Summer is the perfect time to bring music-making and nature together. Young children love exploring the world around them—from animals to plants to weather—and they love creating sound. In Kindermusik, we have a song for everything, turning your ordinary day into a musical summer day! Try these easy family activities to add a lovely tune to your day.
Gardening Grows the Mind
Start by introducing your little one to gardening and growing their own vegetables. Even if you’ve got a picky eater, your child may be more interested in eating what they grew themselves. Plus, it doesn’t get any healthier or more delicious than fresh-picked foods from your own garden (or windowsill). Leafy greens such as spinach, lettuce, swiss chard, kale or collard greens are easy to grow and don’t need much care.A great song that you can sing while you plant your seeds is “Savez Vous planter le choux?” (Can You Plant a Cabbage Seed?)
Change the “cabbage” to whatever it is you are planting, such as “Can you plant a spinach seed?” Take the same tune of that song and add new words for each step of the planting like, “Can you cover it with dirt, just like this…” then, “can you water the seed a bit, just like this” and so on.
Create a Buzz with Imaginative Play
Point out all the different types of plants you see—at the park, in your backyard, or around the neighborhood. Talk about the colors of flowers and take a minute to stop and smell the roses!
“Did you find any bees hiding in there?”
Engage in some pretend play and spark your child’s acting skills by acting out this short poem put to a soundscape.Listen carefully to the music and discover how it sounds like bees flying around exploring. Place a hula hoop, blanket, or towel on the ground as the “hive” and have your child buzz like a bee. Then move from flower to flower, pretending to collect nectar to bring back to the hive.
Engage Picky Eaters in Playful Picnic Time
Pack a lunch of finger foods and spread them out on a blanket. Talk to your child about the different food you packed. What color is it? Is it soft or crunchy? Is it sweet or salty? Remember that everything is new to young minds!
Does your child seem to have an aversion to certain foods? Sometimes a fun chant or song seems to make it go down a little bit easier. Try singing along together to Food Is Good, inserting the name and color of whatever food you are eating. “Broccoli, broccoli, green and good…yum, yum, yummy yum yum!”
Practice Taking Turns with the Call and Response of Birds
Can you spot a robin outside? Sing “Mister Robin” with your child a few times. The call-and-response in this song helps children understand conversational speech, as they begin to learn that back and forth conversations are based on “my turn, your turn.”Once you sing it through a few times, your older toddler or preschool-aged child may be able to do the echo back to you!
Teach Inner Calm through the Beauty of Butterflies
Snuggle up with your little one and just watch the clouds roll by. One of the best things we can teach children is to learn how to relax and unwind.
Listening to music is an easy yet powerful way to reset our minds and emotions. Take a few deep breaths, find your own inner calm so that you can pass it on to your child, turn on “My Butterfly Wings” and enjoy a cuddle or some rocking time together.
