Thursday, July 20, 2006

Shop by educational philosophy


kido nyc. This online retailer of Montessori-inspired toys for children lets you shop by "educational philosophy." It's not cheap, though. This wooden music box costs about as much as an iPod. Still, all this open-ended searching and clicking and looking gave me a playful idea.

Make your own music boxes and have a montessori experience today (real cheap).

Produce recorded sound
This one is slightly harder because you'll need an old record. Take a sheet of paper, wind it into a cone and place a piece of tape on the seams. Tape a needle to the narrowest part of the cone. Set the needle onto your record, spin, and listen carefully. You can hear the sound.

Make a kazoo with a toilet paper tube and wax paper
Cut a small square of wax paper about one inch larger than the end of the cardboard tube. After doing that, wrap the wax paper over one of the ends of the tube and put a rubber band over the paper to hold it in place. Now, put the open end of your kazoo up to your mouth and hum a tune into it. Notice how the the kazoo buzzes and vibrates to amplify (make louder) the sound of your voice.

Water Chimes
Fill a set of glasses with different amounts of water. Eight glasses are enough to create an octave of eight notes.

No comments: