These days I spend a lot of time singing. I sing nonsense, mainly (a holiday highlight for Bear last month was being danced around the room to the Shake n Vac song. Rock and roll, eh?)

So for us, going to music groups has been a big part of our social calendar for the last couple of terms. Bear loves having free reign over a box of musical instruments, listening to new songs and being allowed to crawl around a hall with other children. Our favourite find so far is Pyjama Drama – different theme each week encouraging little ones to pretend, dance, sing and just explore.

I think it’s important that these groups expect – and even encourage – little ones to roam around and to pick up toys and instruments. Sounds obvious, but it’s not something that we’ve experienced in all the groups we’ve been to. Exploration and play is the main reason we’re there, after all – that, and a cup of tea at the end (…and maybe a biscuit).

I don’t know how established a memory is at Bear’s age – I mean, why the screams every time we wipe her face after each meal? We do it every single mealtime and she always survives to tell the tale, and yet it seems like a brand new experience 3 times a day! But she certainly seems to know what’s going on when we arrive to these classes each week – there’s no shyness or wonder, she just crawls off and is raring to get going.

Pyjama Drama is a national programme, but you can hunt down the South Wales team on Facebook here.  I’m hoping that, even at such an early age, all this singing, dancing and general silliness will help build her imagination. At the very least, I hope one day I am not on my own when it comes to singing random nonsense in public.