Music for Infants and Children

I recently posted about music you can listen to with your kids to have a dance party at home. But exposure to music, both listening and participating in creating it, is essential to growth and development. When children are engaged in music they are developing their motor skills, concentration, perception, memory, language, speech and much more.

There are so many ways to enrich your child's life with music. Musical toys are everywhere - keep a set in your home and give your child access to play with their instruments whenever they feel like making noise. The Parents Bee Bop Band Play & Learn Drum comes with a removable lid to store the other 4 musical instruments inside the drum.

Make musical instruments with your child. The plastic resealable baby food tubs and glass jars make wonderful noise when you add a few beans, beads or coins and seal the container shut. I used the plastic baby food tubs to do this with my infant son, and to eliminate the choking hazard I wrapped the tub with duct tape. Mine was original, but you can get duct tape in amazing patterns these days so you can choose something more appealing than basic gray if you want to add a visual element to the homemade instrument. Need inspiration? Pinterest and Google are swarming with homemade musical instrument projects.

Turn household objects into musical instruments. Use your pots and pans and wooden spoons and shoe boxes and pine cones and get groovin'. See how your child expresses himself and concentrates and laughs when he's given the opportunity to make music freely.

Finally, take a music class with your child. If you have a preschool aged child participate in a parent and child class together. Let your older child take a fun class where they'll play music and engage with other kids their age. Parks and recreation departments often have classes for kids of all ages. If you are in the Orange County area, Dancing Keys Music Studio offers Simply Music Rhapsody classes for children as young as 3 months.  For 4- to 6-year olds, Play-A-Story classes are an introduction to music and piano, allowing children to play improvisationally to build a foundation for learning. Other programs are also available. Contact Dancing Keys Music Studio to find out more at www.Dancingkeys.com, 949-734-DKMS (3567) or info@dancingkeys.com.

I received a free introductory class from Dancing Keys that I attended with my 2-year old daughter and she loved it. Her favorite part was making thunder on the drum!