Kids love to make noise and they’ll do it all on their own without any help or preparation. But sometimes, when I need a little distraction, I like to give my son some noise makers that he doesn’t usually get to play with. I use some of the following items:

• boxed pasta
• macaroni and cheese
• scrapbooking embellishments, unopened in those plastic containers
• nuts or beans in a sealed container
• rice or rocks in a sealed plastic egg
• pencils/crayons in a shoe box

The most important thing is to make sure your child can’t get inside the noise maker to make a mess of its contents. As long as your container is secure, your child can shake away and experiment with the different kinds of noises and volumes each object makes.

If you’re really ambitious, you can even teach him/her simple rhythms and get that music education started or ask your child to guess what’s inside. Shake away!