musical instruments for 3.5 DS.... plus new baby....

[time4tea]

hello

what do you recommend? I was looking at a lovely website (they had a stall at a fair near our house) www.drumsforschools.co.uk

apart from percussion instruments, what is good for a pre-schooler? any recommendations for encouraging them to experiment?

If you can stand the noise-a wooden spoon and lots of pots and pans and a container filled with rice. Personally think this is too young for playing "proper" musical instruments unless youare prepared to go down the suzuki route for violin (earplugs at the ready)
There are lots of jo jingles type clubs around if he likes music and you are able to take him.

recorders are fun too and quite robust for pre-schoolers to throw about! Mine have a percussion set, various whistles and a couple of recorders. We also have a piano in the house, but a small cheap keyboard would be ideal if you don't have space for that sort of thing or want the expense of a whole piano.

We also go to Jo Jingles once a week and my two love it. They are different ages but are allowed to the same class. I took DD#2 along as a small baby when DD#1 was having her classes and they didn't charge me until DD#2 started to join in.

Get a glockenspiel, a proper tuned one not a child's toy. My children could pick out tunes on one of these from an early age. A small keyboard is also good for experimenting with different sounds and tunes.

A musical friend recommended a ukelele. I think he was being serious as there was all sorts of theoretical reasoning behind it. Yet still DS remains ukeleleless

Don't underestimate how annoying a ukelele can sound - I know, we have one in the house!

Still, I daresay you can say that for most instruments...