Child Development

A music educator’s plain guide to mail clubs for kids: letters, stickers, activities and music in the mail, and what works at each age from 0 to 6+.

The oldest child I ever taught in a toddler class was nine, and she was there because her little brother was. She spent the first three weeks in the corner with a book, making it extremely clear that this was beneath her. In week four we did a clapping game that was actually hard. She … Read more

The six-year-olds were always the ones who wanted the words. Not to hear them — to see them. I’d bring a lyric sheet for the parents and within a term the six-year-olds had quietly commandeered it, following along with a finger, sounding out the parts they didn’t know, correcting each other. Nobody asked them to. … Read more

There’s a specific sound a group of five-year-olds makes that no younger group can. Everybody claps, and it lands together. Not perfectly — but together enough that the room suddenly has a pulse in it. The first time it happened in a class I was teaching, I stopped and made them do it again, and … Read more

Four-year-olds do a thing I never saw at any other age. They’ll finish a song, look directly at you, and wait — not for praise exactly, but for confirmation that you witnessed it. I once had a four-year-old stop a whole class because I’d looked down at my ukulele during her big note. She waited. … Read more

A three-year-old once stopped me halfway through “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” to ask, with real concern, where the spider went after the rain washed it out. Not whether it was okay — where it went. She wanted the next scene. I didn’t have one. We made one up on the spot, and for the rest … Read more

There is a moment in a class of two-year-olds that never gets old. Four weeks into a session singing the same Good Morning song, the one they’d heard so many times — and then it happens — one child, sitting slightly apart from everyone, would quietly sing the last word of a line. Not the … Read more

You can spot the one-year-olds in a mixed class without looking at a single birth date. They’re the ones who hear the first note of a song and immediately run to the front row about 5 inches from my face, absolutely no smile, entirely focused. I love when this happens. It’s the first unmistakable sign … Read more

The first time I brought a class of babies and their parents into a room together, I made a mistake. I’d planned it like a toddler class — songs with actions, a beginning and an end, things to do. Ten minutes in, the babies were overwhelmed, reaching for their parents, seeking calmness and comfort. It … Read more

Some of you may know that the inspiration for starting Mailbox Melodies was teaching my in person toddler music classes in Napa called Grape Jammers Music (shout out to all that have attended!). Every week, a room full of little people shaking eggs, banging drums, and belting out songs at volumes that defy their tiny … Read more