Making the Band (Part 2)

Editor's Note:  This is the second of two posts about the formation of the Bulldog Twins Band.  Friday's post was about making the instruments.  Today we're going to play with them.  Sorry I didn't get this up yesterday - our Saturday was busy!

Once the children were up from their naps and had a snack, I chose a music station from our satellite (Classic Rock) and let the kids choose their instruments.  They wanted the maracas before they'd even eaten their snacks, so the activity seemed promising. 

Once again, here are our band's instruments:

I'm glad I had more than maraca or else I feel certain that a fight may have ensued. 

I realize the picture below isn't perfect, but I love the expression on Susannah's face as she shakes her maracas. This is fun!

Luckily, Max quickly took interest in the reverberating microphone.  I had to show him how it worked, but once I did he enjoyed the echo.  He quickly figured out that if you drop microphone on the floor, it also makes an echoing sound.

There was less interest in the drum and drumsticks.  (Of course, that's the part I spent the most time on.)  I finally managed to get the kids to try them out.

At this point, I realized a flaw in my drum design.  The drum kept falling over as the kids tried to hit it with the drumsticks.  Max was not interested in playing with the "drum" after he realized it would roll around.  My son LOVES anything with wheels on it and quite frequently repurposes anything he can find so that it will roll/move along the ground (think about his genius invention of diaper sledding). 

In an effort to correct this flaw, I tried to come up with something in the house that would weigh down the drum enough so it wouldn't fall over.  I finally came up with three four-ounce applesauce containers (I also tried a bottle of salad dressing and a bottle of mustard.  Both were too tall.)  This was enough to prevent the drum from falling over.  Another idea for weight might be a 12-ounce can of soda.

As I expected, the drumsticks were used for things other than hitting the drum.  Luckily the kids never hit each other, but Max did make sweet music around our fireplace.  I was just waiting for one of them to try and hit the tv or the glass in the door.  Luckily that never happened, but the protected drumsticks turned out to be a good idea nontheless.

Most kids love music.  Turn on some music, whatever you like, and rock out with them.  If you don't have time to make instruments, it's no big deal, just find a few things from around your house.  You could use a hairbrush as a microphone, a box of macaroni and cheese as your maracas, and a bowl and spoon as your drum.  Or You could skip the instruments all together and just dance.  The whole point is for everyone, even you, to have a good time.  Plus, it's never too early to expose your kids to good music.  Hopefully your influence will help them to develop good muscial tastes and prevent you from having to listen to hours of the Justin Bieber of their generation in the future.