I found these toy instruments on Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000IGEEC6/?tag=googhydr-20&hvadid=4076643115&ref=pd_sl_27z26wx9b6_b
http://www.amazon.com/Silver-Plastic-Trumpet-16-5-Bontempi/dp/B00000K3SP/ref=pd_bxgy_t_img_b
http://www.amazon.com/The-Original-Toy-Company-CL4431/dp/B00000K3VR/ref=pd_bxgy_t_img_c
Was wondering what you thought of these or if you have a better piano etc.
Friends of mine got the toy piano for their son and he really seems to enjoy it, but he mostly just plonks at it. I had been going back and forth about what type of instrument to get. Because I am wanting to teach pitch, I was more concerned about getting an instrument with correct pitch, and opted for a full size keyboard. Although I do think that one of these toys may be easier for a child to start playing on because they have smaller keys that little fingers can reach.
Various percussion instruments are great for teching child rhytm, we have small ( but actual, real) drum, bungos, maracas, and a few others. Xylofon is great, real keyboard is good for united activities, so would be a guitar, if the parents know how to play those and make it fun…
We do perfect pitch musical program, and part of it is using percussion instruments to play along some of the melodies. My daughter is 10 months and she loves that, and asks to do it.
I would say try to get the ones that not just look like the instruments but actually can sound or perform close to the real ones. I am not familiar with the ones that you put the links for. But from my experience wind instruments are not easy for the beginners. It is almost impossible to get a good sound from fluite, saxofon or trumpet, even from the real one, so it might be discouraging for a child. But may be these ones are done in some special way, I am not sure. On the other hand if you are getting it just for looks, and you do not really concerned about sounds, then they do look really cute.
I think getting instrument that can produce good sound without specialised training needed, like piano ( even toy piano), xylofon, percussion group. Would work better in getting a child interested and musically involved.
Hope this helps, these are just some thoughts
How are you teaching perfect pitch?
I am looking at purchasing
for Christmas to teach perfect pitch.
Does this sound like a good idea?
Sonds like a fun project and a good tool, it looks like you will be able to use it much more then more “toy”-ish sax or flute. I personally would get it!
For perfect pitch/musical training I am using some materials I have, and I also tryingto create some additional ones. Some activities I have already been doing, some I’ve seen other Home schooling parents do.
We use guitar, xylophone and electric keyboard ( we do not have piano right now, as we were traveling a lot). I do need to get more consistent, but I am also working on making some lesson plans so I can start on more consistent training within a month or so.
So far we did a lot of classical music listening, my husband plays some classical guitar for her and she watches and trying to copy or uses her little drum or bangos for rhytm, she loves that.
We have some audio files with recorded notes played, following with the child guessing the right note ( part of the program we have), I usually put it on as she has her independent play, so she can hear it o the background and she really pays attention.
Then we have a series of audio files that were specifically created for teaching young children perfect pitch, however they are done in Russian ( which is great for us, since this is one of the languages that she learns). But the main principal is that she is listening to a simple melody song, or action song sang by a child, then the same song is performed with the names of the musical notes ( do, re, etc.) instead of words, and then the third time the same song is performed with additional percussion instruments with no words, so child can join in and use his/her own percussion instrument ( thus rhytm recognition and training), some songs are dome as action songs ( so when the child listens to the first version they can do some action with parent ( but she is still too young for that so we just listening)
I am planning to add also some LR files to this system, just thinking on that these days.
Then we also show her some LR files with instruments, musical notes; Trebellina for entertainment. We also have another program with different musical instruments , EK about them and how they sound (in Russian) we started on that and she likes that.
I am planning to make flashcards with musical notes and combinations, have not done it yet though. The use the flashcards in combination with our keyboard and xylophone.
Oh yes, she also watches some clips of young children performing different classical pieces on various instruments and we take her to see some live performing sometimes, and explain about different instruments
These are just some tips, hope this is a help. 
Thank you for your suggestions. Colin is very musical I think. I can play the piano from early childhood lessons but I am not very musical. Colin’s other side of the family are very good singers so I think he gets his musical gene from them. I have played classical music for Colin since he was born. I play him the instruments from Little Reader he loves it. He has a drum and shaker and toy piano. We play the instruments and march around the house. March was one of his first spoken words. He loves it.
You speak of these programs you use can you be more specific. What is the name of them? Can they be purchased?
I would appreciate any Little Reader lessons you can share to help teach music with sound files :).
Of course I will share LR lessons, as I will put them together. It has been so busy for us lately that I stil need to plan and organise myself to do that 
That is a best thing about community like this, – that we can all combine our resources and research, and it really helps
I was speaking of the program that I have from Russia
"Then we have a series of audio files that were specifically created for teaching young children perfect pitch, however they are done in Russian ( which is great for us, since this is one of the languages that she learns). But the main principal is that she is listening to a simple melody song, or action song sang by a child, then the same song is performed with the names of the musical notes ( do, re, etc.) instead of words, and then the third time the same song is performed with additional percussion instruments with no words, so child can join in and use his/her own percussion instrument ( thus rhytm recognition and training), some songs are dome as action songs ( so when the child listens to the first version they can do some action with parent ( but she is still too young for that so we just listening)
That is why I just described how they are done:
Another one ( basically the same principal):
action songs ( so when the child listens they can do some action with parent, march or move in rhytm)
Part of the song is sang with notes names instead of words
different parts of the song are different rhytms and child is asked to do different actions depending on that ( we do not do actions yet, as she is stil little)
Then also recordings of different notes and their combinations, and child guessing it ( but with delay, so you can first think about which note is that)
This is basic description. If you want, send me PM and I can share some of these with you, but like I said I am not sure it will work for you as they are sone in Russian… Or if you are still interested ( in-spite Russian :biggrin: ), I can look up the company that sells them…
Hope this helps.
I can not type much as my baby is in my arms now