Activities with music for babies

As we told you when celebrating International Music Day, we continue to give you ideas to enjoy music with the kids of the house, in this case focusing on the different activities with music suitable for children of each age.

It is always pleasant and stimulating to listen to music, and this at any age. But the activities with music that can be used to favor the child's brain development, will depend on the stage of maturation in which he is. That is why there is a series of musical skills that are acquired according to the age of the baby or child.

In addition, there are certain musical themes that can fit perfectly with your age, although we must always leave room for our own tastes, ours, and yours as they are manifested.

From newborn to two months

Activities: lullabies, preferably sung by parents, and recorded music attending to the musical elements according to the listening and maturational development of these ages, such as short-term, slow tempo and preferably instrumental music.

Examples for this age are:

  • Mendelssohn: "A Midsummer Night's Dream": Dance of the Clowns
  • Mozart “Contradanza KV 535. The Battle”
  • Haydn "Symphony No. 101, The Clock" Andante.
  • Boccherini “Minuetto of the quintet for rope”
  • Beethoven "Septimino", op. 20 tempo of minuetto
  • Brahms "Lullaby"

It is advisable that the sung voice of the parents take into account musical elements such as intensity (volume) and timbre (voice of the mother or father), and observe the changes that occur in the baby when changing the intensity of the voice when addressing him, finding the right point.

Activities with music for babies from two to four months

The baby interacts with the music, reacts bodily to sound stimuli, imitates and explores. Four-month-old babies are interested in an increasingly wide world. They interact with their body, respond to rhythmic patterns.

Activities: presentation of a musical object, since the baby can at this age follow it with his gaze, while the adult chases a rhythm singing a simple children's song, such as: "under a button", "bell of the place", " five little wolves ”or any other song of their culture.

We can also use a music CD, and keep up with a small percussion instrument (rattle, maraca, tambourine ...) pausing in order to get your attention.

Four to six months

Children of this age explore their body, discover and intentionally look at their hands, vocalize, babble. After five months, with the development of fine motor skills, they lay hands on objects to take things. By interacting with the environment, in this case sound and musical, the psychomotor development of the baby is favored

Activities: Songs that maintain attention to body segments, such as gestured songs, are appropriate. The response time of the baby's action must be taken into account. Music offers the vehicle to understand what the world and adults present to their eyes and senses, since the baby will learn from the gestures and movements of the model that the adult presents.

From six months to a year

At this stage, mobility and exploration of the world increases. The outsourcing of the movement begins, incorporating the use of the object. They can keep up with a song with body movements. Children at these ages begin to make spontaneous songs and imitate rhythmic sound patterns.

Activities: musical games with small percussion instruments, such as drums and xylophones, because at this age they can already play an instrument with both hands using drumsticks.

Also the games of movement in the arms of the adult or sitting, ("sawdust will saw", "the horse walks forward" ...), provide the child with stimulation at various levels such as listening to a song and having a consistent body movement to the rhythm of it.

Listening and making music at these ages is an always fun game. We hope this proposal from activities with music for babies Encourage you to continue benefiting from family music.