Thinking Thursdays: Making music

Each morning after breakfast, Junior J gets some playtime before he goes down for his morning nap.  So far, we usually read a book, followed by some time where we make "music" (ok, for the person living below us, its probably more like noise, but hey, he may just turn out to be the next Mozart!).  It all started off when the hubby mentioned about how important music was to Man, since we have specific areas in the brain that are active when we listen to music.  I thought it'll be good for the boy to have some time to have fun while listening to music (while in a sense, "interacting" with the songs instead of just playing music in the background), so I've dedicated the morning hour to this...

I turn on his CD of Sunday school songs, and help him to take his drum and home-made rattles off the shelf, and let him shake, rattle and roll to his heart's content.  To date, I've added more "instruments" to the mix: More plastic bottle rattles as well as a tambourine.  The rattles are really easy to make, and you can fill them with just about anything, even "junk" like the leftovers circles of paper in the hole-puncher (which he loves examining since I used different coloured paper).  As for the tambourine, I used one that was sitting around collecting dust, and they can be easily bought from any music store (toy versions may not be very good, since some use paper for the beating surface, and ends up tearing, especially with kids who don't know any better!).

Ah, there are other musical instruments one could make from recycled materials: Drink can rattles filled with beans, or small bells attached to paper plates... Or you could just use the classic cooking pot and ladle... The possibilities are endless, so I'd better stop rambling now!