When Ben was small I longed to take him to a class just like mine, he loved to dance and sing, his favourite music to listen to was Queen, Michael Jackson and the Crazy Frog.
We enjoyed many parent and toddler classes together, sing and sign, bounce and rhyme at the library and various Playgroups and yes we loved them but none of these encouraged him to explore his creativity, build his confidence and just let him have fun.
I took him to a theatre club at the age of 3, thinking this would be the sort of class he needed but he was told to stand still on his spot, which he couldn’t possibly do, he wanted to dance and sing and not wait to do so.
So I decided to take a risk and I set up Boogie Tots, for Ben, because surely there were other children just like my son. When the first class came we had many people join us, it was £4 per child (which seemed a lot at the time) This has also made me realise I’ve not increased the price in 10 years.
The idea was Ben and I would teach the parents and tots a routine to Valerie by Mark Ronson, simple!!
Wrong, I quickly learnt not every child is like Ben and this wasn’t as easy as I thought. We quickly changed the session and sat down to sing some nursery rhymes, one mum suggested Dingle Dangle Scarecrow and I didn’t even know it. It was a disaster!
Still we came back the following week this time the numbers were less but we carried on improving the class as we went. If nothing else, it was great bonding for Ben and I.
After trying for many weeks I was just about ready to give up on Boogie Tots, it wasn’t really making any money and I was finding it difficult to fill up the 45 mins with songs and games to keep everyone entertained.
That was until I had a call from Surestart, they’d heard about the class and thought it would work perfectly in their centres.
I went in for a meeting and took my little star with me and to this day I’m convinced he is the reason the centre hired us. They fell in love with this confident, knowledgeable little boy who practically sold Boogie Tots to them!!!
The rest as they say is history!!!!
The best thing about Boogie Tots is that it’s inclusive, anyone can come, you are encouraged just to be yourself, if your child runs around for the whole session, it’s not a problem, if your child doesn’t join in, there’s no judgement. If they are shy, it’s fine.
One of my favourite parts of being the Boogie Tots lady is when your child finally feels comfortable enough to come and hold my hand job done.