Singing: The first instrument a child can master is his or her own voice. It is through singing that children develop their sense of pitch. Be careful having children sing songs with jazzed up accompaniments. A young child’s untrained ear has a hard time knowing which, of the many pitches they are hearing, is the right pitch to sing. Stick to simple folk songs with simple accompaniments for singing. Singing acapella is wonderful. Sing books to your children. To help strengthen the coordination between the brain hemispheres have your children make up their own words to songs, try to vary the tempo and dynamics of your singing. Help your child learn to color their language by conveying emotion through how they sing. Explore singing loud, soft, happy, sad, etc. You can also help them build their musical vocabulary by using words like forte and pianissimo, rather than loud and soft, or legato and staccato in place of smooth and bumpy. When they are angry or excited see if you can get them to sing their emotions to you. You can try it too. It's a great way to help diffuse anger or frustration and help improve communicate. When my children were younger, I found that singing instructions or directions really made them stop and listen to what I was saying.
