What do you sing?

This month’s radio program is an interview with Roslyn Duffy.
Managing the Top 3 Preschool Problems
Rae Pica and Roslyn Duffy
Roslyn Duffy is a counselor, mother and author who co-wrote Positive Discipline for Preschoolers and Positive Discipline: The First Three Years with Jane Nelsen and Cheryl Erwin. In addition, she also co-wrote Positive Discipline: A Teacher’s A-Z Guide (with Jane, Cheryl and others). After leaving as co-director of The Learning Tree Montessori Childcare, she began The Better Living Institute and has her own private practice.
Listen here

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Do you sing?

We like to have a singing session three or four times a week. Mostly it’s just our voices. But sometimes we get out instruments. Most of the [tag]instruments[/tag] are homemade and the kids help make them. They love their creations and seem to look after them more.
If we have all the wiggles out we sit around the piano playing the Usborne Nursery Rhyme Songbook
and sing but mostly we just sing.
On a recent car journey I taught them the Pizza Hut song.  Mostly because I was surprised that my BG  reported that his last school trip to a local museum  no one sang on the bus. Whenever we went on trips we sang so much especially the call and response songs that I think we gave ourselves a headache. So now he has one up his sleeve and we hear it all the time……

I try and find a new [tag]song[/tag] to [tag]sing[/tag] each week.
• I sing it. They try to join in. That way works well.
• I also sing one line and they sing the same line. That way works well too.

We change up songs and add in our own version all the time. It’s great for language work and they don’t even realise they are doing it. If you listen to their version their word substitutions are really cute.

We do have a lot of CDs of [tag]nursery rhymes[/tag] and [tag]children’s songs[/tag]. We like to sing so we sing together with or without the CD.  I deliberately get the song wrong at times. They will correct me. **A word of caution though if you’re used to a [tag]traditional rhyme[/tag] be careful with your cds. Lots of these new Cds have modern versions of well known rhymes. **

Singing is fun; good for memory and a mood lifter. It’s portable and done almost anywhere.
 10 fat sausages sizzling in a pan saved me last week in a longer than anticipated line with three cranky kids just before lunchtime/naptime and “I’m fed up of being in the line time”. I sang it really softly with the actions. They all joined in and were smiling-albeit briefly- and a little less cranky. They started requests. Having a selection of songs they could join in with saved us from a three-way meltdown.

There are so many different types of songs- [tag]action songs[/tag] are the best for the little ones because they can learn them, predict them and do them well with or without good clear language.

Worried about your singing voice- oh don’t be. Getting together as friends for a playdate provides a good opportunity for play, story and song. Singalong with a CD is you’re self conscious; use big and exaggerated expressions.

Here’s a video of the BG and MO singing one of the songs for this week with an added twist.

Your turn: Share the titles of your finger rhymes/action songs/nursery rhymes that are favourites in your house.