Piano and Xylophone — Two Instruments in One

Parent guides: Easy Science Experiments for Kids at Home: Step by Step, by Age · Teaching Kids Letters and Numbers Through Play, in Arabic and English

1. Sit your child down with the instrument in front of them.
2. Let them press the coloured piano keys and hear each note.
3. Hand them the beater and let them strike the metal bars.
4. Name the colour of each key or bar as it sounds.
5. Later, follow the numbers on the bars to play a simple run up and down.

• Cause and effect: I press this, that sound happens
• Listening — noticing that notes differ from one another
• Grip and controlled striking, which is harder than it looks
• Colour and number recognition, attached to a sound

• Play a short pattern and see whether your child copies it back
• Sing a line and let them hit any note at the end of it
• Take turns: one plays a note and the other finds it by ear