My daughter is a huge music lover and that makes me especially happy!  Her father and I both love music too and I have even played the saxophone since I was in the 5th grade.  I think that being able to read music, play music, sing or just appreciate music of all kinds can teach your child valuable skills, such as motor skills, speech and mathematics, as well as bring them a lifetime of enjoyment.

So, I was very excited to discover that Baby Genius made a toy called the All-In-One Musical Band, which helps your child discover their "inner musician" and get the tunes going!  In order to inspire Riley to create and follow her own melodies, we also had a chance to play along with the Favorite Toddler Tunes 2-CD Set too!

The Baby Genius All-In-One Musical Band is a very well-designed toy created with the toddler in mind!  The colors are bright and vibrant and they've managed to incorporate familiar animals into the different musical instruments included with this set.  My daughter doesn't know what a recorder is, but she definitely knows what a bear is and so she calls each of these instruments by the animal that is on them.

The drum itself is especially ingenious, for not only does it serve as a cool drum which can be strapped around your neck for music on the go, it also acts as a storage container for the other three instruments and drumsticks!  Now, cleanup is a breeze because all of the parts tuck neatly inside the drum.  The drum also has a large blue handle on the side so that it can be played in a variety of ways:  on its side, sitting on the ground, or strapped around the neck.

The Favorite Toddler Tunes 2-CD Set is a wonderful collection of popular children's songs that most of us know and love.  There were several on these CDs that I had honestly forgotten all about until I listened to the CD, such as:

• Little Bunny Foo Foo
• Polly Wolly Doodle
• Shoo Fly
• A Tisket, A Tasket

With 40 songs on these 2 CDs, there is bound to be plenty your child will love singing and dancing to!  Riley seemed to love these CDs and although she didn't know too many of the words, she definitely liked trying to play along with these songs on her All-In-One Musical Band.  Personally, I had mixed emotions about this 2-CD set, for I didn't really care for the new adaptations of some of these classic songs.

For instance, "If You're Happy and You Know It" and "I've Been Working on the Railroad" sounded way too modern and new for my liking.  I was hoping that these songs would be sung in the classic way and not jazzed up like they were.  Granted, there were several of the selections that were recorded in the original manner and these seemed to be the songs I liked the most.  Of course, Riley has never heard most of these songs before, so they were all the same to her!

Riley had a great time with these two products from Baby Genius and drummed, shook, tooted and played her little heart out!  When it was time for her nap, she even insisted on taking the bear recorder to bed with her.  She kept tooting on it right before she finally went to sleep.  If you have a toddler or preschool child, and want to help them cultivate a love of music, then I highly recommend both the All-In-One Musical Band and Favorite Toddler Tunes 2-CD Set from Baby Genius.