Music Teacher Offers Tips for Keeping Kids Busy at Home

Editor's note: When Amy Brewer isn’t busy teaching through the Creative Music Center of Plymouth/Canton (which provides Kindermusik lessons for children from birth to 7 and instrumental music lessons, too), she is a busy mom to her children, Brandon, 15; Megan, 17; Justin, 18; and Corey, 21. The family, which includes her husband Roger Brewer, shares their Canton home with three cats.

One recent snow day, Patch asked Amy for tips on how to keep kids busy when poor weather keeps the family inside. She responded with a great list. Here are some of Brewer's tips, which may come in handy during next week’s winter break from school whatever the weather is like:

Children Under 6

▪       Include your preschooler in what you’re already doing at home during the day. Give them a small job they can do with you or beside you. Let them “fold” the washcloths or towels or line up the socks and try to find matches while you fold laundry, for example. Yes, you might need to fold them again, but your child will have the chance to be your helper, spend time with you, and feel a sense of accomplishment. And it’s a little easier to get a chore done when you know where your little one is. Older children could deliver piles of folded laundry to the right rooms of the house.

▪       Look for opportunities for pretend play. While you’re waiting in line or at an appointment, make up a silly story using your child, her pet, or her favorite stuffed animal as the star of the story. Ask lots of questions about where she goes, what happens, who she meets on her adventures. Try taking turns adding on the next part of the story, including her friends, siblings, and mom and dad.

▪       Sing, dance, and play together. Keep a box of simple music instruments in a convenient place. You can even collect an assortment of sound-makers from around the house – kitchen spoons and bowls and containers from your recycling bin or a bucket for a drum, for example. Put on some favorite music and have a family jam session. Listen to different kinds of music and think of ways to move with the music. Find some long ribbons or pieces of fabric to dance with. Sing your favorite kid songs; try adding new words to a familiar song to include your child’s name, his favorite activities, or different ways to move.

▪       Scrap art: Pick out an assortment of “stuff” from your recycling bin – clean containers, paper towel rolls, boxes, whatever looks interesting. Add some colorful paper and maybe some sheets of aluminum foil, tape and glue stick, and markers or crayons, and see what you can create. You could make it a family art show, with each person creating something to display on the dinner table.

▪       Music discovery: If you have a piano or music keyboard, whether it’s a small child-sized one or full-sized, sit down together and take turns making different kinds of sounds – loud and soft, high and low, raindrop sounds, sliding sounds, or sounds that make you think of an animal, ballerina, robot, or monster, for example. Show your child how to treat the piano gently with a few simple rules like using fingers and not pounding with fists.

▪       Building contests: Use your supply of blocks, Legos, or other building toys for a family building contest. See who can build the highest, biggest, or most unusual creation.

Children 6 to 12

▪       Kitchen sink science: This was an absolute favorite at our house for years. Find a book of simple science experiments using household items, or look up ideas online. You can work with vinegar and baking soda to make a volcano erupt or blow up a balloon attached to a bottle, or even launch a simple rocket in the yard. Experiment with mixing drops of colored water in the cups of an egg carton or dripping them onto paper or a coffee filter. Make your own “flubber” with white glue, borax powder, and water.

▪       Work together to learn to play simple songs on a musical instrument like a recorder (a simple woodwind instrument) or piano. You can find books of simple songs or figure out how to play them by ear. Show each other how to play a song you’ve learned.

▪       Make up a dance to favorite music. It can be as simple as making up ways to move to the music, or you can figure out a set of steps and movements and teach them to each other or a younger sibling. Think of ways to move like a character or animal in the song.

▪       Work together with your child to bake a treat. Include your child in the planning and pull out a favorite recipe or look one up online. Maybe you’ll want to share your treats with a neighbor or friend.

▪       Include your child in planning and cooking a simple meal. Decide what to have for the main dish, side dishes, and dessert. Work together to prepare it, and ask your child to set the table like a nice restaurant for dinner that night.

▪       Include your child in planning your next shopping trip or day of errands. Have him help you make the grocery list and then go with you to the store to find what you need. He could even take a calculator along to add up the total as you shop. Or work together to figure out where you need to run errands and make a plan for what you need to take with you, what you need to get, and where to go first, next, and last. Then work together to get your errands done. Be sure to include an errand your child will enjoy – a trip to the video store to pick up a movie, or a stop for a snack or treat on the way home.

▪       Invite your older child to teach her younger sibling or friend a new skill. It could be a craft project, how to use a tool or a program on the computer, or just about anything else. The older child has the chance to be the expert, and the younger child has her older sibling’s one-on-one attention.

▪       Invite your children to work together to do something special for a friend or neighbor. Encourage them to think of people they could help, and what they could do for them. Maybe a neighbor could use some help with their yard work or snow shoveling. Maybe they could sort through their book collection and give some to a younger friend or cousin. Maybe they could do some special chore as a surprise for mom or dad. Encourage them to be creative with their ideas.

Amy Brewer is director and owner of Kindermusik at the Creative Music Center for Kindermusik for Music at First Academy at . She teaches Kindermusik, early piano and violin. She graduated from the University of Michigan with a bachelor of arts in Elementary Education with minors in Fine Arts and Science and a graduate degree at Eastern Michigan University in early childhood education. She has directed the Kindermusik program at the Creative Music Center since 2001. She has taught in grades kindergarten through eighth grade and her own home-based childcare program. She serves in music and other ministries at in Plymouth. Amy plays bassoon, clarinet, tenor saxophone, violin, and piano.