Making Music, Making Fun

By Lisa Roberson

When my children were little, we made all kinds of things and one of our favorite things to make was musical instruments. After all, what’s more fun for a munchkin than making lots and lots of noise?

The very first instrument created in our house was actually made without their help. That is because I made soda bottle shakers for them when they were still just babies. These are made with 20 ounce soda bottles that you clean out on the inside and the outside, after taking off the stickers/wrappers. You can use water bottles for this, but, they are generally not as firm. And for safety reasons, and just general longevity of the toy, the soda bottles seem to work much better.

Ok, so you’ve cleaned the bottle thoroughly inside and out, now you need to select your ‘noisemakers’. I think a lot of times I would use dry popcorn seeds. They are nice and hard, so they make some great sound. There are many other things around your house – and even outside – that you could use for this. Peas, beans, small rocks, etc. Once your bottle is completely dried out, pour the noisemaker you’ve chosen into the bottle.

The next step I always let my husband help me out with – super glue. I am a total klutz and try never to use super glue myself, if there is someone else around to do it for me. You want to put some super glue inside the lid, where the grooves are, and then screw it on very tightly. This will keep your child safe, if they are still in the ‘everything in my mouth’ stage.

Next is the super fun part – decorating! You will have to select your decorating options, according to how oral your child still is. If the child is a little older, the world – and the stickers, glue, markers, etc – are your oyster! Otherwise, we have to get extra creative. You may even choose to just leave the bottle blank. I know I did that a lot. Babies don’t really care – they just love the noise and chewing on their new ‘musical instrument’. And it may just be the safest option, anyway. I suppose if you wanted to decorate, you could maybe use permanent markers. I’m not really sure about that, though.

An older child will have tons of fun decorating their own shaker! You can help them cut out shapes from construction paper to glue on, dig through all of your stickers and choose some to put on there, and maybe even paint the shaker. (I’m not sure if the paint would actually stick to the plastic.) Oh, you know what would be really cute? One of those ginormous wiggly eyes on top of the lid! Then it could be your groovy monster shaker!

Another fun instrument to make is a paper plate tambourine. You will want the thicker paper plates, you know, the extra hard kind. They need to withstand all that shakin’!! And you need a hole punch, some pipe cleaners, and some washers – the kind from the garage or the toolbox.

If your child is going to decorate the tambourine, it will probably be easiest if you let them decorate the plate first. Well, you can go ahead and punch the holes around the edge of the plate first, so they know where the holes will be. I can see a child – or two – or seventy – crying and stomping their feet, because, we have punched a hole in their artwork! So decide how many ‘shaky parts’ you want and punch that many number of holes around the edge of the plate on the curved part. Then your munchkin can go crazy with glue, markers, crayons, stickers and whatever their favorite arts and crafts supplies are.

Now you just need to help them add the noisy part. Ahh…isn’t that what all of us parents love? The noisy part? Ha! Well, you started this thing, now you’ve got to let them finish.

Stick one pipe cleaner through each hole and then put two washers onto each of them. Tie up the pipe cleaners and cut off the majority of the length that is left sticking out. Leave enough on to bend it up really tight and curly to try and avoid any ouch-sticky parts. And once it’s all put together – it’s Tambourine City!!

This last instrument is a super quick and easy one, but, a long time favorite of kids everywhere. What you will need is an empty oatmeal cylindrical container. Let your child decorate the sides of the container any way that they choose. Now find a good mallet for them. Long, wooden spoons are great for this, but, if you don’t have one you could use a stick from outside or any number of things. You could even attach a long ribbon to the container so that your child could ‘wear’ their drum, just like drummers in a marching band – now that would be fun!

And now that you have three instruments, you kids or your child and his friends can start a band. They could even have a marching band and march up and down the sidewalk, entertaining the whole neighborhood!

Here’s to the music!