My Favourite Musical Instrument DIY Ideas (One For Each Season)

Making a musical instrument in your homes, is a really fun and innovative way to add music to your homeschool and have a lot of fun in the process. 

While there are tons of ideas out there on Pinterest, I thought that I should share four of my favourite ideas, one for each season. 

The added bonus is that most of these ideas are very simple to do and thus, your kids will be able to make the instruments themselves, without too much help from you. 

Spring, Summer, Autumn (Fall) and Winter, so no matter when you read this article, you can still use one of these ideas in your homeschool. 

Egg Maracas

Can you think of a better instrument to herald spring and Easter and all the fun things that we associate with that time of the year?

This particular instrument can help to refine your children’s listening skills. In order to make this work you would need

Supplies

– Plastic Easter Eggs (about a dozen)

– Different fillers like rice, sand, sugar, rock salt, beads, mung beans, pebbles, buttons, bells etc.

– Washi Tape

Method

Divid the egg into pairs, each pair should consist of different colours. Fill each pair with one of the fillers, paste them shut and decorate them (again don’t make them identical). 

You are now good to go. Ask your kids to shake each egg and find the match. 

Pan Flutes

When I think of summer, I think of the lilting melodies of birds, can you hear them right now? 

In order to make this instrument I am going to direct you to Buggy and Buddy, so you can get all the directions and download their free printable – so your kids can write and record their own notes for the songs that they create.

Making this instrument will enable your kids not only to immerse themselves in music, learn about pitch and how the length of each straw changes the pitch, but also to explore the science of sound. 

What can be better? I often love to blend subjects together and this is the perfect blend of music and science, don’t you think?

Want to know more about how to blend music with other subjects you teach in the homeschool? Then you will love my post 5 ‘Innovative’ Ways To Blend Music With Other Subjects Learned In The Homeschool.

Sound Jars

For me autumn is canning season, when I start to preserve all the lovely harvest I have been able to lay my hands on at the Farmer’s Market. 

So no wonder I thought that the tiny canning jars I use would make a wonderful utensil to introduce and fine tune toddlers’ and pre-schoolers’ sound matching skills. 

Use the same supplies as used for the Egg Maracas, but instead of plastic eggs, use ‘see through’ canning jars. 

Also instead of using only dry goods, you can use liquids if you like. 

Furthermore, you can also use the fillers in different quantities and compare the sounds. 

Again you can blend science and music with this DIY instrument. 

Beaded Jingle Sticks

For me winter means Christmas, sleigh rides and everything relating to jingle bells and festivities, so I couldn’t help it when I saw Danya’s wonderful idea. 

All you need is some yarn/twine or pipe cleaners, jingle bells of different sizes, a Y shaped stick.

I am going to direct you to Danya’s site, so you can get a better understanding of how to make this wonderful DIY instrument. 

Please let me know which DIY instrument you are going to have your kids make today.