can a 2.5yo play with a guitar??

[mrsgboring]

DS adores and loves all instruments, especially guitar and my aim is to do all that is reasonable to encourage his interests.

There's a guitar on our Freecycle at the moment, so it wouldn't matter if DS wrecked it, but could a broken string or some other incident cause him injury?

Not sure I can stand to see an instrument being damaged by a child, but if we could find some way fo storing it so it was always played with under supervision, would you or would you not?

mrsboring we got a guitar for our lo from oxfam it was a fiver and he is 2.7 he does love it and plays along to sting or the police but i will watch this thread with interest

yes

ds has had one since this age.

He lies it across his lap/

The strings are quite hard to break and you can always slacken them a bit (it's not going to sound great even if it is in tune).

Ds adores his.

ds got one for his 3rd birthday - he plays with it a lot and his rock and roll poses are hysterical - like julian cope in spiderman pants.

ours gets put away on a high shelf when not in use

Thank you both. Thinking guitar shaped thoughts now.... DH can see danger in everything, so glad that I can set his mind at rest.

Sorry Mazzy, x-posted. Thank you all.

Same as THW here - dh's classical guitar has always been left out and has been fine. Meanwhile ds now has a half size one of his own which he loves - he pretends to be daddy. Obviously won't be able to play properly for years but he really enjoys it.

The only thing is it's like a magnet to visiting children who see it as a novelty in the way ds doesn't as it's always there. They try and trash it so we often move it when others come round.

DS was given an old 3/4 size electric guitar when he was 2.5-3ish & loves playing it alongside DH (who has 3 of his own ) & has a rather Pete Townsend-esq strumming style

If it were a toy guitar, perhaps, but a real one... no, unless you are supervising him when the guitar is around.

Now, about damages to it...I wouldn't allow my child to wreck an instrument just because is free, better to leave it to someone who can get more from it.

I disagree a bit with MMS&I - I think its important to have some things that are special around so that children can learn that they have to treat things with respect. DS knows his guitar is something "precious", and so is really careful with it. The odd broken string isn't too much of a big deal.

MMS&I, The intention certainly would not be to let DS wreck something and justify it because it was free. On the other hand, since neither DH nor I can play guitar (though we might learn on it) I couldn't justify getting something expensive that DS couldn't get proper use out of for years.

We would only be getting the guitar because the person giving it away on Freecycle has no use for it and if no-one else has claimed it in the two days it's been on there, so I really don't feel like we're depriving a guitarist of a guitar.

The plan would be for DS to look after it and treat it nicely, but there may well be failures of toddler impulse control and/or parental vigilance.