Music and Reading Combined

Children using stories to inspire Music is something that we don't really think of doing with our children.  But the more you think about it, the more it is in our every day lives.  From advertising to movies - people put music to words/pictures all the time to engage and excite the listeners.
We have musical instruments in the basement and the kids love to use them.  One day while sitting in the basement, my daughter asked me to read to her.  I agreed and brought over the instruments as well.  First we experimented with each instrument to see what kind of sound it made.  Then we read the first story together.  I read the story and made the music.  The kids listened.  For the second book, my daughter was the one who would make the music.  It was really neat to see how her brain worked (remember - in Art, nothing is "wrong").  She used the drum to make a thunder noise, her mouth to make a fish noise and she rubbed the sticks to make a frog noise.  That was my favourite - it actually sounded like a frog and I NEVER would have come up with that on my own!

Other ways to notice music telling a story:

•  Find some music clips on the internet and play them for your child.  As them how they feel when they hear that music. (Ex. scared, excited, sad, happy, etc.)
• When watching a movie, point out the music right before something happens