At Kindermusik, we believe music is as good for kids as Gummi-Vites and as yummy as birthday cake and ice cream! Ever heard you kids complain about having to listen to music? Maybe opera isn’t their favorite, but most kids consume music like fishy crackers. More, please!
So the goal today is to get us thinking about how to up our kids’ consumption of good music on a daily basis. Note: I’m not talking about adding Musak to life but asking how can we thoughtfully include music in our children’s lives which will enrich their lives and, as research shows, their brain development.
Here are a few ideas to get us thinking about how to tune in to more music throughout a typical day.
Morning: How about teaching our kids to start their day with music? If our children don’t already have their own music machine, it’s never too early. Little hands love to make music happen all by themselves. For toddlers, a cassette player or a low end CD player is perfect. Fisher Price makes a classic cassette player that can even survive a bouncing solo trip down a flight of stairs. We know. At a favorite thrift store we can find old music machines that are perfect for children to use without parental oversight. When they break, we’re usually out less that $10!
V-Tech and Fisher Price make varieties of button pushing, music making balls, caterpillars, keyboards etc. It’s wise to look for musical toys that have tunes that we like too: Some have classical fare. Others a variety of classic folk tunes. Most of us avoid the toys with repetitive ditties that stick annoyingly in our heads for days to come.
For morning listening, an accessible basket or book shelf can contain a selection of music they can pop in first thing. We have picked these out together at the library, music store or from the family collection. Depending on our families’ taste and tolerance for morning noise, we can choose Kindermusik CDs, wake up music like John Phillips Souza marches, mellow or peppy praise songs, or story songs. The choices are endless. The point is to make the choices versus letting the radio DJ’s choose; though that’s not bad if we have a station that chooses the songs we love.
Older kids may have an IPod which can be loaded with selections, however because listening with ear buds cuts our child off from the family community, I wouldn’t encourage the habit of using them unless travelling or in a situation where individualized entertainment is happening. An IPod docking station with good speakers works great for sharing music as a family.
Mid-morning Snack/Music breaks: Consider adding a music selection to snack time as a part of the routine for preschoolers. They love to listen together or with a parent, and will likely clap or sing along. Having musical instruments of their own available increases the fun.
Lunch time: We are more likely to sit with our preschoolers at lunch time, so it can be an opportunity to share music that we love. We can chat about the kind of songs, the instruments, musical patterns, or simply tell the story of why we love them. Choosing new music from the library can make a fun, listening memory with our kids. Do we like the new CD or not? Why? Can we hear the tuba, or the piccolo? Can we hear a repeated line of music? Does it make us want to march, dance, cry or take a rest?
Afternoon rest time: Surprisingly, I vividly recall my own preschool nap time with affection. My teacher would play Disney recordings as we lay quietly on our mats. Cinderella was my favorite. Today there are so many delightful story/song recordings available. Now that I have school age children, listening to radio drama has often been a highlight of our homeschool day.
Dinner time: When my son was newborn, my husband would come home from work, put on a CD and recline in the chair with our son on his chest. They enjoyed hours of music together in this manner. By the time our boy was a toddler, he would flap and wave his arms gleefully when one of their favorite CDs was played. Those two share a close relationship. I suspect the shared music helped create their bond. Listening to music as a family at dinner time can create lifelong memories for kids. The winding down time right before or after dinner is also a good time listening to story or music recordings.
Bedtime: Bedtime routine lends itself naturally to music. Many kids like to fall asleep to a beloved lullaby CD. The calming effect of music is legendary. From Brahms lullabies to Jim Brickman piano solos, the options are endless. The challenge is to try some new ones now and then. Kids can fall in love with more than one bedtime CD.
Kids can never get enough of the sweet stuff of life, which includes music. So, how about giving them some more…please.
-posted by Donna Detweiler, whose musical taste is quite varied, but she has a sweet spot of bluegrass.
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