Teaching babies

[Posts from old Google group]

Hello everybody,

I was considering teaching a baby class this fall. I do not have any experience with that. Has anybody ever taught a baby class? I would appreciate your feedback.

Thanks,
Birgit

[Posts from old Google group]

I haven’t but was wondering if anyone gave you some feedback on that. I have one baby here and there with the other kids and the mother ends up doing the art project (or not). I sometimes hand the mother a book related to the unit we’re working on to show her baby while the others work on their art project. I imagine that with babies, one could shorten the class to 35 minutes maybe and cut out the art project. Let me know if you decided to have a baby class and what you’re learning from it. Thanks, Veronica

[Posts from old Google group]

Carla, our Spanish teacher in the Pocotello, ID area, recently posted this picture on facebook of a darling 3-month old from one of her classes. Maybe she has some pointers.

[Posts from old Google group]

Hello,

I have been teaching a German baby class for two months now. There are only two babies in this class, one is 4 months old and the other boy is a about a year old. More parents are interested, but the timing is a challenge, since the kids take their naps at different times. I have been really enjoying it. We are together for 1/2 hour and we mostly sing. I picked the easiest songs of the farm CD (uncle Heinz) or parts of songs and we are just singing them over and over. I use my guitar more than the CD in this class. I also cut out the art project. I also take out some books some time and tell them farm stories. They enjoy that as well. The most challenging thing is the difference in age. The older boy is quite physical (running around) and the little baby is mostly sleep and I get a big smiles here and there. The parents seem to like the class, since I offered a trial session & they want to keep going.

I hope this helps. Let me know, if you have any more questions.

Thanks,
Birgit

[Posts from old Google group]

Glad to hear you’re enjoying yourself as well as the parents and babies! In my classes, putting things in their mouths is what babies do best. Luckily I usually have only one baby in every class so it’s not too hard to keep a watchful eye and I ask the parent to bring things from home that the baby can chew on. Two out of three of my babies roam around so I make sure I have some extra plastic animals or the shaker eggs have been good to distract them from getting into the art supplies. Also I find that having older kids in the class helps entertain the baby. I sometimes put up a baby gate so the baby doesn’t disappear down the corridor and the mom (or dad) can relax as s/he can see her (his) baby at all times! I was thinking it would be great to have a place where we could all list the books we use in the different languages and for different age groups. Chuck do you have a place for that kind of thing? How about for us to post ideas for new art projects or modifications of existing art projects made to fit a specific age group or special need kids? I have kids that have allergies and so I often have to change the food art project to something else because of that. Thanks Birgit for your feedback and I hope my ideas help you too! Veronica

[Posts from old Google group]

I did see the cute baby! The youngest baby in my classes this fall is 5 months old but I did have a 3 month old last Spring. I will ask her what she has learned from having babies in her class. Did you see my question to you in my response to Birgit about where to post books and art projects? Thanks, Veronica

[Posts from old Google group]

Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer are two great musicians who have produced wonderful children’s CDs (sadly, only in English). They now have a program called “Sing to your Baby”, where they conduct parent/baby classes and have people sing to their infants. It’s similar in concept to Music Lingua, without the language part. The techniques they use for engaging the infants are all relevant to what you can do if you have infants in your classes. Here is a link to their blog – it has a wealth of info, including some videos:

http://singtoyourbaby.net/blog.cfm

[Posts from old Google group]

Teaching babies is fun, but in my experience, you have to think twice what props and what activities to use. They are little and mouth everything and moms are totally sleep deprived. So not a lot of dancing and body works, but lots of singing, visuals, and anything where they can remain on their blankets and safely crawl around.

[Author]

Posts