It's a no-go for Jo (Jo Jingles)

Member Name: azana

Product:	Jo Jingles
Date:	20/02/09 (330 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Music can be great for kids

Disadvantages: 45 minutes of banging a tambourine is just too long

According to their website Jo Jingles is the "the leading provider of structured and interactive music and movement classes with an educational slant for children from 6 months to 5 years of age".

Jo Jingles provides music lessons that are 45 minutes long. I had been to other providers' sessions with my first daughter (notably Monkey Music), and whilst I think 6 months is realistically quite young for these classes, the idea is good. Children like music, and I think for their speech development singing is an excellent thing to do. I have sung to my children from day 1, and we often sing together in the car, our tastes these days having gone from nursery rhymes to Abba.

I attended Jo Jingles classes for a term with my daughter, but despite the glowing testimonials on the website I am afraid to say I don't think these are the best music classes there are. The main problem for me was the 45 minutes of the class - it was just too long, half an hour would have been better, by half an hour I was bored silly. I would have gladly got up and run round willy-nilly with the toddlers most of whom had peaked after half an hour too.

In a class they do aim to do a range of activities from static singing to walking around and using instruments. The singing ranges from with a CD to just voice, with some songs being action songs. From a teaching point of view they have quite clear rules and boundaries and routines and they do follow themes and the teacher we had did try and explain what we were doing and why.

I just found there was too much sitting and banging a tambourine with my daughter who was just over 1 at the time, I quite often found myself thinking we might as well have just put a cd on at home and banged a saucepan there. To be fair maybe my daughter was just a bit young and maybe the classes for older children are better, but I found it was too expensive for what it was at over £4 per session (I would imagine more in London). They did let you do a trial but there was no pay as you go possibility. For me the classes just weren't varied enough for me to find 45 minutes enjoyable, though other mums and dads did seem to enjoy them. My daughter moderately enjoyed the class, but I do know of other children who love the classes apparently, I am afraid I just couldn't stick it out to find out if my daughter would have loved it later.

I did also find, I am afraid to say, that this franchise was pushier than the norm on merchandise, though this could have just been my teacher. Various CD's are available on the website at www.jojingles.com and were often on offer at the classes. They also did a "sponsored sing a long" for Children in Need which took place in the class - I didn't necessarily want to do this activity as I would have found asking relatives/friends for money so my child could sing "twinkle twinkle" embarassing, I don't think this should have taken place in the class. I ended up finding the Jo Jingle doll who featured prominently in the lessons, presumably for the children to identify with just a tad annoying, and eventually though I didn't give up the idea of a music class I have switched to another provider and I now enjoy the class I go to.

You can go to a trial class, so if you are thinking of going to Jo Jingles and I haven't put you off then I would advise you do this before signing up. When you have a younger baby these kind of classes can be invaluable for the mum for getting out of the house purposes, I suppose with a second child you are just a bit more picky about classes you go to as you have less time and probably think more about how you spend money. To be fair this a franchise system so maybe the experience varies with the teacher. You can find out what classes are on in your area on the website.

There is probably a reason why Jo Jingles is so successful so I would still say give it a go if you have a child and you think they would like it, but I am afraid it was not for us.

www.jojingles.com

Summary: I tried these classes but think there are better ones around