Orchestral concerts for babies?

I'll be honest with you, sometimes I find being a mum bloody hard work. I have two gorgeous children and I know how lucky I am, I really do, but sometimes I do find it difficult trying to cook for, tidy after and play with two Under-3's at the same time. I'll admit that sometimes - sssssh! - I resort to screentime...

Actually, I don't think that a little (carefully chosen!) screentime is too bad really. You'll see CBeebies mentioned a fair bit in this blog because I think they do provide some very good music and arts programming. However, my daughter's first taste of screentime wasn't actually CBeebies.

Karl-Heinz Meurer [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or CC BY-SA 3.0 de (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en)], via Wikimedia Commons

Live music for toddlers near you?

I live in the South West, and whilst this obviously means we don't have the range of activities that the South East has in terms of the performing arts, living near(ish) Bristol and Bath means that lots of cultural events are still relatively accessible to us.

One thing I have recently discovered is a company called Music for Miniatures which runs classical concerts for 0-4 year olds in Bath (and sometimes out in Somerset). 

A bit of the blurb from their website reads: 

Music for Miniatures is a series of short live classical concerts specifically designed for parents, grandparents and carers to enjoy in the company of babies, toddlers and young children (aged 0-4).

The best thing about a Music for Miniatures concert is... we don't mind noise! Babies can sleep, cry, babble and crawl whilst toddlers are free to explore and enjoy in their own way without being told to "ssh". Older little ones can dance, play air-instruments and get right up close to the performers. We don't even mind if the audience needs a nap!

I've been to a few of the concerts which they held out in Somerset with my two and was impressed.