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Our plan is to try fiddle at age 5. We won't force it. I probably wouldn't do it until she asked, but it's important to my husband. There's a great local place that has lessons that are very kid friendly. We will see how it goes.

My husband's family did violin beginning at a young age. My mother in law is only a solid 30% of my resistance, but at least 70% of why we will do fiddle instead of violin.

@Silva: I'm pretty sure fiddle is a colloquial term for violin.

DS is really interested in watching my mom play various instruments (she's a professional musician) so we may try the violin with Suzuki method at 3, which is pretty much the youngest you can do. No pressure though. Of course my mom's sure he'll be a prodigy .

Lo is in "music class" now at age 2, but it's not an instrument--it's jump and dance around while the teachers sing/play instruments and totally unstructured.

both my brother and I started violin lessons at 5 via Suzuki method and I would def consider starting that when lo is 4 or 5. Especially since I could sort of get back into playing myself to help lo learn--there's a strong emphasis in parent involvement during practicing. I think Suzuki has a harsh, "tiger-mom"-y reputation, but my teacher growing up was all about positivity and joy in it: his motto was "practice doesn't make perfect, practice makes it easier" which I think is fantastic--it was my motto when taking the GREs before grad school too!

@lamariniere: I think it would be so helpful to play with! My mom never played, but she started us with Suzuki because of the parental involvement aspect: she worked and wanted to have a structured, bonding activity with us. I still have muscle memory for playing a few songs on the violin--I mean, I suck and couldn't join an orchestra today anymore, but I can def play "Twinkle Twinkle" still, haha

DH is a professional musician, so DD will absolutely take lessons. Not sure what instrument, though, as she's only 2.5 and hasn't shown a particular affinity for any one instrument yet. She likes to dabble on our piano, her toy drum set, DH's guitar (which she loves to "tune," much to his chagrin, haha) and whatever else is around. Right now we're just encouraging her to have fun with it. I think we'll probably start her in lessons around 4-ish, but I told DH that music stuff is pretty much his responsibility. But if/when she takes piano lessons, I do plan to take them with her -- I wanted to learn as a kid and couldn't.

Yes they will both have to do music lessons starting in elementary school. But we'll let them pick their instrument. And only "make" them do it for a couple years. Then, if they choose not to continue, that's fine. I'm big on pushing my kids to be exposed to a lot of things, but then letting them decide if it's something they want to stick with or not.

I would like to have my daughter start piano lessons soon. She's almost 4. The problem is finding the time in our schedule.

My DD started Suzuki cello lessons at 2 years and 8 months. She asked for them because my DH also plays, and I play the piano. we have a lot of musician friends who come over to play music, and 2 of her grandparents play instruments. I think DD pretty much thinks everybody plays an instrument.

I know 2 years is really young, but we made sure that we got a full assessment on readiness from the music school, and she passed. She loves performing and going to her lessons, but doesn't like practicing too much. I can't say I blame her. It's been a terrific experience in general and we are very proud.

@lamariniere: I work with a woman that was a former classical piano teacher. She taught really young kiddos. She said that its her recommendation to wait until they are at least 5. She said for herself she was asking for lessons really young and her parents finally gave in and put her in lessons at 8.