Rhythm Express has been developed by Rowena Howey, a mother of two and a classically trained musician and teacher. Following the birth of her second child, Rowena decided to put her years of teaching experience to good use and develop her own highly visual, imaginative and interactive music sessions to provide a stimulating and rewarding learning environment for babies and toddlers.  

Rhythm Express has consistently shown itself to be one of the forerunners in independently run, early years music education in the Kent and Sussex area - often copied, but never bettered!

What are the classes about?

Our philosophy is simple - music making is fun!  But it can also be much more than that. Music and movement can help children with speech development, fine and gross motor skills, listening skills, co-operation and social skills.  We don't believe making music will turn your child into a genius but we do believe it is a useful educational and developmental tool.

Our classes have been structured to provide children with an opportunity to develop basic musical skills while having fun and being entertained.  Children learn best while enjoying themselves so we use a vast range of props such as puzzles, story boards and flash cards, puppets and percussion instruments, and we encourage the children to interact with the music through movement, by the use of a play parachute, flags and ribbon sticks, balls, balloons and bubbles.  

3 different percussion instruments are used each week and, with around 100 different types of props and puppets used in a 10 week course, there's something for every child to relate to.

Sessions are based around a theme which changes weekly and have a mix of repetition to ensure continuity and new material to keep the children focused and interested.  We have a strong educational aspect covering many topics included in the Foundation and Key Stage 1 Stage curriculum.  Click on the links below to find out more for each age group.

[babies]   [younger toddlers]    [older toddlers]   [pre-schoolers]

Why are we different?

We play live music on a range of instruments from keyboards to woodwind - a useful tool for teaching listening skills and something the children respond to very positively. Just imagine ten 2 year olds sitting completely still and quiet, while listening to Debussy or Bach played on a flute. Impossible? No! It happens every session at Rhythm Express.  

We use our own original music written specifically for baby and toddler music classes - this is material you won't find anywhere else and is truly unique to Rhythm Express.  This is used alongside familiar nursery rhymes and action songs which everyone knows and loves.  In addition to pre-recorded music we sing unaccompanied songs so that the children can hear the tunes without background 'clutter'.  This helps with pitch recognition and is something everyone can do at home.  We also introduce classical and jazz and some music from other cultures and languages in a fun and child friendly way.  

Finally, we're independently run.  This gives us the flexibility to be able to adapt each class individually to best suit the children attending.  It also means we keep our costs as low as possible, so we’re one of the best value for money groups in the area!