside! 

This bag contains:
1 story book (including CD and DVD content).
1 melodica
1 accordion
4 shaker eggs
2 sets of hand bells
2 sensory sticks

Ace absolutely adores books and the fact that this one has vehicles in it AND a song to sing along to, pretty much blew his mind and it's been a firm favourite here over the last couple of weeks. The book comes with a CD/DVD so you can sing and watch along or remind yourself of the tune if you forget! The instruments provided lend themselves to becoming bicycle bells, rumbling trucks and beeping horns during the story but can also be used on their own to accompany a range of toddler performances or family sing alongs. 

Honey loved using the sensory stick as a conductors baton and could regularly be found conducting an imaginary orchestra or choir (Melody Mamas warm up Bella Mama being the performance of choice). Ace's favourite was the melodica, he learnt to fit the mouthpiece by himself and loved dancing round with it playing his own, wonderful compositions! Both children are big fans of a shaker egg or two and love a round of Wind the Bobbin up, as well as recreating class favourites such as fast and slow and shake and dance around.

If you fancy joining the Music Bag Club, you can find all the details in the latest Miniature Music newsletter. We hope you have fun making some noise!

Honey wears... Bunny sweatshirt by H&M
Ace wears... Hooded sweatshirt by Primark

Fly me to the moon...

As Brand Ambassadors for Miniature Music, our first assignment was to test and review their brand new Music Bag Club. The idea is that you can hire a bag containing everything you need to recreate your favourite Miniature Music moments at home. For two weeks, you get all the puppets and props required to sing songs and play games around the bag's engaging theme.

We tried the Zoom Bag first, with Honey and Ace pulling out puppets and fabric then itching to get started straight away. I set us up to sing Zoom Zoom Zoom, We're Going to the Moon and we had lots of fun and giggles launching Kate the astronaut off into space and challenging ourselves to get her to fly higher or land in a specific place (Honey came out with some fantastic positional vocabulary here)!

Next, Honey asked if I could fold the fabric up into a little rectangle, which she then used as a pillow for Kate and tucked her inside the bag because she was apparently tired from all the zooming! This led to a round of 'Fly Little Astronaut' which Honey cleverly adapted from one of her favourite songs 'Hop Little Bunny'.

A while later, Ace picked up one of the star puppets and started chatting and singing to himself. He toddled over and gave me the other star so we sang 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' and Ace improvised some actions.

As well as prompting songs and games, we also found the bag to be a great stimulus for conversation. We talked about space, pulled out our non fiction books to learn about planets and space travel and watched YouTube videos of rocket launches. The book that came in the bag 'Blast Off' was requested often too, with Kate being invited to listen along. We can't wait to see what's in the next bag!

Music to my ears...

There are certain classes that we loved so much when Honey was small, that we have either kept going to as she's got older or returned to now that we have Ace. Miniature Music is one of those classes.

As a music class, Matilda (for ages 0-4) is awesome! Zaphira uses real instruments which children of all ages are encouraged to pick up and experiment with and a mix of original songs and childhood favourites with a twist. As a parent and child group, it is amazing as the class is priced per family and not per child, it's also drop in so you don't pay if someone is poorly, you're away or just can't get out of the house in time one week! There is time set aside at the end of each class for free play with all the instruments and guess what, there's always tea and cake too!

As well as the ever popular Matilda classes, there are two new classes on offer, Owly and Croc (3 years and over). Ace volunteered to be a poster baby for Miniature Music's new Owly classes (for babies 0-6 months) and he had a great time being snapped alongside some gorgeous baby girls while enjoying songs, play and instruments.

If you haven't already tried Miniature Music, why not head over to their website or Facebook page for the latest class times, venues and prices.

Ace wears... Dungarees by Gap Kids

Photo credits to Zaphira Cormack