The Benefits of Karaoke for Kids

Karaoke is fun, right?  Even people who can’t sing (like me!) enjoy getting together with friends and family to blow off some steam by singing some of their favorite tunes together.  It’s somehow both energizing and relaxing at once, and it’s just an all around good time.  Karaoke has so much more to offer than entertainment though–especially for kids.  Let’s talk a little about how that’s true.

Cognitive Benefits.  Singing can can improve memory, concentration, and listening skills.  It encourages language development by naturally teaching pronunciation, rhyming, parts of speech, sentence structure, and vocabulary.

Physical Health Benefits.  Singing is an aerobic exercise!  It gives your cardio-vascular system a workout, which leads to oxygenation of the blood and improved overall circulation.  Singing can also reduce stress hormones and increase proteins of the immune system.  Head and neck muscles are exercised as well, and this encourages the emptying of the Eustachian tubes, which decreases the chances of developing middle ear infections.

Social and Emotional Benefits.  Singing can help express emotions and enhance communication with others.  It promotes self-esteem and builds confidence that will carry over into other situations.  Singing karaoke with friends can create special bonds and even lead to making new friends.

Now imagine your child taking center stage (or the center of the living room) with a microphone in his hand.  He’s surrounded by friends and/or family, and he’s belting out a song that means something to him.  Can you see how all of those benefits might apply?  I’ve been singing to and with my kids since day one, and they now have a love of singing and music that I continue to encourage.  How?  Well, we do a lot of karaoke!

Obviously, you’re not going to take your kids to the local bar on a Saturday night, but luckily, there are many different karaoke machines that you can get for your home.  We have regular family karaoke nights, and we sometimes bring our karaoke party to friends’ houses, so our first purchase was a relatively large model from Pyle. The sound is great for the price, it comes with a screen or you can connect it to a TV, and it’s portable.  Like I said though, it is rather large, and it’s a bit too complicated (and expensive) for a younger child to use on her own.

For more kid-friendly options, I like Singing Machine.  We have the Groove Cube, which my daughter just loves because of all the colorful lights and the ability to make herself echo.  I like that it it will play music from CDs/CD+Gs, Bluetooth, or an MP3 player via the line-in connection.  What’s really fun about this one is that you can record your singing directly onto a USB drive.  (Let me tell you:  that’s something my daughter never gets tired of doing.)  Cables are included to connect it to a TV so you can see the lyrics.  It’s got all the features we really need, but it doesn’t cost hundreds of dollars, and it’s something my kids can use without any help from the parents.

If the recording feature isn’t something you’re interested in paying extra for, then you can try something like this model.  It’s missing that one feature, but it’s still a lot of fun, and it’s less expensive.  When you’re buying things for kids, sometimes that’s the most important factor.  Singing Machine also has a newer line of machines that are designed specifically for kids, and it’s appropriately named the Kids Series.  I haven’t tried anything from this line yet, but I like that they’re small, super portable, and simple for younger kids to use.  That’s the easiest way to encourage them to sing and reap all of those amazing benefits!

Do you have a karaoke machine at home?  If you have one you think is perfect for kids, I’d love to hear about it!