Toddler Music and Movement Fun

While I’ve been busy learning more about my homeschooling options, I’ve preoccupied myself with exposing my Drian to a lot of music and movement.  At this age (she’s turning 3 in just a few months), there’s so much for a little toddler to enjoy and learn about music.  And since music has been my lifeblood all these years, it’s been such a pleasure being able to share this love and joy with her.

Music and movement classes are highly recommended and wonderful for children my daughter’s age.  This is one of the books and CDs we’ve been enjoying together.

Disney has been such a big part of my childhood, and for sure, so many other parents are also sharing their love for Disney cartoons, movies, and music with their own kids.  I’m not any different.  My husband and I chanced upon this great CD filled with songs from Disney films.  Popping it into the cd player while in the car has been a good way to familiarize my child with the tunes, and to simply awaken in her a love for music.

One of Drian’s favorite movies is “The Sound of Music.”  Even in the car we play the music from the film, and she so loves it.  I do pray that she’ll continue to embrace and enjoy such wonderful pieces.  I find that listening to movie soundtracks is such a great way to share music with your child, since she can get to associate it with what she’s seen previously, and she gets to quickly absorb and memorize lyrics faster when exposed to the material often.

She’s at the stage where she is very active, and loves physical activities.  Movement is such an integral part of her development, which is why I’ve also taken it upon myself to get involved in developmental gym classes with her so I can encourage her to have fun and play while keeping tabs on regular exercise.

There’s this wonderful book I picked up  called “The Wiggle and Giggle Busy Book: 365 Fun, Physical Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers” by Trish Kuffner.    It’s a treasure trove of ideas for moms and dads and guardians who want to come up with activities that can help their children or wards enjoy fitness.

Music and rhyme connect with physical expression and this helps develop a child’s creativity.  Have been learning a lot about how I can really maximize music and movement for Drian’s development:

• Learning how to keep a steady beat in time is an essential precursor to toddler activities, like cutting paper, bouncing a ball, riding a bike, dancing, etc.  I let her use her egg shakers or tambourine and guide her in shaking the instruments to keep a steady rhythm.
• Dancing around to tunes, along with hopping and skipping and twirling and bouncing keep Drian on her feet (toes too! haha!) and help her expend her energy.
• Loud and soft, high and low, fast and slow are clearly contrasting sounds that are important in teaching timbre and tempo in music.  It also helps in letting your child know about how to identify these and make connections to the things he hears.  I point out all these when we listen to music, like if we are listening to a soft lullabye or a loud and energetic song.

We may not be following a formal homeschooling curriculum just yet, but the learnings that a child gets from music and movement are foundations for appreciation of art, love for fitness and physical activity, language development, creativity and so much more!