Playing Musically with Your Child

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We read and hear a lot today about how important play is to children’s development.  Playing together is also important for the parent-child relationship.  Musical play is fun, helps children develop play skills, and helps children develop musical skills, too!

Here are a few suggestions for musical play.  I’m sure your child will invent many more!

v Pretend Play

·      Include music in pretend play, such as inviting your child to sing dolly a lullaby when putting her to bed, or creating a race-car theme song in preparation for a big race

·      Pretend to make “soup”: choose an ingredient, chop it up (if applicable) with a chippity-chop chant, pour it in, and stir the soup while singing a little tune.  This works well in the car, too.  The flowing motion of stirring helps children practice fluid movement (described more in the movement section below).

·      Everybody loves a parade!  Have your own parade marching around the living room or backyard with musical instruments or banners/ribbons/flags.

v Instruments

·      Rhythm sticks help children learn many types of motion, including hands together, hands separate, and crossing the body.  Moving to a steady beat often emerges in late preschool or early elementary school, so don’t worry if your child has her own beat!

·      With tambourines, play around with different sounds such as shaking and tapping.  When one person shakes the tambourine, move; when the tambourine is tapped, freeze.  Then switch!

·      Home made instruments combine the joy of creating materials with the joy of creating music.  Provide boxes, paper towel tubes, etc and see what your child creates!

·      Don’t overlook pots & pans  - they are a childhood music classic for good reason!  You’ll enjoy observing your child experiment with the different sounds.

·      Shakers, or maracas, are an all-time favorite.  Encourage your child to shake, tap, roll, and wave the shakers.

v Props

·      Use scarves for smooth, flowing movement to a recording; to throw in the air as “firecrackers”; to hide under for peek-a-boo

·      Give beanbags a ride on head or hand or knee; sing a pattern when dropping the beanbag from head to floor

·      Use a toy microphone (or anything – a hairbrush, a shoe, a lego…) to take turns with call-and-response (back & forth) songs.  Experiment with different sounds with younger children and with different words with older children.  Sing “yoo-hoo” or your child’s name and invite them to echo.  Have “conversations” of back and forth “ba-ba-bas.”

·      Puppets come in handy to help shy children find their “voice” – sometimes children will echo or sing to a puppet if the puppet asks!

  

v Childhood Classics

·      Teach your child the songs, finger plays (such as “Itsy Bitsy Spider”), and musical games (“Ring Around the Rosy”) you played growing up. 

·      Ask friends and relatives to teach you the songs, finger plays, and musical games they played!