Raising Creative Kids through Play, Music and Literacy
At the beginning of this year we introduced you to Aaron Nigel Smith’s album “Everyone Loves to Dance.” It is still a favorite at our house. Aaron has just released a holiday song that he recorded with his two sons and Rhythm Child. We’ve had fun groovin’ to it!
Aaron Nigel Smith – Happy Happy Holiday featuring Rhythm Child
Happy Holidays from Because Babies Grow Up and Aaron Nigel Smith!
Amber’s Note: I mentioned on Tuesday that Rock and Roll Garden was released but I was mistaken. It’s actually available beginning today! Bari Koral wanted it to coincide with the day she left for her honeymoon! Isn’t that fantastic, especially given why she wanted to get into kids’ music in the first place! Wishing Bari all the best this week.
When we first introduced books to Sammi around four or five months she only engaged with the ones that followed a song. She loved all the nursery rhyme books and all the ones that were fingerplays. We read/sang them over and over again. She squealed and clapped her hands, and then she started to turn the pages herself. then one day we were brave enough to attempt a non-music book again. It was short and rhyme-y and she loved it! This then opened up a new world for us. As long as it had a good rhyming pattern with a melodic flow, she loved it.
We progressed from that to non-song, non-melodic books and eventually she got really interested in stories. At first it was just really short, board book length stories. Now she can sit through books that are almost too long for my attention span and then ask for them again! And again!
Music is a great way to introduce books to little ones who don’t take an initial interest in books or holding still. If you can engage them with the song and have the book open next to you. They eventually make the connection. Two skills in emergent literacy are print motivation and phonological awareness. With print motivation you are trying to create a pleasant experience for your little one with books. By doing something your child loves-singing and dancing-while reading a book, you’re more likely to have a positive experience and so is your little one!
Music with its rhythm and rhymes is a great tool for little ones to understand language better. The rhythm of music helps little ones to hear all the parts of a word and sentence. The begin to understand the flow of language through music. Songs that rhyme help little ones to understand that sounds can be repeated in different words. This helps them to build their vocabulary by linking new words to already-known words because they share a similar sound.
Here are some great books that carry a tune:
What musical books have you discovered? A comment on today’s post is an extra entry in this week’s giveaway!
I was inspired to find more gown-up style kids’ music after the positive feedback on the post about For the Kids. I didn’t have to go very far to find the band Milkshake who releases a brand new CD (their fourth) today! They offered us a CD to review and we jumped at the chance to hear the sounds of a rock band turned kids’ music band.
We got the CD on our way out the door to the grocery store. Now that we live in rural Tennessee, a drive to the grocery store and back was enough time to hear almost the entire CD. We danced, bopped our heads and even chimed in on the chorus of a couple songs that were pretty easy to learn. I think my favorite part of the initial listen was the first song. It’s energetic, catchy and fun then there’s a guitar solo. It’s perfect.
After listening to it quite a few times now, we find ourselves singing You Did It! anytime those words are appropriate for our situation. This is a CD our whole family has enjoyed together. I’m interested, too, in going back to their earlier albums. The band turned from indie rock to kids’ music when band members became parents. Their first CD was made when their children were babies/toddlers and so it has great appeal to that age group. As their children have grown, so has the music and themes of the songs. I think the girls will love to grow up with this band!
To celebrate the release of their new album, Great Day, Milkshake has offered to giveaway one CD to one lucky Because Babies Grow Up reader! You have one week to accumulate as many entries as you’d like! Here’s how:
This giveaway is open until Sunday night. A winner will be chosen at random from the comments using Random.org and will be announced Monday morning. The winner will have until Monday evening to claim the CD. If I have not heard from the winner by Monday night, a new winner will be chosen and announced Tuesday morning.
Enjoy checking out the band Milkshake and sharing this wonderful band with friends, family and your favorite social networks!
Last week we drove from Utah to Colorado (and back) to see my brother graduate from college and to visit with friends. On the way over we drove on I-80 through Wyoming and it took about 9 hours including two long stops, one at a park in Rawlins. On the way home, however, we took 1-70 through the mountains and it took us 13 1/2 hours! We only stopped one more time than on the way over. Those winding mountains really slowed us down.
Toward the end of our visiting in Colorado and especially during that long drive home there were two things that really helped us survive. Both are music oriented so I thought I’d share them here today.
