Tuesday, March 1, 2011

DIY for Toddlers at Home: Making Music




You can scale down the larger exercise for making musical instruments with empty glass bottles and water to suit toddlers.

Material needed:
One empty glass bottle with a wide mouth (milk bottle, etc)
One small pitcher of water
Tiny teaspoon

Demonstrate pouring the water from the pitcher to the glass bottle, striking the bottle delicately with the spoon, listening to the note, adding more water, striking it again, and then emptying the water into the pitcher. Strike the bottle when it is empty, pour a bit more water in, strike again, and so forth. Your child will be eager to try.

A tip for working with really young children: Make your part of the demonstration short. Then let your child work with the material. Next time, you can show him or her a small extension to the initial exercise. The key point is to show, not tell. (Did you ever have someone try to tell you how to swing a golf club? If that worked, we'd all be pros).

No comments: