Here We Go My Little One...

When music is part of the everyday routine, songs can help your child know what to expect and feel more secure. For instance, if you always sing a lullaby at bedtime or naptime, your child will come to see this as a cue for "go to sleep."

Here are some other ways music can help your child make transitions through the day:

•   picking up toys ("toys away, toys away, it's time to put the toys away")

•   brushing teeth ("brushing, brushing, brushing teeth," sung to the tune of "London Bridge Is Falling Down")

•   taking a bath ("Now it's bath time, now it's bath time, yes, it is" sung to the tune of "Are You Sleeping")

•   make up your own words for transitions using one of my favorites from Busy Days! – “Here We Go”  Here we go my little one, in the car seat, in the car seat, riding to the  __________(you fill in the blank)

In addition, you can use music to alter your child's mood — and your own.  While soft, gentle music seems just right for bedtime, louder, bouncier music could be just the boost you both need when it's time to clean up the toys.  Remember how relaxed we all are in class during our rocking segment?  And how much fun did we have dancing to songs like Mama Paquita?  This week, try  to weave some of these into your routine, and let’s share our stories in class next week.

Foundations of Learning from Class:
Animal Sounds: Animal sounds help children explore and expand their speaking and singing vocal ranges. Their simple structures (one or two syllables with simple vowel and consonant combinations) and repeated nature make them fun and easy for children to imitate, and the wide range of sounds (high and short bird sounds, long and low moos, middle-range sheep and duck sounds) allow children to expand their vocal capabilities.

Steady Beat:  Baby loves listening to thesteady beat when played, sung, or chanted.  The draw of the steady beat may be its similarity to the heartbeat that Baby experienced up close for 9 months.

Timbre: The distinctive quality of a sound (voice, instrument, or sound in nature) is called its timber (pronounced “tam-ber”, as in tambourine). There are so many different kinds of sounds: voices, instruments, and animal sounds each have their own timbre. Timbre is the quality that allows you to distinguish the sound of the saxophone from the sound of a trumpet. Children learn how to distinguish sounds and how to produce the subtleties of language and music by experiencing a wide variety of sounds and their small yet important differences.

Vocal Development:  When adults make glissando sounds with their voices, babies hear the range of sounds, including the higher pitches they can most easily imitate.  When babies first begin to develop language, their vocal range is limited to about one-fifth of the full adult range.  If they’re encouraged to play with the vocal gliding sounds themselves, they explore the full range of their voices which helps advance both their singing and speaking voices.