Music Together is an early childhood music and movement program that teaches children birth through 7 years about music. Through the program, children learn to sing in tune, move to a beat, and enjoy the music of different cultures.
My kids immediately reacted to this music. It’s music you just can’t help but move to. And I loved that this was a product that I could use with my infant as well.
The package I received came with the Music Together Family Favorites CD and Songbook combo. The music is very multi-cultural, and the activities are not your typical music theory lessons. In addition to the catchy tunes, I loved the ideas in the teacher manual and really appreciated the focus not only on different ages but on particular special needs as well. Within the teacher manual, sheet music is provided for each song as well as the activity ideas. Strengthening language skills, teaching harmony, recognizing different rhythms and several other skills are taught through each activity.
We opened every day with “The Hello Song,” greeting each other by singing out our names. I also used these songs as fun activities as we transitioned from one subject to another. Great for getting wiggles out, some of the songs went from very active at the start of the song to slow and soft toward the end of the song (“Riding in the Car” has several active verses and ends with “sleeping in the car” in a very slow lullaby cadence), while other songs had the kids absolutely worn out by the end.
Whatever songs we played with during our school day, the kids were humming and dancing to them all day long. Several of the songs allowed for the kids to create their own verses, which Oldest especially enjoyed. All day long he’d tell me new verses he’d thought up. The tunes are very catchy, and so much fun to move too. Sometimes we’d bang the rhythm out with wooden spoons or unsharpened pencils, use kitchen spices for shakers, or use whatever else was handy; other times we’d twist and spin, move and groove.
Littlest enjoyed this time, too. I think he probably enjoyed being able to take part in the fun with the big kids. The activities for infants also helped me to adapt it for him. He wiggled and smiled and giggled with each tune.
For infants, some of the suggested activities were bouncing them on your knee, patting their tummy, tapping their feet, and more. Littlest did love this, especially to the tune of “Biddy Biddy.”
And just so you know, this is a SUPER rainy day activity. Just play the CD (I loaded them on to my ipod) and let them wriggle and jump and dance all that energy away!
This product has been such a hit at our house, I can’t imagine our day without them. I would also recommend this product to anyone homeschooling a child with a special need. Though the teacher guide is written for a daycare/classroom setting, it is easily adaptable for home use.
The combo package, like I received, sells for $39.95 on the Music Together website. (Use the coupon code “Schoolhouse” to get $2 off the set.) There are also a number of other products (noise makers and rhythm instruments) and sets available for different price points. You can even download individual song titles for $.99 or the entire album for $9.99.
You can listen to samples of all 19 tunes and hear my kids’ favorites. (Littlest’s favorite was “Biddy Biddy”; Middlest loved “Riding in the Car” and “Playing in the Kitchen”; Oldest liked “Stick Tune” and “Obwisana.”)
Then, read what other reviewers thought at the Schoolhouse Review Crew.
