Jump Up and Join In

Jump Up and Join In – Reading, Music, Singing and soon to be an App

Earlier this week Monkey and I were invited to London by Egmont to meet Carrie and David Grant, and to hear about Jump Up and Join In – otherwise known as #juji.

Jump Up and Join In

Based on six energetic picture books, JUJI is about making music, jumping up and joining in.

I was rather excited about this invitation on a number of levels – firstly, I am passionate about books, so to actually go to a book publisher’s was like walking into heaven, secondly I can remember David being in Linx and I have some of his 7″ singles (I was very good though and didn’t do the groupie thing and ask him to sign them!), thirdly, I love the idea of getting children interested in music, real music, from an early age and finally, I am trying to be less of a techno dinosaur and was looking forward to my son and I learning about the juji App which is being launched on Monday 15th July 2013.

When Carrie and David started talking about the juji concept (aimed at 4-8-year-olds), it was so obvious that they both have a passion for music (obviously with their careers) but that they were also passionate about bringing real music to younger children.

Jump Up and Join In

The juji series of books is a great way of introducing children to music in a variety of ways – through reading the book itself, through listening to the accompanying CD, through making an instrument (easy to follow instructions are in each book), right through to the new App which will they previewed for us, which, as I said earlier, will be released on Monday for Apple applications (more to follow soon, hopefully).  I was hooked from the start, and Monkey loved the book that they read through – Lion’s Speedy Sauce.

The preview of the JUJI App was our first experience of App’s (I know – how old am I!), I avoided letting him anywhere near computer games, he’s 3 and half years old, I’m not interested in him learning how to zapp bananas to win treasure chests!  But, I know who Carrie and David Grant are, I know what they’ve done in the past and I love the idea that this App is actually going to teach him something constructive, whilst he’s having fun.  I was very interested to see how Monkey reacted to it all.

Jump Up and Join In

The App, very clearly follows the storybook, in this case, Lion is learning to play the Bongo’s at different speeds – you can join in, and win star’s for your performance, you can record yourself singing (this is optional) and then capture a photo of yourself, choose an outfit and join Carrie and David singing the catchy song.

It’s very simple (great for me!) so easy for younger children to pick up, my son loved picking different outfits and hairstyles (wasn’t so keen on having his photo taken) and I was impressed by how quickly he grasped what needed to be done.

Jump Up and Join In

I’m really looking forward to trying this App out at home soon and will let you all know how we both get on.

We were very kindly given a copy of the juji book and CD – Elephant’s Birthday Bells which I will review separately (but I do have to say I was really chuffed to find that David and Carrie had both signed our copy – still a groupie, sorry, can’t be helped!).

We have a lovely afternoon, we both learnt something new and are looking forward to sharing more about the JUJI series with you.  For now, you can like the JUJI Facebook page here.

Thanks to Egmont for our invitation, and to Carrie and David Grant for sharing their passion for music and learning with young children.

8 thoughts on “Jump Up and Join In – Reading, Music, Singing and soon to be an App

  1. It sounds really interesting. I’m not musical so fortunately both children appear to have got the musical genes from my husband. I’m keen to encourage them to appreciate ‘real’ music and this sounds ideal. Maybe if it comes out for Android I’ll look into getting it for B’s tablet.

    1. I think they are looking to develop it’s range. I’m going to review one of the books and actually it works great as a stand alone, with a CD, so might be worth looking at that too? I have zero musical ability, sadly. My brother and niece are great with the piano, keyboards and clarinet, and I had musical great grandparents – just missed me by totally 🙂

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