Simple Music for Babies & Toddlers

Many of us know the benefits of introducing music to children at a young age. There have been tons of studies done about the positive effects of music on children’s brains as they are quickly absorbing and learning everything around them. But besides all of that, music is just plain fun! It’s something anyone can participate in, even infants.

Well, today we wanted to share some really easy and practical ways we have incorporated music into our daily lives! I hope some of these might give you ideas of what you can do with the children in your life as well!

Listening to Music

This is one of the easiest ways to expose children to music – just have it playing around the house! Here are some of our current personal favorites to listen to:

• children’s Bible songs
• King’s Singers CD’s
• 40’s Junction on Serius XM (Big Band, jazz standards, swing)
• Nuryl – this is a paid listening app we subscribe to. It has quality music which is interesting & stimulating to listen to. It also incorporates ear training which is a hit for us musicians!
• Classical Music records to play on our record player

We tend to make listening to music an active rather than completely passive activity. For instance, KC has a favorite piece on 40’s Junction called “The Bunny Hop”. We try to help him to anticipate when his favorite part repeats each time in the song, and sing, “Hop, Hop, Hop!” Or, we might mention that a certain piece sounds fast, or slow, happy, or like a rainy day. Now that we’ve mentioned things like this so much, often KC will point something out that he hears on his own.

Playtime

During playtime, we have some toys that the kids like to play with that have musical elements.  Although the tunes can be repetitive and annoy us parents at times, these are some of the first melodies and tunes that our kids recognize! So we might as well embrace them.

Some of our electronic toys include:

• Sit-to-Stand Learning  Walker
• Ice Cream Truck
• Cat Piano
• Electronic Guitar
• Electronic Piano

And then we have some acoustic toy instruments as well such as:

• Toy piano
• Ukulele
• Melissa & Doug instruments – Triangle, Castanets, Bell Shakers, etc.
• Kazoo
• Old kid’s guitar
• Recorder

We do also let the kids play around on our real pianos as well & explore sounds for fun.

Specific Routine Songs

Songs are great to help create routines for children! Here are a few of ours that we do:

• diaper changing – We sing, “It’s Time to change your diaper now” to the tune of Haydn’s Surprise Symphony
• bathtime – Our favorites are “Baby Beluga”, which Krysten’s Grandma used to sing to her, and “Splish Splash”
• good night songs – “Good Night” by the Beatles, or “Count Your Blessings” from “White Christmas“

Other Activities

• Encouraging singing around the house (This comes naturally to us, Krysten tends to be singing or humming things all day long!)
• Using & teaching solfege (Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, Do!). We sing simple melodies using solfege and try to have KC repeat back.
• Rhythm – We help the boys to tap the beat of the music. We sway back and forth to the music, and sometimes dance around too when inspired!

So there ya go! Some tips and ideas for introducing babies & toddlers to music. What did I miss? What is some of your favorite music fun to do with your children?