Everyone loves music and there are many people who not only enjoy listening to music, they enjoy playing it as well, children are no exception. Music is a natural part of life for toddlers. They might sing to their stuffed animals, tap their feet to the rhythm of nursery rhymes, and enjoy the sound of their parents singing to them and clapping.
But this early introduction to music does more than entertain, It can kickstart learning. Music contributes to what experts call “a rich sensory environment.” This simply means exposing kids to a wide variety of tastes, smells, textures, colours, and sounds which helps develop the brain.
E absolutely loves music, she loves putting her nursery rhyme cd on and dancing around to it, doing some of the actions and even singing along with it. Music has really help develop her movement and speech. She now tells me she is a ballerina when dancing.
What E really loves more than anything is playing with musical instruments, she loves to hear the different noises they make, and some of them really are noisy!
First of all we have the maracas, shaking something uses large motor skills instead of the fine ones that develop a bit later, playing maracas is something almost all toddlers can do. I like these as they are not too noisy and the set that E has are really bright and colourful. She likes to shake them as hard as she can to make them as loud as she can.
A Xylophone as a classic music toy for a reason: Even the tiniest tot can figure out how to play a scale (or most of one) by tapping the metal keys with the beater. E has a Xylophone, this was the first instrument she was given, sometimes she plays it nicely each note and a time and other times she just likes to bang them randomly. I think it’s certainly a release of energy when she plays with it.
A recent addition is a play guitar, E likes this because it has three auto settings so you can press a button and it plays songs which she dances around too. When you press the strings it also makes a tune. This is a fun instrument, as she gets older she will be able to have a proper mini guitar, that is if she wants one.
E had some money for her birthday so yesterday I took her into Exeter and to the Early Learning Centre. I told her she could choose anything she wanted and she chose herself a drum! We took it out of the box in store to see what sort of sound it made and luckily it wasn’t too bad, so it was purchased. I was considering going to buy some earplugs.
E loves her drum, it is really good quality and makes a lot of noise. She has already figured out how to make different sounds with it through hitting it hard or gently.
Life can be pretty noisy in our house when E decides to get her instruments out. When she gets them out she likes to get mummy and daddy to play and instrument too. Before you know it we will have our own band, however at the moment it is very out of tune noise!
I would like to share with you one of the first video clips I managed to get of E with her new drum. When ever I get the camera out E tends to play up, the same seems to apply with filming her.
I would say music definitely develops social skills, assists with rhythm and gives children a lot of enjoyment. I will always encourage E with music and if she ever decides she wants music lessons I can only hope she wont want to play the drums.
