Instrument Exploration for Toddlers

Parenting Tip:  Create an 'instrument petting zoo' for your toddler!

Why?

When a child takes up a new instrument and bangs, pushes, rolls, and shakes it to find out what sounds it makes, they are working on the skills of curiosity and persistence.

When they decide they would like to try the instrument that knocks instead of the one that jingles, they are following their likes and dislikes.  

When they create a new rhythm while playing the sticks and find different ways to vary that rhythm, they are learning to express themselves which helps them make meaning of their world.

How?

Think of child-safe instruments, and sound-makers that you have, at your house.  Gather those items, and create an 'instrument petting zoo,' for your child!  Which sounds is she most drawn to?  Does he play the sounds in an unexpected way?  Can you copy your child's playing style, for a duet performance?  What favorite Kindermusik songs can you play along with?

find your Head & Shoulders! 

Sort out who should be where, for the Family Picnic! 

Get out a tambourine (or other instrument), and play along with Come On Through, My Darlin (from Kindermusik's 'Family and Friends' CD)  How will you play in a way that matches each verse?  Where, in the room, will you move those instruments 'through?' 

Want to Learn More?

On our blog - Read Why Children Blur the Line Between Work & Play! 

Kindermusik 7-Year Continuum:  As a baby, your child heard the familiar timbre of Mommy & Daddy's voices, among other sounds.  She also learned, through cause & effect, that she can produce a sound from a shaker instrument by moving it around!  Kindermusik toddlers try out a wider variety of child-friendly instruments in class, and discover many new ways to make sounds with them (oftentimes, discovering new, 'non-traditional' ways to make sounds).  As preschoolers, Kindermusik kids make choices about which instrument is best for a particular situation (ie:  'which instrument most resembles a frog sound?  Oh – you chose the guiro/scraper for that!').  Young Child students continue to explore instruments –and explore some, in depth:  glockenspiel (pre-keyboard instrument);  dulcimer (stringed instrument);  and recorder (wind instrument), offering students experience with multiple instrument families, as they prepare to move into private music lessons.