Music Man
Music plays such a huge roll in Harry's little life. From the time he gets up in the morning, he is bouncing or clapping or shaking his shakers or maracas to his own beat!
Music is so important for whole child development; from social-emotional, cognitive, language and literary as well as physical development, hence why I have been taking Harry to music classes on a weekly basis for the past 6 months now. We like to go to Monica and Andy's Tunes with Tim class.
Music helps refine their little listening and auditory processing skills. It also promotes memory and recall and through repetition can help build their vocabulary. It's so much easier to remember words when they are sung to memorable melodies and rhymes. Studies have shown that music has a profound impact on phonemic and phonological awareness which are vital skills involved in reading.
The use of musical instruments promotes gross motor development and through practice, helps to refine their muscle control. Aside from all of this, music just brings children, especially Harry, so much joy! His favourite silly rhyme right now is by his music teacher Mr Tim and it's called 'Little Green Frog'. This always makes Harry laugh so much! I use this video at home to pick him up if he gets fussy! Thanks Mr Tim! Keep making more YouTube videos!
This Christmas, my parents gifted him this great, floor-mat piano which he loves to step on in the mornings. I think it's from Mothercare, Ireland. My mother plays piano.....especially well after a couple of glasses of wine!!haha! She really wanted to instill a love of music in Harry so is delighted to hear he loves music too and is happy stomping away on this. The Piano is great, each time he steps on the key, it plays the note out-loud. This really helped motivate him to walk. It was also great when he was crawling as it would make all sorts of sounds as he crawled along it. Thank God there is a volume button!!
Symbols are great for banging and waking mammy and daddy up in the morning as well as double up for teething too as you can see!
Harry and I took a 'mother and baby' ukulele class at Old Town Folk Music School in Lincoln Park when he was just 6 months old. It was more for me to get me out of the house to be honest! He loves to hear his fav nursery rhymes played by mummy on the ukulele and then he grabs it from me to try and strum himself!
Piano from Fisher Price I picked up for 7 Dollars on Craigslist!
Another of Harry's favorites by Mr Tim is The Banana Boat Song! He bangs on his tambourine and shakes his little maracas to the beat while bouncing up and down. I thought I'd leave you all with this tune as it's so catchy and puts me in a great holiday mood! Enjoy!
Happy Friday Everyone!