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Children Under 5 and Music Lessons
Many children under the age of 5 already have an appreciation of music ranging from classical, rock, jazz, children’s songs, you name it! Music feeds the soul, and for very young children it is no exception. Many parents take it as a sign that their child may be a budding Mozart, but they should take note that most children love to sing, dance, and make up songs. Some children are shy about it, and others practice their songs or little improvisations on the keyboard with great gusto!As a parent, relax and enjoy your child’s musical creativity. Don’t take it as a sign that you must enroll your child in every music class imaginable. Some creative 3 year old children just aren’t ready for private piano instruction or Suzuki violin classes. At this impressionable age many children may lose that special connection to their musical creativity and grow to dislike any type of structured musical instruction.
Most music instructors will agree that most children under the age of 5 still need time to develop mentally, physically, and emotionally as well as intellectually. Children are very sensitive and need some time to develop their creativity. At this stage of the game, parents should encourage and applaud their child’s attempts to sing, play made up songs on the piano, for example.
There are music classes designed especially for the very young child that have activities such as Kindermusik, where children enjoy singing, practicing rhythms, and moving to music and songs. Children love to move and express themselves, so a fun music class would be a great choice for your child to let out that creative energy.
Structured lessons can be for later when your child is experienced in a classroom situation. In a private lesson situation some very young children don’t have the attention span and get bored easily. Not only that, they need inspiration and movement to get their creative juices going at this stage of their development.
What you can do if you don’t want to start lessons yet? Make up your own fun imaginative music time with your child or children. Set up a special hour or half hour of taking turns making up tunes on the electric keyboard or piano. Get inventive and march around with some inexpensive noisemakers or cheap percussion instruments you can get online or from an education store.
It’s up to you as a parent to make an introduction to the music world as enjoyable as possible. Later they’ll thank you for it and remember it with very fond memories. Who knows, maybe in a couple of years they’ll ask for formal music lessons in an instrument they like!
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