One of the activities we’ve been enjoying the most is Music for Sprouts with Mr. Chris at Bread and Butter Farm. I first visited Bread and Butter Farm for one of their burger nights the summer I moved to Vermont and was instantly smitten.
When I started hearing some of the other moms at yoga or in my VerMamas group talking about a music class for kids being held there, and how in demand the class was, I knew I needed to try to get in. We were lucky to able to sign up for Monday mornings, when my partner Chris is usually off work and able to go with us. It’s one of the rare scheduled activities we are able to do as a family, which makes it extra special.
From the moment we walked in for our first class, I felt so welcome. Everyone who walks through the door to the beautiful light-filled studio is greeted as if they’re an old friend. Mr. Chris has this incredibly kind and inviting demeanor, and it comes through in full force when he picks up the guitar. After only two classes, I already find myself humming the initial greeting song where he goes around the room greeting each kid by name and incorporating their names into the song, and have started singing it to Theo at home.
I love the class and the space that’s created there. It truly feels open for whatever authentic expression comes from the little ones, and from the caregivers. Dancing, clapping, shaking rattles and banging little drums. Running around the room and rolling on the floor. Connecting. Yesterday one of the kids came over and sat in my partner Chris’s lap for almost the entire class, playing and laughing with him, never mind the fact that he had only seen him once before in his life. It was so beautiful to witness that level of openness, and also bittersweet as it made me reflect on how many walls we adults put up to avoid being (or seeming to be) that open. I felt grateful for the spaces that allow those walls to come down, even for an hour.
After music we went next door to the farm store and bakery where Theo got to sample his first blueberry muffin (which happened to be grain-free! And totally delicious!) and then walked out to the farm where some of the other folks from class had gathered to visit the newest addition to the farm, a bunch of little piglets running around. We all marveled at how sweet and adorable they were, and how diverse in their patterning/coloring and giggled at their silly and adorable mannerisms. After spending some time with the pigs, we walked through the mud back to our car. We played the Music for Sprouts CD the whole way home, even after Theo fell asleep for a nap, covered in blueberry muffin crumbs.
By, Julia Alter
Resident Writer
© Birth Love Family
