This month's Spotlight is on Scottish Book Trust's collaboration with The Cottage Family Centre in Kirkcaldy, where, thanks to funding from The Scottish Government through the Youth Music Initiative, they've been running an Early Years Musician in Residence project which has just come to a close after 9 months.
Bookbug Session with The Cottage, image by Rachel Hein.
The aim was to work with a targeted group of children (age 0 to 5) and their caregivers to sing and make music together. We wanted a focus on the benefits of music on mental health and wellbeing, bonding and attachment and speech and language development. Together with the group we tasked the musician with creating a new song for the wider Bookbug community.
We appointed musician and wellbeing coach Kelly Laing to this project. Kelly already had a wealth of experience of working with children and families from leading music and singing in community groups, and mindfulness sessions.
On Wednesday afternoons Kelly worked with the Little Explorers group of mums and their wee ones at the Cottage, all of whom were around two years old. The make up of the group that attend on any given day is very fluid – there are about 14 or 15 families on the list but often around 8 to 10 turn up, and not always the same each week.
The families The Cottage work with are referred to them by different organisations such as health, social work or third sector, and for different support purposes, which means attending every week is not always possible. The mums are all young (mostly under 25 years old) and many of them anxious and nervous.
Two boys with shaker. Image by The Cottage and Kelly Laing.
On a typical week the group meets for around 90 mins. There is a lot of free play during which Kelly got down on the floor playing and singing or showing the children what noises can be made from different items. Each week she brought along a selection of homemade musical instruments, many made from items you can find at home, such as pasta in a pot. Towards the end of the group time, Kelly also led a mini Bookbug Session.
From the first session the kids loved copying her in terms of making noise or singing; for example, within 10 mins of the first session she and a couple of kids were rolling out play doh and Kelly started singing ‘rolling rolling rolling’ and the wee boy started copying her! Although the mums often sat at the side during the free play, they were constantly watching and picking up on what Kelly and the kids were doing.
One of the most important things Kelly demonstrated and modelled was how we are our own musical instruments, using our hands, our feet and our voice. She wanted to show how accessible music is, and that is not about having fancy instruments or knowing complicated songs.
A mum and a child with a shaker. Image by The Cottage and Kelly Laing.
To create the song, Kelly watched the children, as she wanted to interpret their movement and emotions through vocal sounds, which you can hear in the background of the piece, for example crawling or walking, becoming distracted or toppling over, to excitement, frustration, laughter, calmness etc.
Throughout her time with the group she had been showing how all of these interchanging layering emotions are normal, but sometimes can feel overwhelming, and music and song can help us to take a pause.
The big message of the song is a reminder to families that really they themselves are what their wee one needs, you’re enough, just you, your voice, your sound, your smile, your face, that’s what your wee one needs, and you’ll hear this coming out in the song.
A mum and her child with a drum. Image by The Cottage and Kelly Laing.
We engaged Ben Winger to make the video of the song and through footage of the children, and turning some of their mark making into animation, he has really captured the essence behind the song.
We’ll be sharing the new song Twirly Swirly Feelings on the Bookbug app and website soon!
To celebrate the residency, launch the song, and to say a big thank you to the families that took part, we held a big event at Adam Smith Theatre, Kirkcaldy.
The event was open to the public, with over 300 people joining us for Bookbug Sessions, facepainting, dressing up, book sharing and more. Importantly, for a special half an hour we had a "showcase” event just with The Cottage, those families from the group we had been working with, and other families and staff who attend the family centre. Although no dads had been able to attend the group during the time Kelly worked with them, it was great to see a few at the showcase.
During the event we premiered the final version of the video. It was powerful to see the excitement from the children when they spotted themselves on the big screen. What a boost in confidence and self-esteem for these little musicians to feature in their own music video!
A webinar for practitioners on ‘singing, music and mental wellbeing’ on 29 May was the last output of the project. A recording of this session will be available on our website soon, so that others can take the ideas around music and wellbeing, and learning from Kelly to share with the families they work with. And most importantly remind them that they are enough.