Music

This is silly I know. This is one of our music boxes. This one has toys from the dollar store in it. We use them all the time. In my house we use musical instruments we make ourselves from bottles, beans, tissue boxes, rubber bands, toilet paper cores, paper plates, and stuff like that more than any of our store bought musical stuff. We use musical toys from the dollar store almost as much. This is the sad part.... The expensive stuff we have doesn't get used much! I wish I would have saved all that money!! We are not the best at making music! Some would say it sounds like LOUD NOISE! We do have fun with it. I like to use music to break up our day. Right now my daughter has learned slow/fast, loud/soft, names of instruments,and to clap or stomp to the music. We have fun with it if she doesn't want to play along we all will follow her lead. My son uses a simple learn to play piano book and a cheap keyboard ($5-$10 from walmart) for some of his music lessons. He also has a learn to play the recorder set. I DON'T ever FORCE music lessons. I let the children have music time when they choose. I do suggest it often and most of the time they say yes. I feel that if I keep it fun that eventually they will find an instrument that they want to play and they will enjoy it. My son is 6 and the fine motor in playing an instrument is hard for him still so I try to keep it short and fun.

Our favorite music time is "Parties". We have what we call a music party often. When my DD uses the potty we have a music party. After hand washing and cheers of joy she marches us over to the music boxes and we all pick out a small instrument (noise maker) to play. She gets to lead us around the house in a marching band kind of thing. Some would say our "potty parties" don't sound like a marching band at all. LOL! We have music parties for lots of things. When my son finishes a level in a school book, when he gets a perfect score on a hard page, birthdays, any holiday (even flag day), and my favorite manners! When I see a child using good manners we will have a marching band with the polite child at the front leading us. It does seem to show my children that I am very happy with what they did and encourage them to do it more. My son likes to shout out STOP, MARCH, TURN RIGHT, TURN LEFT,HALT, and TO THE SIDE kind of thing when he leads us. When hubby is leading our marching band he likes to have us step up on chairs and jump over toys and duck under tables along the way. I like to sing when I lead I try to add in some dance moves! LOL! We must be a goofy thing to see!