Music illuminates and enriches our lives and the same is true for children. Children love listening to all sorts of music, they like dancing to different rhythms and in different tempo, playing instruments, real or home-made, and singing familiar songs over and over again.

Music helps us express our emotions and maintain emotional balance, and in turns calms our brain (lullabies and calming songs) and keeps us upbeat. It brings joy and delight to children’s everyday life and aids creativity and imagination too. Music can help ease transitions, children respond much better to directions in songs and chants (that is why clean-up songs or goodbye songs work so well). An active toddler will likely follow parents and be willing  to “cooperate” and join a parent to move from one place to the other if playfully engaged in a song or a march, like the one we use in our Centre: Let’s go marching, 1, 2, 3, Let’s go walking you and me!

What about learning? How does music help your child’s development?

You will be glad to know that you are already doing many things to support child’s development in all the areas. Simple songs sung in your home language or English, nursery rhymes sometimes passed  from generation to generation, playing instruments, and dancing all help the physical, social-emotional and intellectual development in ways too numerous to mention here.

So during this upcoming winter holiday, enjoy the sound of music!

CLICK HERE to watch the video of me reading Usbourne Little Children’s Music Book by Fiona Watt and enjoy a little music concert.

Here are some simple ways to add a rhythmic instrument to your child’s life. In our StrongStart centre we often use wooden rhythm sticks. At home you can use two wooden cooking spoons, or metallic spoons, a pair of chopsticks, two sticks found in nature or even two flat rocks.

CLICK HERE to watch me read another fun, rhyming book  called “Animal Music” by Julia Donaldson and Nick Sharratt, published by MacMillan Children’s Books.  You can also hear me”play” the rocks while singing “When You’re One” song.

You can also make some shakers with your child from everyday objects: empty plastic containers, recycled empty fruit cups or even empty and thoroughly washed hair dying bottles (I got many donated by a SSC family long time ago, and I still use them). You can put beans, rice, bird seeds (for a softer sound), beads or whatever else you have handy inside. Secure them with some tape, I prefer several rounds of black electrical tape but you can use masking tape or even scotch tape. If you wish, you can put some stickers or decorate however  your child likes it.  And you can sing: We gonna shake shake, our sillies out… jump our jiggles out etc. shaking your shakers.

If you want to enjoy fun physical activity with music here is a link to Decoda’s HOP_Freeze_dance. 

Have fun playing, listening and enjoying music together.

Ms Lillian