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Claire F
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| Posted: Jan 01 2012 at 10:56pm | IP Logged
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I'm looking at getting Making Music Praying Twice for my family. What, if any, instruments or other "equipment" would you recommend getting to start out. The only instruments we have now (our older ones didn't survive my middle son's rather destructive toddlerhood), are some egg shakers we got for Christmas.
What else would be good to start with? I've looked over the list on the MMPT website, and I'm not sure what to begin with. Drums? Rhythm sticks? Boomwhackers? Scarves, etc.?
Thanks!
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Claire
Mom to DS 12/04, DS 5/07, DD 8/09
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ekbell
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| Posted: Jan 02 2012 at 12:35am | IP Logged
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Boomwackers are great for rambunctious kids as they are very durable (they also are useful for 'sword fights'  ).
The MMPT program uses egg shakers, instruments that play a note (bells or boomwackers), percussion instruments and scarves.
Ideally, you'd get a set of boomwackers (or bells) plus at least one percussion instrument and two scarves per child to go along with the egg shakers you already own.
If necessary homemade percussion instruments could work (and the scarves just need to be of a light 'floating' material) but the boomwacker/bells do need to be bought.
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SusanMc
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| Posted: Jan 02 2012 at 11:58am | IP Logged
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We do MMPT as a family and occasionally in our co-op. I'd say to have a good mix of shakers, maracas and jingle bells, some drums, wood blocks and rhythm sticks and then one or two note-making items like a child's xylophone, a recorder and a bell set.
We splurged on resonator bells and these are certainly very good at bridging the gap from early music ed to beginning to understand notes on the way to music literacy. My 4-year-old is just starting to make that connection. That said, I was surprised given the encouragement on the website to have resonator bells, how little they are expressly called for in the curriculum.
As for scarves and streamers, we use our play silks that I made using the microwave/Koolaid method when the boys were small. Any silky scarves would be fine here. I do not use separate streamers.
We do have a small parachute which everyone in our co-op loves. It becomes primarily an obedience and instruction following exercise with music and movement a far second! 
I wouldn't feel compelled to have too much but definitely have at least one shaky item per child. Nicer instruments are nice and the kids do seem to respond to them, but the cheaper ones made it easier to round out our collection. And then sometimes we just improvise--like a turned over laundry basket as a community drum.
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Claire F
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| Posted: Jan 02 2012 at 11:12pm | IP Logged
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Wonderful - thank you! I'll probably add things here and there as we go.
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Claire
Mom to DS 12/04, DS 5/07, DD 8/09
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kristacecilia
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We are just starting out with it this year but so far I have found the two must haves are shaky eggs or some equivalents like maracas, and scarves. We had playsilks already so we just use those and they work VERY well. We also already had a box of instruments that had been accumulated over the year- tambourines, etc- that we use for the "free instrument play". I am thinking about getting a set of bells next. The only things that are called for in the pre-made lesson plans, though, are shaky eggs, scarves, and "instruments" for the free play. At least so far.
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Wife to a great guy, mom to two boys ('04, '06) and three girls ('08, '10, '12!)
I blog at http://kristacecilia.wordpress.com/
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kristinannie
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kristacecilia wrote:
| We are just starting out with it this year but so far I have found the two must haves are shaky eggs or some equivalents like maracas, and scarves. We had playsilks already so we just use those and they work VERY well. We also already had a box of instruments that had been accumulated over the year- tambourines, etc- that we use for the "free instrument play". I am thinking about getting a set of bells next. The only things that are called for in the pre-made lesson plans, though, are shaky eggs, scarves, and "instruments" for the free play. At least so far. |
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I agree with this. You definitely want the shake eggs (2 per kid) and scarves. I just use scarves that my mom donated. I asked for some that she didn't wear anymore. That is DD4's favorite part! My toddler loves using the shake eggs and has incredible rhythm. We have the Melissa and Doug instrument set and use some of those instruments as well. Plus, my kids just love to dance and get their wiggles out. We bought my DS5 a set of bongos as a Christmas gift. He LOVES the rhythms they do and now he can do them on his drum. By all means, feel free to get whatever instruments you want, but don't feel like you have to spend money you don't have. The program will work great with shake eggs and scarves!
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4Real Forums : The Arts in the Everyday
Topic: MMPT and instruments/equipment
