“For a two year old, I prefer to teach gibberish”
Crisel from Baumhaus explains why she prefers sounds and pretend play to formal singing lessons for toddlers
Crisel wants young children to explore what their voices and bodies can do. Pretending to be a dinosaur or a horse is part of that, even if it does not look much like a formal singing lesson.
Baumhaus is the No 2 Kindermusik school globally and has taught over 4,000 children since 2016, it is founded by Crisel and Carsten
It is quite easy to wonder what your toddler will learn from music class. Singing, instruments? Not really yet. As a first step, Crisel wants them to experience a wide range of sounds and movements, connecting these to a trotting pony, a roaring dinosaur or falling rain.
I asked what she gets asked by parents
“Some parents ask for voice lessons for their three year old. I want to ask the parents, what are you expecting?”
“Everything under that age is just sound.”
What do you wish parents knew before the first class?
“Let the children roll in the ground. Let them be an elephant. Let them be a dinosaur. Let them try different things so that they can understand what their body and their voices can really do.”
“How can a child understand the range of what they can do if they’re told, ‘Shh, that’s too loud’?”
See how your child explores different sounds and movements, rather than how neatly they sing along
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