Music Mania

Music has never really been my thing.  I never mastered an instrument, and I don't need to have it on in the background.  In fact, I often get made fun of for my lack of musical interest.  In high school, I mostly only listened to music in the car and even then it wasn't the trendy stuff.  In college, I could not even come close to playing the recorder at the beginning level in my music for teachers class. (It. was. AWFUL.)  So to say music is not my thing is probably an understatement.

However, I know that music is important.  It can help in so many ways educationally, emotionally and spiritually.  (Hello! Can't even begin to touch on what the Bible says about the importance of music!)  So I have made it my goal to make sure that Olivia has music in her life.  We aren't going to a music class right now, and honestly with MOPS and The Little Gym it would probably be too much, so I am trying to do as much as I can at home.

One of the easiest ways to bring music to our every day life is to SING!  And sing we do.  Even if I didn't want to, I'm pretty sure Olivia would make me.  We have quite the list of songs we go through.  I try to do songs with motions or sign language so that we are using more than one of the multiple intelligences.  We also have this box set of nursery rhymes that is one of Olivia's favorites. She carries the books around and says "please".  She can open to most pages and know exactly what song goes with the pictures.  I can't get away with anything! :)

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 Some of her favorites are: Itsy Bitsy Spider, The More We Get Together, Old MacDonald, The Wheels on the Bus, The ABC's, Head and Shoulders, This is the Day, If You're Happy and You Know It, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Row Row Row your boat, You are my Sunshine, Jesus Loves Me, I've got the Joy of the Lord in my heart, This Old Man, I love you/You love me, and many many more!

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I've mentioned her dog VIOLET before.  She really loves it and will often turn on music by pressing Violet's paws.  We have random jam sessions throughout the day thanks to Violet.  Olivia's favorite is the song that spells out her name.  Violet always leads to dancing and lots and lots of clapping!

We have the Melissa and Doug box set of INSTRUMENTS that we use sometimes.

There are a lot of "educational" toys that I keep put away and bring out every once in a while for a "learning" session.  These are one of those items.  First of all, because they need to have supervision when being used.  Second, if they are put away and then brought out randomly, they are more special.  Then "learning" seems fun and exciting!  She loves these instruments.  Sometimes I give her the whole box to explore and play with and sometimes I choose one instrument (or set of) and focus on it.

Another way we bring music into our day is by playing the XYLOPHONE.  She's not always as interested in this toy as some of the others, but if I sit down and start playing it she makes a beeline over to me!

We also try to get to the MUSIC AND MOVEMENT class at the library.  It's free, so why not?!  Let's be honest, most baby and toddler "story times" end up being more music than anything anyway.  So even if your library doesn't have a music class, you can check out the story time and still get lots of fun music exposure.

Some days our music exposure comes from the TV. It's true.  We have 4 Praise Baby DVD's that we love.  We also have some music themed Baby Einstein DVD's that someone gave us.  It's nice to have the option of praise and worship or classical music.

Other days it comes from simply listening to music on PANDORA.  There is a Veggie Tale channel that has a mix of Christian music with Disney songs.  We like to have dance parties! :)

Even though THE LITTLE GYM is designed to do gymnastic skills and work on motor and social skills, there is actually still a lot of music that happens.  There is singing, movement, and music on in the background.  That's one reason why I chose it over just a straight gymnastics class at a gym or a straight music class at the rec center.  It sort of mixes both.

And of course, there is always the good old fashion POTS AND PANS bang. :)

(Pay no attention to the water damage on my pots.  I hate Texas water!)

There are a lot of simple, homemade instruments that can be whipped up in no time.  We haven't gotten there yet, but are just getting to the age where creating them would be fun.

Music may not be my thing... but who knows what it will do for Olivia!