Let's Explore Our Voices

Here's a fun way to help your preschooler explore a very basic instrument: his or her voice. Demonstrate the steps below and invite your child to do the same:

• "This is my speaking voice" (spoken normally).


• "This is my quiet voice" (spoken in a whisper).


• "This is my calling voice" (spoken loudly).


• "This is my singing voice" (sung).

For more ideas about how to introduce your preschooler to music, check out this article at kidshealth.org. Developing your child's musical awareness during the preschool years is fun, easy, and inexpensive. Happy Frugal Friday!

The Creation

This is a sample of Musikgarten's recording of "The Creation," which we act out on the floor with interpretive movement in our older preschool classes. It's one of my favorites! As you listen, it's easy to imagine the movements young children come up with to "tell" this story with their bodies.

Click here to listen to The Creation.mp3
Recorded by: Howard Baer, Narrator, MIDI (Friends' in God's World)
© Musikgarten

Making Them Mind...With Music

Ever notice how easy it is to get things done with a child when you do it to song? They seem to tune right in when your instructions are in a song. I clued in to this phenomenon with our first child. Clothing and diaper changes seemed more like bonding time when we sang, “This is the way we change your diaper, change your diaper, change your diaper…to make you nice and clean!” It transformed our fussy baby into a smiling, cooing, playful boy during his least favorite activities.

Cleaning up is always more fun when we sing the “Clean Up” song. Children simply respond differently to music than to spoken directions. They are innately drawn to music, so parents, take advantage of it. Yes, people might look at you funny as you sing your way through the grocery store with small children in tow, but it’s worth it if it gets them through Publix with a sweet smile!

Cost to you: FREE! (Okay, it may cost you a little dignity, but it all depends on how you handle it...think Carmen Diaz in "My Best Friend's Wedding"-the karaoke scene, of course!)

For more frugal parenting ideas, check out Frugal Friday at Biblical Womanhood.