Sounds are one of the first experiences that a baby has of the world around them, whilst still in the womb. A newborn baby will turn towards it’s mother’s voice. From that point on, words, sounds, music and noise play such a vital role in babies development and help with language learning. This weeks baby play is T’s ventures into music.
T making music with the maracas
I love music and play either at a basic level or quite advanced a variety of different instruments and making music and singing has always been a part of the day first with J and now with both J and T. We have children’s CD’s which we put on for crafting at bedtime and in the car as well as sing songs all of the time. Every now and then I get out our musical instrument collection. This is a combination of store brought and home made instruments and I mix them in with some household objects.
T making her own music
How we make the fun happen
Today I was able to spend some dedicated time with T whilst J painted and I set up our musical instruments and household objects on the floor between the two of us and had on a Nursery Rhyme CD on. I started to sing and tap the drum in time, T quickly joined in with the taping of the drum and then picked up the bottle shaker that I had made and started to shake it and then bang it against the drum.
T using our bottle shaker
Our bottle shaker is very easy to make. It’s a small plastic bottle that I washed out and left to dry. Then I filled with a small amount of rice and pasta put the lid on and then used masking tape to secure the lid in place. I made this when J was 5/6 months old and it’s used regularly and still working fine.
T likes to mix up the music and create her own sounds
I found it fascinating to watch and join in with T as she combined different instruments – unlike a child or adult she has no preconceptions over what you should or shoudln’t do with instruments so above she is playing the xylophone with the tambourine and it made a unique sound combination but she liked it and played it for quite a while.
T isn’t restricted by conventions of music play and combines different tools to make the sounds
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We brought our music drum for J last Christmas and it’s been really great, it has lots of different instruments in which I take out depending on who is playing them – the whistle and trumpet really wouldn’t be suitable for T at the moment however the tambourine, cymbals, drum and maracas are excellent. T likes to combine household objects with the store brought instruments – she loves wooden spoons and it was interesting to see her change hands and move the spoon around to make different sounds although for her it was a definite the louder the better.
Our music making isn’t restricted to drums and homemade sound makers
T must have enjoyed our music making this afternoon as later in the day I found her singing whilst shaking a set of keys that made a lovely noise (well they do if you are a 10 month old).
Discover our Homemade Music Instruments we used with T when she was a baby.
Cerys Parker
Cerys is a marine biologist, environmental educator, high school teacher and mum. Realising that life doesn’t have to be put on hold and you don’t just have to survive whilst the kids are young she shares ideas to inspire you to LIVE with the kids, with activities to do together, recipes to cook and enjoy and family travel to make memories to last a lifetime.
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Cerys Parker#molongui-disabled-link
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Cerys Parker#molongui-disabled-link
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Cerys Parker#molongui-disabled-link
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Cerys Parker#molongui-disabled-link
Science Sparks says
I must start to do some music ply with the twins. They would love it.
Thanks for linking to Science Sparks
Brooke, let kids create says
I love the story your photos tell. Yes, kids do love music and noise in general. We had quite a band of unusual “instruments” making noise in our house the other day with random household items. Thanks for sharing on Monday Madness.