Music for my kids...

So, my kids love listening to classical music. My 5-yr old son likes rhythmic brassy stuff and drums, especially tympani, like The Roman Trilogy, Danse Bacchanale. My 3-yr old daughter likes double bass and trumpet, and likes in the Hall of the Mountain King and Also Sprach Zarathustra opening Prelude (along with Gabby's Dollhouse Suite).

Anyway, they're always asking which instrument is playing. I thought it might be a good idea to show them the kid stuff. Saint-Saens, Prokofiev, Britten, etc... Nope. Hard pass. They recently just started listened to Ravel's Bolero and I've since realised it's actually perfect for my kids. It introduces most instruments as solo and then groups of instruments. My daughter likes the double bass part too. They can clearly see which instrument is playing if we watch it together (Dudamel takes it a bit slow which I think is great). Learning what it sounds like, what it looks like, and its name all wrapped up neatly in one tune.

I don't think it was intended for that, but it's great! Just throwing that out there for anyone.

Disclaimer: I don't force them to listen to anything. I never forced classical music on them. They just like it. I listen to it, they were curious, so I showed it to them. They don't like a lot of it, but there are some winners. That's all my son ever requests, my daughter is a bit more open-minded than I am, so she requests Wiggles, Gabby, Bluey (which I low-key love) and those two orchestral tunes I already mentioned.

Edit: Thanks for the suggestions, but I'm not looking for them. I know more literature than I'd like to admit. I was merely saying that Bolero is great at introducing instruments to kids, just like Carnival, or Britten.