Teaching music with the keyboard cards

A few nights ago, Alicia decided that she needed to play the piano and I decided that since she was in the mood, I'd just take out the keyboard cards that I'd made earlier to just refresh her memory.

Playing earnestly

What's the next note?

D!

Now that she's able to recognise alphabets, it does make teaching music notes a little easier! I'm only targeting at her ability to recognise the pattern of the keyboard actually. How those music notes fit in would probably come at a later stage but there's really no harm trying now. :)

Hop over to Simply Mommie's Precious Handmades to check out this learning aid and others too! :)

Today's music lesson...

Remember these keyboard cards I made? I actually neglected them for awhile but after chatting with one of my friends a couple of weeks ago, I decided that it was time to start using them proper instead of letting them sit around the house!

*Hop over to Simply Mommie's Precious Handmades to view this learning aid and other interesting learning aids! :)*

And so I got down to doing it: I punched a hole in the cards and strung them together using a ring binder and I'd just go through the cards with Alicia at least once a day, whenever she was willing to sit down for a short while to let me do that with her. Within a couple of days, she was able to look at the cards and pretend to press the 'key(s)' with her finger (that's what I do with her) and say the right alphabets for some of the cards - when she's in a really good mood! :D At least I know that she's been paying attention and absorbing the information so even though she doesn't name the notes every time, at least I know that there's something going on there in that little inquisitive brain!

Anyway, today since we had a bit more quiet time in the room together before naptime (and before she asked for milk), and since she was hanging around my books near the bed, I decided to read this music reference book with her to add on to the keyboard cards for today's music lesson (with Handel's Water Music playing in the background):

It's a really thick reference book which I bought when I was young while I was still studying music theory and I happened to have brought this book along to my place after I got married. Since we were both free and she was scouting around for a book to read, I thought, well, why not try it? And so we both sat down on the bed and read about music instruments and though the illustrations weren't fabulous (I mean, it's a general music reference book after all), the (black and white!) photos of people playing the instruments were able to capture her attention. We managed to go through all the instruments - from the string, woodwind, brass and percussion families!

Music Appreciation

I read from a blog recently that for music appreciation, it is recommended that a young child starts to listen to a composer's music continuously for half an hour for a period of four months before changing to another composer's music. So I started Alicia on Handel's Water Music since 2/2/10 and she simply loves it... she sways to the music and gets all hyped up during the grand parts. :)







Besides letting her listen to classical music, I actually prepared these keyboard cards much much earlier - at about the time I sent her for the trial class at Staccato, but I just laminated them with my spanking new laminating machine... hehe. :) I've got another set of note recognition cards that aren't ready yet. I'll get that done soon... but there's no real hurry. Heh.

*If you'd like to purchase this set of teaching materials, please drop me an email at simplymommie@gmail.com or leave me a msg at the Chatterbox! :)