Bonding with your children over music is a highly rewarding experience for both of you. Music has a special way of releasing inner creativity and hidden talents waiting to come to the surface. It can evoke emotion and teach regulation alongside being a wonderful channel for general expression. Children up to around eleven years old can acquire musical knowledge and skill sets in a unique way, and the experience is wholly enriching. This guide has seven ways you can explore music with your children.
Sing With Them
Singing is one of the most natural things a parent will do with their child. Whether you are the sort of person who sings every day about everything, or you are more reluctant in this department, it is a great way of connecting and nurturing. It can teach a routine and emotion and is just a fun thing to do as well. Nursery rhymes exist for a reason, and they are a great thing to share with your child!
Through Dancing
Your child doesn’t have to go dancing lessons to practice their steps. Put some tunes on, try a different genre every time, and just let their inner dancer release. Have a dance party together or just sit back and let them feel their way through it by themselves. Dance is an excellent way to stay physically healthy and children will have a great time jumping around and practicing their moves. It may even inspire them to pursue dance instruction when they are a bit older.
Listen to Music Regularly
There is a whole wide world of music out there waiting for little ears to discover. You are the portal to that discovery, especially in the early stages of their life aka the preschool years. Have music playing in the background, put it on in the car, and generally make sure that your kids are being exposed to a range of styles and genres. This is how they discover what they love and what they don’t and it can help shape their language around music later in life.
Go to Concerts
When your children get a bit older, concerts are a great entertaining evening for both of you. It is a special event and should be treated as such, but a concert outing is definitely a milestone experience. Having that moment together will not only be invaluable to you as their parent but to them when they look back later on.
Explore Instruments Together
When children are small, for instance, 0-2 years, there is limited exploration they can do with musical instruments. However, these are the percussion years and the using their voice days that can still be a valuable and entertaining learning journey too. When they reach about three and upwards (particularly after five) they are going to be able to manage some different styles of instruments. Dexterity-wise, you have to wait until you’re around six or seven to really give it a good go, but you can still explore renting instruments vs. purchasing them outright while your kid finds out where their passion lies. Try to find a trumpet for rent price and compare it to other options to give them a full, informed experience.
Play Musical Games
There are so many musical games you can uncover together for any stage of development. Early music lessons, much like the majority of other educational experiences, rely on creativity and imaginative outlets to enhance learning. Stuck for ideas? Check out the list below.
- Simple clap and copy games are fun ways to expand the mind about rhythm concepts.
- Echolalia vocals are where you sing and they sing it back or even try to harmonize.
- Making up new words to a traditional tune like Old McDonald.
- Musical bumps where they get to dance around until the music stops then they have to sit down fast on the floor.
- Music quizzes with older children.
- The animal dancing challenge is great for any age.
Try Out Whistling
Finally, it might be fun to try whistling. It is one of those somewhat fundamental skills that everyone seems to pick up over time. Actively teaching whistling is quite difficult because the concept is mostly innate. However, it can be done with patience and time. Your child will never stop once they start, so make sure your ears are ready!
Exploring music with your child is a great thing to do for any caregiver or parent. There is so much to find together and the exploration can happen over several years. You will never run of out musical activities to do together, and it can always be a special thing that you share.
