For most adults, recalling the alphabet goes hand-in-hand with singing the tune, as do many of the concepts we learned in school. For musical kids, this effect is even more pronounced. Chat with your child about some of the language
Autobiographical Cube
Inspired by an activity in Multiple Intelligences in the Elementary Classroom: A Teachers Toolkit by Susan Baum, Julie Viens and Barbara Slatin. Take a square box (or die) and put 4 of your child’s FAVORITE multiple intelligences on the sides
Dancing Outside the Box
Adapted from several online resources, including ArtsWork. When many of us picture ourselves dancing, we think of movements inside a small box (prom-style)–or moving side-to-side with small arm movements close to our bodies. And even for kids that have attended
Personal Soundtracks
I don’t know about you, but my favorite cassettes and CDs as a kid were the movie soundtracks. They were the ones that best “put me in the mood” for whatever it was I needed to get accomplished…or however I
Family Theme Song
Decide on a piece of music that will be your family “theme song”. What about it made your children choose that song? The lyrics? The tempo? The melody? How about theme songs for each individual family member? Extra Credit: Have your
Make It Your Mission! Part 3
Plan a date, time and place to have a gathering to talk to other “like minded people” in your community about your personal mission. Use your visual/spatial, interpersonal and/or verbal smarts to create one or more of the following to
Summer Reading Recommendations for the “Music Smart” Child
All ages: Story of the Orchestra : Listen While You Learn About the Instruments, the Music and the Composers Who Wrote the Music! By Robert Levine. The book is divided into two major parts: composers and their associated musical periods,
The International Language
Play a song in a language that your child doesn’t know in a style that appeals to him/her. What does it sound like the singer might be talking about? What is it about the music that makes him/her think so? The
Rhythm Nation
Talk about the different types of notes (whole, half, quarter, eighth, sixteenth) as well as the time signature or meter. Talk about how, just like in math, each measure has to make up the number of beats in the time
Hearing in Color
Using a pitch pipe, have your child picture different colors as you play each note on the scale (e.g. red for C, orange for D, yellow for E, green for F, aqua for G, blue for A, purple for B).