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The best way to get Rebecca out of a toddler meltdown is to start singing "If your Happy and You Know It". Works well most of the time. Some other favorites not mentioned in other posts: Hokey PokeyAll Around the Mulberry Bush (she loves the "pop" at the end)Old McDonaldB I N G OABCD...This is the Way We ...(with customized lyrics depending on what we want to demonstrate)Mary Had a Little LambRing Around the RosieThe Farmer in the Dell and some we have made up lyrics for using existing melodies.
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Both of my kids love Itsy Bitsy Spider & Old McDonald. Hayden sings "Tvinkle Tvinkle Yettle Staaad" (his actual pronounciation) with my mother.
They are both also huge fans of Laurie Berkner. "Bumble Bee" "I have a Hat" "Dinosaur"
and Dave Zanes "House Party Time" The theme songs to "64 zoo lane" "Maisy" "Franklin" & "Miffy" are also big hits in our house. (Can you tell we watch Noggin all the time? :p )
We do Row Row Row Your Boat as an interactive song. Baby on my lap, I hold their hands, and as I say Row, I "row" them back, and forth.
We sing it once at normal tempo, once really slow (and for the slow ones I rock them way back to where they are looking upside down) and really fast (more of a shimmie than a row).
They love Pony Boy, too, which is a rocking horse game that is the best glute workout I have ever found.
We sing and sign the alphabet song just for fun.
To try to encourage sleep, I walked up and down the halls of the Ukraine singing Patsy Cline's I Go Out Walking...after midnight...out in the moonlight.
I sing three lullabies each night...a version of Brahm's, Hushabye (the pretty ponies song) and Cumbya.
We sing for play: hokie pokie, the bean bag dance, head shoulder knees and tows, wheels on the bus, etc.
My son has a leaning toward Johny Cash and anything train. He can sing almost all of the ballad "City of New Orleans" and his first song was Johny and June Carter Cash's "Jackson" (a song whose lyrics are not at all ones you would teach a young child). He does "Orange Blossom Special" and "RockThousand Line (Rock Island Line."
I sing makeup songs, especially when the kids are in a funk...making silly rhymes of their names.
Singing for your children is one of the greatest pleasures of parenthood. They have yet to tell me to sing quieter, or that I am hopelessly off key and flat. This despite the fact that I am singing loudly, off key and completely flat. Oh...and I have to sometimes hum through some of the lyrics I forget.
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Ok -- our daughter's name is Karina, so we adapted it to the old country/western/hillbilly song (Corina, Corina): "Karina, Karina, where you been so long?Karina, Karina, etc., etc." -- a family fave and delighted her in the hotel room in Moscow. "Nicky Nooshun" -- made-up family song my Mom sang to me and my sister while scratching our backs in bed (and sung to the tune of "Revive Us Again" (!)) Later, trying to teach her some French, we did "Sur le Point D'Avignon" -- "A La Claire Fontaigne" -- and (her FAVE, shockingly) "Allez Venez M'lord". We went through a "Showboat" phase ("Old Man River"). Long stretch of ancient songs handed down through the family (Wreck of the Old 97, Barbara Allen, The Little Rosewood Casket, Old Buena Vista's Bloody Field, etc., etc.) Now we're into a couple of old English songs -- (And did those feet, in Ancient times, Walk upon England's mountains green....) and also one that was sung at Princess Di's wedding AND funeral: "I vow to thee, my country, All earthly things above...." And when all else fails, and nothing seems to satisfy, try: Hush little baby don't say a wordMama's gonna buy you a mockingbird -If that mockingbird won't sing,Mama's gonna buy you a diamond ring.If that diamond ring turns brass,Mama's gonna buy you a looking glass.If that looking glass gets broke,Mama's gonna buy you a billy goat.If that billy goat won't pull,Mama's gonna buy you a cart and bull.If that cart and bull turn over,Mama's gonna buy you a dog named Rover.If that dog named Rover won't bark,Mama's gonna buy you a horse and cart.If that horse and cart fall down,You'll still be the prettiest baby in town. What a comforting song, don't you think? Have a happy!
My daugter's favorite (2 1/2)
This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine
Hokey pokey
All wiggles songs
On Top of Spaghetti
Who Let the Dogs Out (my DH intro'd her)
I'm a little teapot
C is for Cookie which we change and do D is for Daddy, M is for Mommy, ect - she knows the letters for all her cousins, aunts, uncles and assorted pets in the extended family and her friends
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DD is 6 months old and loves it when anybody sings. She really likes it at church.
I sing:
I Will (Beatles)
Could Not Ask For More (Sara Evans)
Itsy Bitsy Spider
Sing a Song of Sixpence
Hush Little Baby
Back to Pooh Corner (Kenny Loggins)
I bought the CD Back to Pooh Corner by Kenny Loggins before we were even matched. Dd loves that CD. It is one of the things that will totally calm her down if she is having a meltdown.
Jennifer