Kids Music Day – October 7, 2022, history significance
Kids Music Day is celebrated every year on the first Friday of October, on October 7 this year, to inspire kids to assimilate music into their lives. As adults, we can make plans to make this day memorable for both our kids and us.
HISTORY OF KIDS MUSIC DAY
It is a no-brainer that participating in making, playing, or even listening to music has solid academic and social benefits, especially for kids. It uplifts the mood, alleviates stress, and promotes mindful concentration among kids while they cope with the pressures of their academic pursuits.
Music education, both formal and informal, is known to have long-lasting and positive effects on many of American society’s most celebrated and successful individuals, including scientists, inventors, doctors, and entrepreneurs.
The advantages of engaging in music become more pronounced with kids. Learning to play a musical instrument or merely hum melodies helps them focus and realize their full potential. A day dedicated to music can go a long way in motivating kids to take up music as an active hobby and maybe later as a full-time profession. Realizing this, Keep Music Alive, a non-profit organization that aims to help children leverage music in their education, as therapy, and for social benefits, founded Kids Music Day in 2016.
By dedicating one day in a year, Kids Music Day endeavors to inspire kids to actively enjoy the benefits of music. Kids Music Day also aims to inculcate the habit of living in the present moment in kids. Dabbling with music can help them understand the value of mindfully focusing on an activity to maximize its benefits.
Kids Music Day, which started in the United States as an experiment, has become a movement spreading rapidly across North America. Apart from the U.S., some locations in Canada are also now celebrating it.
KIDS MUSIC DAY TIMELINE
October 7, 2016
The First Kids Music Day
Over 80 music schools across 24 states in America come together for a music promotion event, leading to the birth of the day.
October 6, 2017
The Melody Spreads
More music-related organizations, including schools and retail stores in the U.S. and Canada, celebrate the second annual Kids Music Day.
October 5, 2018
Kids Music Day Spreads its Wings
Informal reports suggest that over 750 locations in the U.S., Canada, and beyond hold celebrations on the third Kids Music Day.
October 2, 2020
A Milestone Fifth Anniversary
Nearly 1,000 music schools, music stores, and other music organizations across the U.S. and Canada conduct special events and physical and virtual promotions to celebrate the fifth anniversary of Kids Music Day.
HOW TO CELEBRATE KIDS MUSIC DAY
Take out that old mouth organ
If you are a young parent or have kids in your neighborhood, spend some time with them while rummaging through your attic or garage to unearth your family’s old mouth organ or any other instrument. Charity, they say, always begins at home! Just the act of searching and coming up with old memories can be therapeutic. Also, it’ll lead to some healthy, gadget-free bonding time at home.
Take guitar or piano lessons with kids
If you have acquaintances who play musical instruments, call them over to impart some lessons to the kids in your neighborhood. Let music float through the air in your vicinity that day. If you don’t have many kids around you, join the fun at music libraries or music stores. Virtual sessions are also fun if you are comfortable with digital mediums.
Organize sing-along sessions
Round up the kids in your local school or community for sing-along sessions. The smaller kids can sing nursery rhymes while the older ones can render patriotic or folk songs. A couple of people can play accompanying music on their guitars and percussion instruments. Just seeing a group crooning together can stoke the kids’ interest in music.
5 CELEBRITIES WHO HAVE SUPPORTED KIDS MUSIC DAY
Matthew Morrison
The television and Broadway star was the official spokesperson for the fifth edition of Kids Music Day in 2020.
Julie Andrews
An iconic Oscar-winning actress who has carved a niche through her work in musicals and children’s entertainment.
Jack Black
An actor and musician, he starred in iconic hits such as “Kung-Fu Panda” and “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.”
Vanessa Williams
A singer and actress, she was the first African-American to be crowned Miss America, in 1984.
Mandy Harvey
The fourth-place winner from Season 12 of “America’s Got Talent,” she’s a jazz and pop artist who staunchly believes that music can help dismantle barriers.
WHY WE LOVE KIDS MUSIC DAY?
Music helps develop kids’ social skills
The growing-up years of many kids are filled with the challenges of adapting socially. With most kids glued to their gadgets, they are living in virtual silos and, at times, forget how to interact socially in the real world. Learning to play a musical instrument or joining a social or communal singing group will help them cross into the physical world confidently. It’ll help them develop their social, interpersonal, and even leadership skills.
It’s fun and helps grown-ups bond with kids
Imagine you and your kid singing a duet on a karaoke system. Doesn’t it sound fun? Won’t it be better if they could strum a tune with you trying to recognize it? There are a zillion ways in which grown-ups can bond with kids over music. It leads to healthier and engaged relationships, especially between parents and their children.
It can be therapeutic
When do babies sleep the best? Tuck them into bed with a lullaby, and they go to sleep within no time. You can bet your last dollar that the earliest and happiest memories that your parents have of you as children were when either or both of you were singing and dancing. Notice how listening to good music can take your mind off that throbbing migraine in your head. Music can be therapeutic and help children cope better with stress.
