Whether you have high aspirations for your child in
area of music or not, learning and listening to music is highly advantageous for your child. It is common for mothers of very young children to sing to them, in order to calm them at end of day, so that they go to sleep. Hymns and patriotic music are played in official occasions and conventions, to arouse patriotic feelings in people. Loud and fast music with strong tempo is played at parties, to motivate people to dance and "have fun". "Romantic" type music is played in movies as accompaniment for romantic scenes.
Music has power to change our mood and affect us in ways no other tool can.
In addition to all that and most important for our children, it has been shown in research and statistics, that listening to music results in creation of special neural connections in our brain, neural connections that increase our intelligence. There is a very interesting correlation between math and music, and it has been shown that people who are mathematically inclined, are also talented in music. Learning musical theory is very enriching to a child, and listening and playing music is a superior tool for development of audio memory.
Above all, when your child is learning to play music, he is achieving all this growth, while having fun and enjoying himself. Offer to your child opportunity to take music lessons, to choose his favorite instrument, and let him decide if and when he is interested. If your child is not interested in present moment, don't forget to offer it again later, your child might be ready to start at a later time.
If you love music, or are interested in music yourself, why not do this activity with your child? It will bring you closer together, and strengthen bond you have with your child forever! Music is an excellent tool to improve your relationship with your child, especially during "difficult" teenage years.
Babies and Toddlers: Start with listening to music. If you have a newborn, or a young baby, you can play classical music during day, while you are doing all other activities. It is also good to play soft, classical music while child is asleep. A good time to play classical music is while you are driving with your baby in car. But don't limit yourself just to classical music! Play children's songs, sing to your child and with your child often. Another thing you can do is taking your child to concerts. If possible, you can take your child to a concert, maybe with a partner or a friend, and agree ahead of time that if baby cries, one of you takes baby out. See how it goes. You might have a baby that is naturally quiet in concerts. Another thing you can do, is taking baby to outdoor concerts. In most cities, during summer there are free outdoor concerts of different styles of music. Those are excellent opportunities to expose babies and toddlers to various styles of music, while they can watch players and different instruments.
Very young children can start learning to play a musical instrument. There are many teachers that are trained to work with babies, and especially Suzuki method was developed with very young in mind. Make sure you find a teacher that understands children! When my son was a baby (about 18 months old) I have taken him to a piano teacher who claimed to be an expert in young children. However, she has expected her young students to sit quietly for extended periods of time, listening to other children play. She has reprimanded us when Eric got up and tried to walk around during a long recital. This teacher didn't have children of her own, and did not understand how to work with children and what can be expected. The teacher we have found later really knew how to engage Eric in lessons, and how to adjust her lessons plan to his interests.
