All Kinds of Music

© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care. All rights reserved.

Babies enjoy different kinds of music.

Singing, dancing, and sharing all kinds of music with babies is a great way to have fun together. When you use music to connect to babies, you will want to maintain eye contact and hold them close (as long as they are comfortable).

Try using different music for different routines throughout your day. For example:

• Help babies settle and relax with soothing music such as classical guitar or soft instrumental music.
• Get babies alert and moving with upbeat music, such as children’s music or a salsa tune.
• Help babies feel confident (and happy) as they anticipate words and sounds and clap along to nursery rhymes and other songs for babies.
• Help babies feel safe and comfortable while they are away from home by including music and songs from their home cultures.

Plan group sing-alongs with other babies and toddlers. Babies will have fun kicking, waving, or bouncing to the music and imitating older children’s actions. Enhance the fun even further with the following ideas.

• Include babies’ names in the song if possible and have older toddlers sing each name along with you.
• Offer young babies rattles to shake, anklets that jingle, or scarves to wave.
• Offer older babies a bell to ring, a drum to hit, or a plastic bottle with rice to shake.
• Provide duplicate or similar instruments so that children can imitate each other.

You can look for CDs at your local library or for lyrics on Internet sites.