Make Your Own Music by Erin Burnett My daughter brought up an interesting point the other day with her Dad. As he was demonstrating the camp stove she may be using someday while hiking, she turned over the dish and started banging on it with another piece of his camping equipment. "It makes good music!" For this reason, we would like to suggest several ways to help your kids create a very musical Christmas. Although we offer a few options, the idea is to give the child a wooden spoon (or other striking object that won't cause too much damage) and let them show YOU where to find music.

Having pulled many online all-nighters, I have plenty of coffee cans sitting around the house. The big ones make a great drum. And the smaller make great maracas when filled with dried beans, popcorn, rice, or pasta. We also use the beans or popcorn between two paper plates for a tambourine. Staple, glue, or tape the plates to create a quick, fun toy! Actually, dried grains can create great music when dropped into any small container with a lid - film cannisters make great little shakers, and small plastic soda bottles make great maracas - add some holiday stickers to brighten them up. Kids will have fun experimenting with the different sounds that the containers make.

Kids will also find plenty of uses for paper towel rolls, toilet paper rolls, and of course during the Christmas season, wrapping paper rolls. In the hands of a child, the useless brown paper turns magically into a horn or kazoo. Parents can help with a kazoo by covering the end with waxed paper and poking a hole in the end of it.

This is also a great time of year to find bells. Large jingle bell ornaments (make sure they make a nice sound!) can just be looped on a short ribbon to go around a wrist. Smaller ones can be sew to felt shapes - make either simple rectangles or in Christmas shapes. Use heavy duty thread. You can also make an easy wrist/ankle band with felt and a bit of velcro.

Then turn on some music, and have a parade!