Age: 3-7 years
I define music as ‘unseen beauty’. It lifts our spirits, brings fun and creativity into life, sounds pleasant to our ears and can even calm our mind. It is the only universal language heard across the world in the same manner. Music is healing in nature and introducing music to your child early on in life has great benefits:
- Early sense of rhythm
- Expands creative realm
- Improves sense of hearing because each instrument sounds different
- Inculcates love for singing, dance, instruments
- Prepares the ground for a great hobby
- Improves academic skills in – math, reading, language
- Creates space for self-expression: Music can help your child express herself emotionally
- Greatly improves fine and gross motor skills + hand-eye-brain co-ordination. Each instrument requires one to use different sets of skills or body parts. This helps ‘awaken’ our body and mind.
- Inculcates values of patience and discipline since instruments require step by step direction. It improves organization skills.
- Enhances self-confidence: the ability to create something meaningful or productive is an important factor in self-confidence
- Provides opportunity for stage performances or self-expression in groups. Creates possibility of a substitute or major career later in life.
On my daughter’s 3rd birthday, Musical Instruments was on the ‘Wish List’ for gifts and we did fill her drawer with a range of instruments. She has and still thoroughly enjoys these instruments.
Note closely some of these instruments we have made at home: the drum is originally a rolled wafer box. We attached paper, colored it and added stickers for decoration. The straws have been cut in descending order of length and then taped together. As we blow into each straw, each one makes a different sound. The shaker is made at her school from paper cups glued together with bells inside. One can make a guitar from tissue paper box – a hollow in the middle wrapped with rubber bands as strings.
METHODS OF PLAY:
EXPLORING: Lay the instruments out and allow your children to explore them. They may swiftly move from one instrument to another in an attempt to explore or may be stuck at one or two. Whatever they do, just let your children be. They are building a relationship with music and musical instruments and at the beginning stages of building any relationship there is going to be exploration. After exploring for 4-5 days, ask your children which instruments they like and which they do not like and why.