We found this wonderful gem at the library. I brought it home because I thought it would be nice for us to talk about being a musical family. There are instruments in every corner of our house. We play music, listen to music and tell stories using musical instruments. Little did I know, it was going to take us on a musical journey.
“With everyone in her family making music, this spunky girl can’t help but join in!” reads the description on the sleeve of the book. In each page she shares all the instruments and kinds of music each member of her family plays. Mom plays fiddle in a country-and-western band, and she joins in with the tambourine. Dad plays cello in a string quartet, and she joins in with the triangle.
We started with a first read and let it sink in. Lucia enjoyed all of the family ties and commented on all the different relations. Then she started asking questions. What is a quartet? What is polka? So we went on an iTunes hunt and listened carefully to the different styles of music, as we read the book a little more closely.
Country-and-western, string quartet, marching band, rock’ n’ roll, jazz, big band, bluegrass, polka, pipe organ in church, bongos with poetry that doesn’t rhyme, and good old pots and pans were a source for exploration and dance. I did not know my little one had all of those moves in her! With every step she let loose, and found a way to link it to something she already knew. String quartet was soft and inspired ballet music. Blue grass sounded like “farm music” and made her bounce.
We then decided to see how many of the instruments we saw in the book we could find in our house. Our collection is not too bad! But the best of all, I dug out our pots and pans and some wooden spoons and KABOOM! Lucia enjoyed making noise and comparing metal sounds to wooden sounds.
She finished in a prolonged session of pretend play, making soup for all her stuffed animals!
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