Here's a page of links with lots of interesting information or games for children. This a personal selection of the very best websites on classical music for kids that are available. If you want your site to be included I would be happy to look at it, but submission is not automatic.

I'm giving several links to the BBC site, because I didn't find it particularly easy to find all the pages I was looking for from any part of the site.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/parents/ is particularly good on early years under the heading “your child,” and on “learning an instrument”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/orchestras/ The guide to the orchestra shows the sound of the instruments and how they sound in solo performance. There are many guides on different sites. This is a good one, giving examples in well known pieces how an instrument sounds. Once you've found the page it is full of useful and interesting information

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/makingtracks/ This has several musical games for primary age children. Those I particularly like are the Gamelan game – which allows a child to “practise” the instrument then add their part into an orchestra. For the young hardened computer game addict, Peer Gynt allows them to zap trolls as the music plays...Machines puts percussion music together but is a more complex game – probably for over 8 year olds.

http://bongoclub.org.uk is a great online resource for early years music making, full of ideas and inspiration. Hosted by Youth Music, the website aims to encourage and support parents and early years practitioners in providing music making for 0 – 5 year olds. The site provides lots of research to back up the idea the music making and singing have many positive effects on very young children. Anyone in any doubt should read the information in the parents section. It also has lots of useful links to local music groups under the heading “in your area.”

http://www.classicsforkids.com/music/ This site has been created by Cincinnati Classical Public Radio and has some great resources for children, including my favourite part of the site which give introductions to about forty different pieces of music, each lasting six minutes.

http://kusc.org/kids/familylistening/index.htm Click on “family listening activity” which compares several clips of water music. You can listen to different treatment of still and moving water from a number of composers. It's my favourite site to explain to children, or even teenagers how music conveys mood. I've now seen something like this site elsewhere, but this is the original, and in my view the best. Scheherezade gives you the story alongside the music, where children have to find the word “continue” by slowly hovering a mouse over the picture. Great idea but frustrating when you can't find the word.

http://www.philharmonia.co.uk/thesoundexchange There is a great deal of information on this site, from how instruments of the orchestra sound for newcomers to classical music, to thousands of sound samples which can be put together to create your own music, and explanations as to how to create every sound on each instrument.

Did You Know?

Cavatina Chamber Music Trust offers FREE tickets to students between 8 and 22 at a range of chamber concerts throughout the UK? They take the top chamber ensembles into schools all over the country, completely free of charge.

CAVATINA aims to attract young people to the fantastic world of chamber music by visiting schools and promoting Family Concerts performed by some of the greatest professional chamber musicians who impart their love and excitement of this music to both children and adults.

CAVATINA takes Young People to Chamber Music & Chamber Music to Young People - check out their website! http://www.cavatina.net