Music and Games

I love music and it has always been a big part of my life.
I play the oboe, guitar and piano and am learning the
dulcimer.

LD started learning the piano earlier this year and is
doing really well. Still, I wanted the girls to get to sing,
dance and enjoy music as well. I set aside two different
times to do music activities during the week. One is
more for ED and the other is geared a bit more for
the older kids (that said, they all participate in most everything).

We used to attend Kindermusik classes, but unfortunately
Kindermusik is not offered here in town anymore. So, we
do things on our own!



















In the picture above we are playing Here We Go Round the
Mulberry Bush. We played it musical chairs style so that
when we finished singing the song, someone sat in the chair.

The next time we played the squirrel and fox version
(as we are studying the forest biomes!). Each person got
a card with a number on it. Then we set all the cards aside,
one number was placed separately from the others. We sang
the song, one person sat down then we revealed the card. If
the person sitting's number was set aside then he/she was
a fox and did not get a point. If his/her number was not
set aside then s/he was a squirrel and won the round.

Below are some of the instruments we use for our music
activities--playing rhythm sticks or jingle bells to music,
dancing with scarves, etc. ED really likes songs that
bounce her on my knee or lift her into the air (you can
do this to songs/poems like Ride a Cock Horse to 
Banberry Cross or The Grand Old Duke of York.

If you haven't checked out Kididdles.com they have lots of children's songs. They have the lyrics to most any children's song you can think of and you can play many of the songs if you don't remember the melody.

Here's a website that has a lot of fingerplay songs that you
can do with your toddler or young preschooler:
songsforteaching.com  or  Finger Plays Here or Here.

Here are some action and movement songs from the same website - songs for teaching. You might not want to order their albums, but the website has the lyrics and will give you ideas of dances, songs and actions you can do with your kids that you probably already know. For example, they change the words to a Tisket-a-Tasket slightly and turn it into a little game to toss balls into a basket.