Little Passports Early Explorers Music Kit Review - Month 3

Little Passports Early Explorers is a monthly subscription box for preschoolers ages 3-5 that introduces children to people, places and traditions from around the world. Immediately after signing up, you will receive your Traveler Kit. In the months that follow, you will receive themed activities and supplies for use in conjunction with your introductory Traveler Kit.

This month’s theme was Music. Our package arrived with a letter from Max, Mia and their dog, Toby; a postcard; a luggage tag; stickers; an activity book; descriptions of musical instruments; music cards; a CD and a musical instrument flashlight adventure.

After reading the letter from Max, Mia and Toby, my son was eager to place the enclosed stickers on the map.

We reviewed the locations of Zimbabwe, Scotland, Japan and Australia, and he placed his stickers on the corresponding places on the map that we originally received as part of the Traveler Kit.

After affixing the stickers to the map, we read about the different instruments depicted on the stickers.

Next, we read the enclosed music cards. He liked these. I wish they had included one for each musical instrument depicted in the stickers and activity books.

We followed up by reading about the symphony hall in Russia named after Tchaikovsky on the enclosed postcard.

My son became much more interested when I told him that Tchaikovsky had composed all of the music in The Nutcracker.

After reading and interacting with the map, my son turned his attention to the enclosed workbook for reinforcement of what the musical instruments look like. While none of the tasks in the workbook is at all challenging, I do like how they prompt him to talk about what he’s doing using the names of the musical instruments. This repetition will help him recognize the instruments in the future.

Activities included number games, mazes, choosing what picture was different from the others, tracing, identifying groups by size, finding similar instruments, coloring and counting. All told, these activities took about 15 minutes for my son to complete.

For our final reinforcement activity, my son manipulated his “flashlight” so he could see different pictures of musical instruments and identify them. He really enjoyed this activity!

Once we were done with all of the formal activities, we retreated into our music room to listen to the enclosed CD. I was delighted that the CD was produced by Putumayo Kids. We have a number of their CDs at home already and love them all! This was equally good. My son loved “Waltzing Matilda” and was so excited to hear a song in Mandarin that he stopped playing the drums to listen to the lyrics. I was thrilled that the CD had one of my all-time favorite songs on it: “Farewell Jamaica” (although in this version the singer is saying goodbye to his friends).

After he was done with all of the activities, my son affixed his Music sticker to the suitcase he received two months ago as part of his Traveler Kit.

Finally, our last task for the day: add this cool luggage tag to the suitcase as well.

And voilà, we’re done! What an enjoyable way to learn about musical instruments from around the world!

My son and I are both looking forward to the adventures we’ll continue to have with Little Passports Early Explorers next month! I wonder where they’ll take us next!