Prepare your preschoolers for music lessons

Every piano teacher gets asked, "When should my child start piano lessons?" Of course that depends a lot on the child, maybe your child exhibits a profound early interest in music, or maybe you are a "Tiger Mom" and need your child to start music lessons earlier than most. I'm not a preschool specialist, so my personal answer to the question has always been that I prefer to accept new students as "average age beginners" or older. An average age beginner is generally considered to be 6-7 years of age. Part of my piano lessons involves learning to read music and the ability to sit on a piano bench for at least part of the lesson, so an average age beginner seems right for my style of teaching.
However, there's lots parents can do at home with their preschoolers to help promote musicality and a love of music:
1. LISTEN AND EXPOSE YOUR CHILD TO VARIOUS TYPES OF MUSIC - Try to expose your child to a variety of musical styles through listening together. Exposing your child to a wide variety of types of music lets them know that there isn't just one "right" way to make music. Classical music has a tremendous range of styles including some really interesting modern classical music, like Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians or Morten Lauridsen's Lux Aeterna Choral piece. However, also be sure to listen to jazz, rags, and blues which can introduce your child to improvised music that is composed on the spot. Then, of course, listen to your own personal favorite pop, rock, rap, etc.
2. SING WITH YOUR CHILD - You don't have to be a great singer or even in tune all the time to sing with your child. Children's songs are easy to learn and singing with your child helps them with all kinds of skills like audio awareness, rhythm, and pitch recognition. In piano lessons, it can be very helpful to sing melodic lines or use words as a way to learn rhythms. If a child comes to me for lessons and has been singing at home with their family, its a big plus. The student is more likely to sing for me at lessons if they have been singing at home. Here's some more reasons to sing with your child from GoodDaysWithKids.com. I would also urge parents to use call and response songs like "Down By The Bay" and encourage your child to make up their own rhyme as part of the song. That way your child can feel like they are helping to create music.
3. ENCOURAGE YOUR CHILD TO DANCE - Dancing with music is a great way to develop a good sense of rhythm and ability to listen. You can use children's action songs like "The Bunny Hop", or just dance around the kitchen to your current favorite song while encouraging your child to dance with you. Dancing with your child creates great musical related memories and encourages them to regard music as something dynamic, not just a passive listening experience. Many of our great classical compositions that piano students learn today were originally written as dances, like the minuet, allemande, and the tango.
4. HAVE YOUR CHILD PLAY ALONG WITH MUSIC: There's nothing like getting the ol' pots and pans out and have your child drum along with the music. Playing along with music will help your child develop a sense of rhythm and ability to listen just like dancing, but now your child is helping to create the music by playing along. Of course, you don't have to use pots and pans, you could have some maracas or even a small drum or tambourine.
5. GO TO A CHILD FRIENDLY MUSICAL PERFORMANCE:  There's a lot of really great children's musical theatre out there, but there's other options as well. You could go to a concert in your local park or attend a symphony performance that caters to children. Going to live musical performances is a gift that you give your child. It helps them realize how music is made and shows them that listening and appreciating live music is important. Then when your child starts to learn music and has their own live performance, they will have a better understanding of how live performances work and the etiquette of listening and clapping.