Tina Harris is a mum of two, a musician, the director of a music school and best known for her role as Lah-Lah on Nickelodeon preschool channel Nick Jr. Now, lucky us, she’s adding Babyologist to the list! Life for parents is busy, crazy and full, but with a few words from Lah-Lah Land, we’ll find great ways to add a little music to your day. Here’s what Tina has to say…
Music is free and fun. Music is everywhere, it’s all around us. These words came out of my mouth on stage at a show last week and I thought, gosh it’s so true.
You know, one of the best gifts we can give our children is exposure to music and by that, I don’t mean just Mozart, but all kinds of music: jazz, pop, rock, indie, classical, etcetera.
Listening to a wide variety of music helps to improve your child’s ability to analyse and comprehend it. Best of all, it’s fun – good, clean, loud fun. So, next time you jump in the car or pop the kettle on, turn on the stereo, pop a CD in and let the music play.
When was the last time you had a dance in the kitchen? Now don’t laugh, this is something I often ask my music school families. Have a dance! Children learn from example. If they see you enjoying yourself to a tune or two, I guarantee they will join in. Do it now before you have teenagers in your house that are too embarrassed to dance with mum or dad. It sneaks up on you faster than you think, I’m now finding out.
Grab some pots and pans or the softer, more neighbour-friendly version, plastic containers. Add a wooden spoon or two and you have an instant homemade percussion kit. Turn up the music and jam along. Children love to explore a beat and giving them a few tools to interact with opens up countless possibilities of how to produce different sounds and groove along to a new beat.
Music is fun and it’s something you can do with the whole family. Let me know how you go.
Tina, Lah Lah’s Big Live Band.
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3 Comments
My 2yr old daughter and I play a game called ‘low low low, la la la’ It’s a very easy…someone calls in a deep voice ‘low low low’ then the other responds in a lovely soprano ‘la la la’. We use it to find each other around the house.
Oh and we dance to the washing machine and the rhythmic sound of the coffee machine warming up, actually we dance to anything. And if there’s nothing to dance to, we clap. And dance, and sing mmm bee bee mmm bee bee YAY!
Just to add to the previous comment…I introduce music to my child, all different sorts and let her find the styles she likes. The games we play come from things that I’ve overheard her do and I’ve run with them and formalised them. It’s my homage to her early compositions. I’m sure ‘Mmm bee bee YAY!’ is going to win an Aria one day.
I also think ditty singing is great. We have a ditty for most things as well, we even sing ‘going to bonnie doon’ when we don’t know where we’re going.
Hi Kanook, (I hope you don’t mind me calling you Kanook :)
dancing to the washing machine, fabulous, I love it, especially the spin cycle, it actually has a great groove. All the thinks you have listed in your comment are so great. Music fun at your house sounds brilliant. It’s such a natural way for us to play and interact with our little ones and child lead activities are wonderful, this ‘scaffolding’ approach creates such a wonderful confidence in young children, all ideas are great ideas and exploring them can lead to infinite fun imaginary play.
You’re place rocks
TIna x