Toddler Music

Toddler music is terrific for your toddler's development. Toddler music, drama and dance can all be combined in playing to music.

Keep your toddler music activities simple and a regular part of your toddler's day.

Some toddler music activities for enhanced development:

• Put on some music that you and your toddler both enjoy to get your toddler moving. Any kind of music will do although more familiar tunes work best.
• Warm up on the ground with your toddler and start crawling, seat sliding, rolling and toddling.
• Join your toddler and jump, run, gallop and skip around the room together.
• While you are moving, you can sing along, or beat a box with a wooden spoon, play the maracas or xylophone, whatever appeals to your toddler.
• Sing simple nursery rhymes or silly made up songs while you are changing nappies, looking after children in the bath, drying your child, and driving the car.
• Let your child play, make noise and create music with home made and bought instruments. Choose rattles and bells that are safe and comfortable for your toddler to play.
• Provide your child with simple props such as scarves, hankies, hats, puppets and instruments to use in toddler music time.
• Sing some well known favorite, active songs for your toddler to enjoy, for example Heads and Shoulders, Knees and Toes, Dr Knickerbocker, This Old Man, Rock A Bye Your Bear. If You're Happy and You Know It..
• Sing songs about animals, events, stories or people to your child, try to add actions that help them learn the tunes, Five Little Ducks, Michael Finnegan, Incy Wincy Spider, There's A Hole In The Bucket.
• Encourage your child to listen to your singing or what is going on in the music. Listening carefully to the words helps your toddler develop skills in imitating voices and sounds.
• Toddlers are not too young to try some art appreciation. Whether it is music or pictures, you can encourage them to talk about what they like and which is their favourite part and which ones they really enjoy. You can sing the words to particular story books to add another dimension to story time.