Kids love Christmas. The gifts, the decorations, the treats, and the tradition can become magical memories for them. As parents, it's such a joy to observe their excitement.

If you've ever watched a preschooler try to tie their shoes, zip up their jacket, color "inside the lines," or cut paper, you know this for sure: the fine motor struggle is real at this age. All of those small muscle movements that require the eyes to tell the brain to tell the fingers, thumb and wrist to work together...it just doesn't happen overnight. It takes time and practice with a variety of activities to hone those fine motor skills that are so crucial to skills preschoolers will need to help them write, draw and care for themselves as they grow.

Even if your child is not going to be the next Beethoven or Yo-Yo Ma, adding music and movement to your child’s routine can have a great impact on their development. And not just their musical development. “A music-rich experience for children of singing, listening and moving is really bringing a very serious benefit to children as they progress into more formal learning,” says Mary Luehrisen, executive director of the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) Foundation.