Most of us have some songs we can recall from our childhood. Start singing and the tune and the words will probably come back to you. And if you’re in a Kindermusik class, you are enjoying a growing repertoire of songs to pull out and sing for almost any occasion!
Why Sing
Singing to a child is a priceless gift. It doesn’t matter if you feel like your voice is not star quality; to your child, the sound of your voice is the best sound in the whole world. According to Scholastic Parent & Child Magazine (Dec/Jan 1999), singing with and to your child can:
- calm when upset, soothe fears, and reduce irritability;
- enhance a child’s grasp of language and sense of beauty;
- remind a child that he/she is cherished and loved;
- improve communication and intimate bonding between parent and child.
How to Sing
- Bounce your child in your lap and sing a song together.
- Pick out individual words or groups of words from the song and let your child echo you. Change your voice, using lots of inflection.
- Accompany yourselves by tapping wooden or plastic spoons together with a beat.
- Dance while you sing.
- Put your own words to a song – whatever fits the occasion or the task at hand.
- Let a song inspire dress-up and pretend play.
Take the song, “The Muffin Man,” for example. The words are:
Do you know the muffin man, the muffin man, the muffin man?
Do you know the muffin man who lives in Drury Lane?
Yes, I know the muffin man, the muffin man, the muffin man.
Yes, I know the muffin man who lives in Drury Lane.
You can have fun singing, adapting, and playing with this song in many ways. Here are just a few ideas to get you started:
- Try inserting another occupation, like “the bakery lady,” “the lawn mower man,” “the fireman,” or “our doctor friend.”
- Substitute your own street name for Drury Lane.
- Accompany yourself by tapping a spoon on a muffin pan.
- Explore the many different kinds of sounds you can make as you tap, rub, or scrape the muffin tin.
- Create a muffin game.
- Put on an apron and/or a chef’s hat and then bake some muffins together – or just pretend to do so!
- Play with the question and answer part of the song.
- Come up with your own muffin song.
Shared by Theresa Case, who has an award-winning Kindermusik program at Piano Central Studios in Greenville, SC.