Halloween is a celebration that has been growing in popularity over the years. In our little community we have had a lovely tradition each year where most of the houses in the streets near us decorate the front of their houses, and on one Sunday afternoon near to Halloween all of the families who want... Continue Reading →
Ukulele Challenge Update Weeks 5-7
An update to our learn to play ukulele challenge.
Lullabies I Have Sung To My Children
Babies love the sound of their parents’ voices more than any one else’s voice. Singing babies to sleep is such a lovely way to end the day. Here are some songs I sang to my children to try to get them to sleep.
Making DIY Castanets
Learn how to make your own homemade pair of castanets from items you already have at home.
Spotlight on glockenspiel
A spotlight on the glockenspiel. A first musical instrument for children in the tuned percussion family.
Ukulele Challenge Week 3
This week’s ukulele challenge update. Discussing my 6 year old son’s progress learning to play ukulele.
Spotlight on tambourine
Spotlight on tambourine, a great first percussion instrument. What is a tambourine and how to play it
Music Book Review: Debi Gilori’s Nursery Rhymes
When I first had my son, my eldest, was home from the hospital,everyone had been to visit and we found ourselves alone for the first time, I thought I would sing to him. I was a musician and had spent a lot of time at school and Uni singing so I must know what to... Continue Reading →
Music Book Review: Usborne Listen and Learn Musical Instruments
Today’s Music Book Review is Listen and Learn Musical Instruments from Usborne Books. We do have quite a lot of Usborne books at home. They are quite fantastic for young children - and that is my experience so far as my eldest is 6 years old as I write this. My recommendations may change as... Continue Reading →
Music Book Review: Baby’s Bedtime Music Book
A review of Usborne’s Baby’s Bedtime Book of Music. This week’s review of a book about music for children.
Music to burn off some energy
A playlist of songs to help children burn off some energy. Great songs for children to dance to at home.
Concert Review: B’Opera Relaxed Concert, Teddy Bear’s Picnic
A review of a Relaxed Concert from the Birmingham based children’s music company B’Opera
Music Book Review: My Favourite Things
A review of the book “My Favourite Things” from The Sound of Music.
Counting songs
Music is fantastic for learning. As a student I would often struggle to remember texts I was supposed to learn, and would absolutely not be able to tell you about any of the stuff I learned today; but song lyrics I heard in my teenage years, even younger, can flood back in an instant as... Continue Reading →
Ukulele challenge week 1
We have done the first week of our ukulele challenge, how have we got on? My son, who is in Year 1, went back to school last week which is why I thought it was a good time to start this challenge- we had to start a new after school routine anyway with needing to... Continue Reading →
8 Happy Songs
For this week’s playlist, we have a selection of very happy songs, or pieces of music. These are all fun, bubbly, joyful works that will have you up and dancing and maybe even singing or humming along to them. If you ever need a pick me up, these would all be ideal to listen to.... Continue Reading →
9 Songs for Summer
A playlist of 9 songs for summer.
Music Book Review: Usborne Peep Inside a Fairy Tale – The Nutcracker
A review of the book Peep Inside The Nutcracker publishes by Usborne Books. This week’s #musicbookreview
Music Book Review: First Book about the Orchestra
A review of the book First book about the Orchestra published by Usborne Books.
Ukelele Challenge
Ukelele is a great first instrument for children to learn. It is small, so a good size for small hands, it has 4 strings, so is not overly complicated, it is quite easy to play, and you only have to learn a few chords before you can start to play tunes you know and like.... Continue Reading →
It’s Oh So Quiet
A quick little post from me this morning. My children have gone back to nursery/school this morning and the house is so very quiet without them! There have been times over this last 3 months when I have longed for some time alone, a break from the amazing amount of noise they can make, a... Continue Reading →
Making a DIY hand drum
Making a hand drum out of items you have at home. Keeping the children busy with screen free activities.
Making a DIY cardboard box guitar
Another incredibly simple instrument to have a go at making at home this week. Today we have a box guitar! Now you can make these guitars as fancy or as plain as you like. We opted for plain so we could get on with using them- the children couldn’t wait to use them! You can... Continue Reading →
How music has been helping us through homeschool
So it is the end of week 6 of lockdown for us, and the end of the first week that we have had organised home learning from school. I had thought that it would help us enormously having access to a full timetable of activities from school for my eldest, and his teachers have clearly... Continue Reading →
Making DIY straw and foil shaker
Making easy musical instruments with children, to keep children busy during the corona lockdown.
Making DIY Lego shaker
Making DIY Lego shaker. An instrument my 5 year old was able to make entirely independently.
Making DIY windchimes
How to make indoor beaded windchimes from things you may already have at home.
Making DIY panpipes
Another fun activity to do at home with your little ones while we are all on lockdown. Today I made panpipes using only items that I found in the drawers at home. To make panpipes at home you will need to collect together: Straws. We had a stock of plastic straws at home. Paper ones... Continue Reading →
Learning musical notation
If you have read this blog before you will know that I decided to use this time to teach my children some music. One of the things I wanted to teach my 5year old was how to start reading musical notation. You can read more about starting to teach him about this here. In a... Continue Reading →
Preparing for homeschool
A post about preparing to homeschool while social distancing, and about listening to music while playing