• musical toys Archive

    Helping kids develop an ear for music is one of the great joys of parenting. Ever since my girls could utter their first words, we’ve been introducing them to the different sounds and singers whose music delights our listening ears. My 7-year-old knew her Billy Joel from her Frank Sinatra even as a preschooler, while my 3-year-old is just beginning to identify a saxophone vs. a trumpet. We’re not surprised then that Symphony in B., a new musical toy that we saw at Toy Fair last week, has taken center stage. Following a shape sorter concept, mini maestros can place any combination of up to six miniature musical instruments (from a total of 13) in their corresponding slots, select the type of music they’d like [&hellip

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    The lucky mom that I am, I am treated to a musical serenade by my 3-year-old every afternoon. She pounds…er, plays on her kitty keyboard like there’s no tomorrow. It’s quite possible you have seen the offending musical instrument that I’m talking about: an orange-hued Cheshire cat that grins from ear to ear with a row of piano key teeth. My preschooler can’t get enough of this thing, and our ears (and forever-hiding family cat) are proof of her “music-making.” As much as I jest and sometimes cringe each time I hear her striking up the band, I secretly delight in her unabashed merriment in playing and singing along off-key. Her 7-year-old sister also partaking in the joy? Not so much… Maybe it’s because she [&hellip

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    My kids may not know their Lynyrd Skynyrd from Kid Rock, but it doesn’t mean they don’t like to rock out to the guitar riffs on “Sweet Home Alabama.” Because we’re a musically diverse family whose tastes range from the Dead Kennedys to the Presidents of the United States of America, it’s not uncommon to see us break into spontaneous dance or to pull out the air guitar when a resident grown-up is on KP duty. Naturally, my daughters want to follow suit and with a cool gadget like Air Picks, now even they can look like bona fide rockers even if they can’t play a note. Simply select one of three songs on your Air Pick, strum in time to the music and it’ll [&hellip

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