“As a parent, I want my child to be introduced to the world of music from an early age. Music is a language, and just as a child picks up English by observing and listening to those around her, she can also develop proficiency in music if she is exposed to it often enough.”
As a music educator with The Music Circle, parent-preneur and mother to an 18 month girl, Sylvia Seow keeps a very busy schedule. Nonetheless, she makes it a point to create opportunities for her child to be exposed to arts activities.
Increase Your Child’s Musical Engagement
“My daughter loves music and moving to the beat. So I sing with her and play all kinds of music for her, from classical to pop. I think it’s important to expose the child to many different forms of music.”
Apart from listening to music, Sylvia also recommends incorporating a range of activities into your child’s musical exposure.
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“Including singing, movement, play and creativity in your child’s musical exposure increases their level of musical engagement,” says Sylvia who plays the flute and was previously a music teacher in a Secondary School.
“One of the activities that I enjoy doing with my daughter at home is a sound matching game that helps to develop her listening skills. These are the elements of learning we have included across our programmes for preschoolers at The Music Circle.”
Try This at Home: Sound Matching Activity
- Put different objects into opaque plastic containers. Each object should make a different sound when rattled against the container. Try using rice, paper clips and soft objects.
- Make a pair of containers for each object.
- Shake a plastic container and have your child find the other container with the matching sound.
- With a younger toddler, start with two pairs of matching containers. Introduce more containers as he or she gets better at it.
- You can also associate the sound containers with colours. To increase the level of difficulty, make sound containers in different colours and have your child match both sound and colour.
First published in May 2017.
