is penny whistle a suitable instrument for young children to learn?

[elliott]

Not sure if this is in the right topic. I'm trying to start ds1 (nearly 7) on an instrument but not sure what to try. We have a big folk scene in my area and he likes this kind of music - so I wondered about the penny whistle. Or would it be better for him to learn the recorder - is penny whistle a bit tricky to learn in terms of the breath control needed?
I wondered whether we might learn together, and with ds2 (nearly 5) as well...

Get one anyway and just let them play with it and experiment with the noises it makes. If they come across people playing one in your area and they like it, they may want to emulate!

No baritone saxophone, trombone or double bass

The gaps between the notes and the size of the holes on the D penny whistle would (from memory) be too large for most 6 year old.

A recorder, learning the first five notes and then playing all those folk melodies that you get in recorder tutors would be easier to arrange I think.

My ds plays (!) the penny whistle, but it's only in the last 6 months or so that he's really got the hang of closing the holes properly. He was VERY frustrated for a long time.

What do they do in school?

Don't laugh - but have you thought about the ukelele? Ds has huge fun with his!

oooh yeah! ukeleles are excellent fun! My grandad played and I loved it!! One of my favourite "makes you smile no matter how pissed off you are" memories involves a ukelele being played!

Just remember how loud and shrill a penny whistle can be, and ask yourself if you can bear that noise full blast. A recorder can be almost as shrill if it is overblown (blown too hard) but does make a nicer noise when played right.

Have you considered an ocarina? They have only 4 holes, so might be easier to learn, and have a nice, breathy tone too. You can get smaller ones - I had them for two of my ds's when they were littler - I think we got them from a local music store, but you'd be able to get them on the internet, I am sure.

OK, thanks - some useful info here.
I don't know what they do at school - I've seen lots of kids carrying instruments, so clearly there is stuff available, but there has been no information about when and how it all starts. I'll ahve to ask I think...

Dd (4) keeps wanting to learn the whistle but she can't cover the holes up properly yet so she makes terrible sounds. I think the holes are smaller on a recorder so easier to cover up earlier on (depending of course on the size of your dcs' fingers).