Questions/thoughts about SM1

[Kristen Crouch]

1. I’m not sure I’m clear on how to handle a group of babies ranging in age from 0-9 months. Babies 0-2 is very different from 7-9. Noise level, stimulation, different types of songs for different goals and age. Same question goes for Family Sprouts where you may have lots of different ages in the same group.

2. As the group leader, how are you modeling what the parents should be doing? Do you use a scarf or a doll or nothing?

3. When I approached my library about offering mt groups, I mentioned the possibility of offering a group for babies 0-6months and they said that they won’t run those because people won’t come to them. In the past, apparently, they found that they couldn’t get enough of a turn out and they use those statistics for future groups. Have you found this to be a problem in other areas? How do you promote it?

[Caitlin Kauffman]

I second some of the questions posed by Kristen (#1 & #2 in particular).

I was also wondering how long the groups in SM1 last? I did hear on the video that parents are able to take “an hour” at lunch, and I realize I might have forgotten the answer in a previous video perhaps. But I wondered if the length of groups varies from SM1 to SM2 and so on?

[Lauren Caso]

I am also wondering what the lengths of each session are per SM group?

[Ann Dardis]

In response to question #2, I have “borrowed” a child to demonstrate what I’d like the parents to do. The class I teach is like Family Sprouts – it includes children from 0 – 5. Several of the families have more than one child so there is usually an older child not sitting in the parent’s lap that I can use as a model. Even so, I would be comfortable asking a parent if I could their child to demonstrate

Regarding the library’s comment – I have had very few children under age 1 in my classes. There was a newborn infant that attended with a 3-yr. old brother, but she spent the entire class period in mom’s arms at the end of the room – even stepping out occasionally. I think it would help to highly promote the benefits of getting young babies involved. Parents think, “She’s too little to do anything musical.”

As far as working with a wide range of ages, it is difficult to meet goals for each individual child. I’ve noticed that I tend to gear my sessions towards the 2 – 4 age range, but I do occasionally give parents hints on ways to adapt the activity for their younger children. I have much to learn about this. I am hoping Family Sprouts will be covered in an upcoming session.

[Kristina Rio]

Family Sprouts will be addressed in one of the weeks ahead, and will give you a better idea as well as food for thought about how you actually would engage all participants appropriately. As Ann said, I also “borrow” a child to demonstrate or just model what the parent should do with an imaginary child in my lap, or with my own body, such as how to provide hand over hand modeling of stamping feet. All Sprouting Melodies groups are 45 minutes long.

Kristen, Erika forwarded your questions to Beth and Meredith so when they have an opportunity, they will respond here. Keep the questions coming, and I will do my best to answer them for you.

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