what do you do with a recorder when your child is done with it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Throw it away. As a musician, they are the worst introduction to instrumental music a child could ever have. Don't pass it on.

That's not true at all! They are the perfect first instrument for many and are great at developing finger dexterity and allowing them to actually play a song by themselves. My that my children learned was Amazing Grace followed by Ode to Joy.

100% agree. I don't get the hate towards recorders. It also feels a lot like snobbery "well, my kid already plays violin and piano, why do they need this?" Umm, because it's a requirement and not everyone has those opportunities?... Just suck it up and wear headphones during practice if it's so awful. And if little Larlo is already such an expert in other instruments, presumably he can quickly figure out the recorder? I think it's nice that all kids have the option to do this and actually learn an instrument. I actually wish they would do it for longer than 3 months in 3rd grade or however long they do it.

And for the musician poster above... you can actually play the recorder at a professional level (look up some videos on this). I have a friend who majored in recorder performance in college.

In terms of what to do with it after... keep it in case the kid wants to play it when fancy strikes! (I actually bought a recorder as an adult, I should try to dig it up again!)

[Anonymous]

We didn't pay for it, plan to donate when my kid is done with elementary.

[Anonymous]

We bought a dollar store one thinking it was the same but the teacher gave us one from a previous student which was a Yamaha. We then quickly realized the difference and will plan to past on to the next student when we are done.

I think it’s a waste to throw it away. Sure it has a little tooth marks as all kids will bite it a little due to nervousness maybe but it’s not like the kids will chew it till it looks disgusting or have it as food!

My kids didn’t mind getting one that was hand me down though I think it irks parents more than the child. We just washed in through the dishwasher and it’s clean.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Throw it away. As a musician, they are the worst introduction to instrumental music a child could ever have. Don't pass it on.

That's not true at all! They are the perfect first instrument for many and are great at developing finger dexterity and allowing them to actually play a song by themselves. My that my children learned was Amazing Grace followed by Ode to Joy.

100% agree. I don't get the hate towards recorders. It also feels a lot like snobbery "well, my kid already plays violin and piano, why do they need this?" Umm, because it's a requirement and not everyone has those opportunities?... Just suck it up and wear headphones during practice if it's so awful.

Yup. We were poor immigrants and if not for the recorder I’d never have played anything as a kid. Thanks to a little plastic recorder in 4th grade, I learned to read the treble clef. That helped me teach myself some things on the keyboard, later when the Internet came along. When my little kids learned piano decades later, I could help them when they had questions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DDs is inexplicably in the bathroom and she uses it when she’s on the toilet for a while.

Haha, this is gross and hilarious at the same time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DDs is inexplicably in the bathroom and she uses it when she’s on the toilet for a while.

Haha, this is gross and hilarious at the same time.

My younger dd does that too. that's because she is banished by her elder sister from most parts of the house and we do not have a basement. Plus she is always having her spit drip out so much at the other end that she is banned from the dining table too! Our school also has the donation policy and we will be happy to give hers up after this year!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here -- it's not that I want to keep it, I just hate throwing that much plastic into the waste stream when it is in very good condition and has some use (since they are required for literally thousands of kids in my FCPS district.) We try to reduce and reuse if we can.

It can be recycled.

[Anonymous]

We have just given up our daughters to the school as well. It has endured 3 years of her spit and received lots of torture from being dropped so many times but yet and also given lots of torture. It will live on for the next three years hopefully!!

[Anonymous]

Got here because I was trying to reply another thread on recorders. The comments here are funny.

I kept mine. Intact with my tooth marks and stickers from 25 years ago. Will keep my kids too for their memories and their doodles that are on theirs! I think one wrote squid game on it. 25 years from now, it will be funny.

[Anonymous]

We gave ours to our neighbor. Neighbors' Girl and her sister came over and then played with my daughters recorder. I think the older girl already had one but it was the dollar store's and ours was the standard yamaha.We let them take both home as my daughter somehow ended up with two from one of her friends maybe?

Didn't have to wash it, erase name on case etc. Best thing to gift! At least there is two less in the world making to the dumpster

[Anonymous]

I hid it under my sink in case one of my other kids needed it.

[Anonymous]

Stick it in a drawer and forget about it.
My college kid went on to sing in his school choir and a youth choir. My high schooler is an accomplished violinist and concertmaster of her youth orchestra. Their 4th grade recorder year was an unmitigated disaster, because their fingers were too small to close the holes completely. When we move, we'll probably throw away half the contents of our house, and that's when we'll find their old recorder...

[Anonymous]

I still had my 5th grade recorder, a Japanese Suzuki from the 80s. I jammed with my kids when they got theirs.

[Anonymous]

I yeeted it to the far corner of our attic. Technically not thrown away, functionally I never have to hear it again!

[Anonymous]

$hitcan. Immediately. All 3 of them.