Schoenhut My First Piano II February 8, 2009

My husband is a musician and I love music so we wanted to expose our son to instruments at an early age.  We knew we didn’t want a piano that played recorded music or tones and wanted to find something that was as close to an adult piano as possible. That’s how we found this wonderful Schoenhut piano . According to my hubby, it is pitched correctly and the keys are weighted and spaced similarly to a full-sized piano. We got it when our son was about 6 months old and he immediately started banging on it.  He loves playing it (by hand or with whatever blunt object is available) and watching my husband and our muscian friends jam on it. Even untrained mommy can pick out some simple tunes using the little  songbook that comes with it, or our Music Together songbook.  It’s pretty tough and has come through many attempts to climb it unscathed. We anticipate many years of fun and enjoyment out of this piano.

Magic Mic by Toysmith February 8, 2009

This thing is so simple, it’s brilliant. Plastic microphone with a spring inside that vibrates when you speak into it so that it echoes your voice back. Don’t be fooled by the fake  “on/off button” – no batteries required! We got this as a first birthday present for our son and it has been a huge hit with him, and frankly, with us. At first he would bang on it, making the spring reverberate, which makes a funky noise. He soon figured out how to use it in the intended way and he will randomly pick it up and make  “hoo-hoo-hoo” noises into it. The front surface is curved so he also likes to try to put balls in it . We also sing and talk into it to entertain him and lately he’s been holding it up to my mouth and we play “press conference” (I get to be President Obama!).  The site linked above has it for $2.99 – can’t get much better than that!

Please note that it is intended for use for ages 3+ because of small parts. We don’t let him use it unattended for this reason, although it seems very sturdy.