Musical Toys for Children

[kreig-kitts]

My mother was telling me the other day that my neice has been pretending that sticks are magic flutes and pretending to play them. She loves singing, and one of my nephews sings little made-up songs with his toy bat puppet (which his generous uncle gave him), so I’m happy we might have some more

[catherine-rogers]

When my godchildren were very young, I bought them a toy xylophone. It was not very expensive but since it was from Smithsonian, the tone quality was very good, which was why I bought it. It’s a good way to experiment with polyphonic music, is durable and even a little child can make pleasing sounds.

[patricia-jaeger]

Sadly. some musical toys are not manufactured any more, like the Conn company’s song flutes, and Creative Playthings’ Xylopipes, both of which I acquired 40 years ago! The xylophone Catherine mentions above is a good idea. You could also try a small “soprano recorder” which is under eight dollars at my local music store; it comes with instructions. A small harp with standard stringing is hard to find at an affordable price, unfortunately; perhaps someone on this forum has found a source and will post it.

[Tacye]

I have seen children that age and younger enjoying: pan flute, melodica, harmonica as well as glockenspiel and hand hit drums (which are more civilised for the parent than drums with sticks).

[Sherj DeSantis]

Our church bought a set of color coded hand bells, along with color coded sheet music for very young children. We have had some as young as 3 playing in the hand-bell choir at Christmas. They come in all sorts of combinations and can be purchased easily from several sources. With 2 children playing, you can have complete songs.

If you want to be a really creative Uncle, go to Lowes and buy metal or copper pipes, cut them to different lengths, drill two holes on opposite sides, slide cord through them, and string them from a simple frame. They strike the pipe with a small mallet, or a small piece of solid pipe, and they can make music that way. When they get tired of them, especially if you made them out of copper, hang them outdoors where a breeze will turn them into wind chimes.

[Sid Humphreys]

Ah yes,

[unknown-user]

The Met has

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