Book for 4 year old?

oceanjaws

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Hi people of the underground.
This is my first post on here.
I'm a guitar teacher, who has agreed to teach uke to a 4 year old.
I understand that is very young, but if I take it easy it could be lots of fun.
I was wondering if anyone out there had suggestions for a good book for someone so very young.
Perhaps with simple songs like row your boat.
I think it will take her a while to strum a simple chord like C before she gets to three finger things like G.
Any help very much appreciated.
Brian.
 
Looks like a great book!
not available in the UK though.
I should have said I'm in England!!
:eek:
 
Last edited:
Oceanjaws,
Bless you for wanting to teach this child. It will open up a whole new world for her. As you probably know, it will help her with her mathematics (someday), her hand-eye coordination, and enhance her creativity. And you will probably have a friend for life.
 
I'm trying to teach my 8 and 9 year old sons right now. I'm taking it easy and slowly. I don't want them to feel pressured and lose interest, but at the same time I don't want to go too slow and bore them away. They both know C, F, G, D, and Am right now. At least, they know which frets and strings to put their fingers on, but they're still having trouble getting the fretted strings to sound. We're using a soprano, but even so, my kids are small like me and they're having some reach issues. As far as books, I'm using the little book that came with my Flea and some old folk song books and children's songs books that are actually geared more for guitar, but I think they'll work o.k.
 
Hey Stan.
That's great, actually.
The nursery rhymes I can write out either as written music (in BIG font) or just teach her to sing and play some of the simpler ones with just the C chord.
That will be a great introduction to playing and singing.
Many thanks.

Brian.
 
The really young kids that I have given uke lessons to were my greatest teaching challenges. I do have 4 children ranging from age 11 to 30 so it was not just a lack of experience with little kids. My wife is better teaching uke to little kids than I am.

In trying to think over what I might do differently if I had another really young student, here are some thoughts:

Break the 1/2 hour MAX lesson into several parts

Come up with a song for the first lesson with only one chord (C) so they master, so to speak, a song the first day.
March around the house playing the uke.
Record little bits of the lesson on the computer so they can hear it played back to them.
Clapping games for time signatures.

This still leaves you with 15 minutes.

You need more fun ideas from other people.
 
Hello,

Take a look at info here:
http://www.ukuleleyes.com/issues/vol8/no2/interview.htm
http://ssrsbstaff.ednet.ns.ca/wdobson/

Also the Ukulele in the Classroom website has some free resources you can print off and would be useful in teaching young children even if you can't purchase the book. Additionally, I would encourage you to investigate if they will mail books to you (I am pretty sure they ship internationally): the series really is good. If you can get the resources shipped you may wish to get the "teacher edition" as there is a lot of good information on teaching children music with the ukulele.
 
My grand-daughter is 3 and her Mum who like me is a committed fretter wants her to have a go on the Uke. I'm thinking that if we could get her to hold it and strum - perhaps with an open tuning that would be a good start. She certainly takes a great interest in guitars and ukes and it seems a shame to put off starting her until she's older.

Any ideas anyone?

Thanks, Tom
 
It is important to get a good education before school starts. Pre-school education plays a key role in this. You can develop your child through children's books or through different activities and hobbies. For example, you can find some of this information here https://speechblubs.com/blog/july-4th-preschool-crafts/. Just don't overload your child with all the information.
 
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