Game manual

Target

The parents and the toddler needs to come together in a big room where they can move around. A song will be played and they need to dance in the whole room. They can’t dance randomly, when they hear a song they have to associate an animal with that song and they have to act like the animal that they are thinking of. The parents need to guess what animal their toddler is acting like and when they have guessed it, they have to imitate their toddler. A happy song can lead to an animal like a butterfly, a scary song can lead to an animal like a spider, a very loud song can lead to an animal like an elephant and a quiet song can lead to an animal like a mouse or a cat, ... .

When the toddler and the parents are tired of dancing, they can start with the musical part. In the middle of the room are standing a lot of kitchen stuff like pots, pans, ladles, spoons, forks, cups ... . The parents and the toddler needs to make music with this “instruments”. They have to play a self-made song together where they have to decide how loud they are going to play, with materials they are going to use, how they are going to make the rhythm... .

When they have practiced a lot on their song, they can use the toddler or the parents as a dancer on the music that they have made. The toddler or the parents that takes the role of the dancer, needs to dance around the room while the other ones are making the music. By doing this, they are getting to make a performance with their family.

The intention of this activity is to let the toddler move on music, because moving around is very important at this age. Toddlers aren’t that strong with verbal words, so they have to express themselves with movements. The parents and the toddler needs to make a performance together by having inspiration out of the dancing and the rhythms during the day.

 

Position on the wire

This activity can be put in the position of “the attach wire” because the toddler is exploring how he can dance and sing and how the parents are going to react on this. If they would fall during the dancing they can fall back on their parents to get some support. The parents needs to give them a chance for exploration. The parents can help the toddler by giving support and be there when it would go wrong.

 

Part of the parent

Part of the toddler

The parents need to watch their toddler while they are dancing around in the room during the songs in the first phase. They have to observe their toddler and they have to try to understand what their toddler is imitating. When they have figured it out they need to imitate their toddler as good as possible because this can lead to a feeling of pride by the toddler.

In the second phase with making the music, it is important that the parents have an ear for the rhythm that their toddler is making. The parents needs to explore their child with the different sounds without being mad when the child is making a lot of noise or when the child is playing to quiet. They can’t judge their child for the music that he is making. They have to encourage their child by giving an applause or by saying “well done”.

During the performance it is important that the parents are playing as one team with their toddler. They have to let the choice with their child of being a dancer or a musician. When the parents give this freedom, the kid can explore a bit more.

 

The kid needs to feel safe during the dancing round. They need to express themselves and let the parents see how they are feeling and what they are thinking when they hear a specific song. They have to imitate the animals as good as possible to make sure that their parents can guess the animal. The toddler can experience a feeling of pride and attention when he sees that the parents can guess the animal that he is imitating.

During the phase of making music the toddler can experience the different sounds that he can make with the different materials. The toddler needs to try a lot of new things. When the toddler feels that he gets freedom, this can lead to a feeling of safety and responsibility. This feeling can lead till the fact that the toddler dares to explore. This feeling can get bigger when the toddler gets an applause and gets compliments.

During the performance the toddler can choice neither he wants to dance of make music. It’s important to let the toddler cooperate with the performance. When the parents let the toddler choose, the toddler gets the feeling that he is involved and when the parents are helping, the toddler gets the feeling that the parents are involved too. An applause at the end of the performance can lead to pride and confirmation.

Necessities

Evaluation

  1. Music (hard, soft, calme ...)
  2. Pots, pans, spoons, cups, ladles, grate ... (kitchen stuff to make music with)

 

Bottons to another page 

At the end of the activity, it is the intention to have a short moment of evaluation. Because of this we can get more information about how the toddler and the parents have experienced the activity. The mentor needs to ask some questions like “Did you like the activity?”, “Do you think that the performance was good?”, “Did the others cooperate with you?”, “Are you happy with the result?”, ... . Every member of the family gets a pot and a spoon in front of them. They have to smash the spoon against the pot after the question is asked. How harder this smash it, how more fun they thought it was, how softer they smash it, how less fun they thought it was.