Music is so important to each of us in this family. We have basically built a business and a life around music. Michael the Teacher and Me the Therapist! You would think that it would just become another thing that we do naturally with our daughter! I can’t even begin to tell you how hard it was to try and implement “music time” into our day. I feel extremely bad that aside from going to Kindermusik (which starts again in September!) and using the “at-home” CD’s, Farrah experienced very little EXTRA music time with Mommy and Daddy.
While I know the importance of Music First-hand (I work in Early Intervention Music Therapy), I am sad to say that I did not provide my daughter with that gift as early as a should have. Now that she is older and I can use the term “gentle hands” and she gets it, Music is becoming a staple in our daily activities. Of course, we have always either sang her to sleep, hummed a favorite tune during diaper time, or sang a song in the car, and allowed her to beat senseless on a drum, but a true, sit-down time for music was never in the cards.
Well, it is now, and she LOVES it! We dance and sing and I am teaching her some extra sign language to go along with some of her songs. Some days she is actively engaged in strumming the guitar, or tapping the drum, and some days she just hangs out and plays to the side while I or Michael play for her. Either way it is a BLAST!
By the way, take a look at this Newsletter: Imagine! It is put out by the Early Childhood Music Therapy Network.