First, musical instruments! I don’t even know what inspired me to pack them at the very last moment, but they were a huge hit with both girls! From Melissa & Doug’s Band in a Box
Another time the instruments were really helpful was when we were driving to a friend’s house. We were almost there, we thought, and Sammi was starting to doze off. We knew if she fell asleep we wouln’t be able to wake her up and then she’d miss playing with the kids. Plus, after that visit we had an hour drive ahead of us to Colorado Springs and we really wanted her to sleep then. So, Brent handed her the maracas and asked her to shake it so we would know she wasn’t asleep. Everytime she started to slow down we reminded her to shake them again. It kept her awake the whole time!
The second thing that really helped the trip go more smoothly was her favorite CD. We’d been listening to our favorite songs and occasionally we’d turn on a movie for Sammi, which she had very little attention for so it usually went back off fairly quickly. On the drive home, which was 4 1/2 hours longer than the drive there, she asked for her songs. As soon as we put in her CD (Fun Time Classroom Songs) she started singing along and was completely happy again.
Often experts recommend getting a new toy for a long road trip to surprise you little ones. This can be a good choice for some kids. Sammi didn’t play for very long with the new toys we bought her. For her, the best choice was her favorites. They brought her the most comfort and the most joy! This was a good test run for us as we prepare to move across the country at the end of June. I think we’re going to broaden her CD selection so we don’t listen to the same one for three days straight!
What’s your little one’s favorite CD?
The Eensy Weensy Spider is one of the first songs that Sammi could sing all by herself. It’s also one of the favorites at the library. They have a puppet spider that the kids love when we do this song.
Before Elli could sit up, I put her in my lap and did that actions on her, as shown in the video. My favorite part is tickling her under her chin after the spider crawls back up her arm.
There are a couple of ways to do the spider crawling action. First is what I think of as the traditional way: index finger from one hand to thumb of the other crawling over the other thumb-index finger pair. The second is using your fingers on one hand to crawl up the arm of the other hand. Children seem to love both. We often sing it twice and switch the action the second time through.
Well, we finally made it home from our trip to Tennessee. We are moving to a fairly rural part of the country. We’ll be right at the crossroads of the Tennessee-Virginia-Kentucky border. Fortunately, they have high-speed Internet there. Unfortunately, our motel did not. I had planned to keep you all (y’all, from here on out!) informed about the trip, but that was not possible.
Today I’m sharing one of my favorite songs: Leavin’ on a Jet Plane. I love folk music because it’s easy to understand the words; I like the harmonies and I can sing along. We typically focus on traditional kid songs with actions and kid themes. But every once in a while it’s great to introduce little ones to other types of music. This broadens their knowledge and appreciation of the art of music.
I chose this particular song because we flew to and from Nashville. On our return flight we were waylaid in Denver overnight due to a ridiculous snowstorm. At one point I really felt the words of the line: “Don’t know when I’ll be back again.” We had just told Sammi that we would see her in a few hours and read her books and tuck her into bed and then they canceled our flight and rebooked us for the following evening. Then that flight was delayed two hours. We didn’t know how to talk to her about coming home because we didn’t want anymore broken promises. Luckily, she LOVED her time with Grandma and hardly missed us at all. She did squeal with delight when we finally walked through the front door. So that made me feel a bit better 🙂
I hope you all get into the folksy mood today with your little ones. I’ll tell you more about the highlights of the trip another day.
Elli has been clapping her hands for about a month now and has recently started clapping along with the song “If You’re Happy and You Know It.” She also discovered her pointer finger the other week and during the line “your face will surely show it” she points her finger towards her face. How cute!
We are on our way to Tennessee tomorrow to find a place to live when we move there at the end of June. It’s been a busy week with Easter yesterday and leaving tomorrow. Today we present you with Sammi’s favorite video of “If You’re Happy and You Know It” that we’ve found on YouTube.
We love to sing this song in the car with actions like
touch your nose,
pat your head,
nod your head
Here’s to music, happiness and play!
I love the blogging community more and more each week. I had so much fun with the Ultimate Blog Party and all the new blogs I discovered there (and was discovered by!) The reaching out, making connections and sharing ideas matches my social butterfly personality so well.
I mention this because this past week I had the chance to connect with Princess Mommy from Princess With a Half Price Tiara in her quest to re-find THE cutest shape song. We finally found it over at If Only I Had Super Powers. You’ve got to check out their version of The Silly Pizza Song adapted to practicing shapes. Then go check out Princess Mommy’s post with resources for making your own pizza and shapes.
Here’s the original song from Signing Time.
Basic shapes are the foundation for so many things that little ones learn. For example, a precursor to writing is drawing shapes. Children have to master moving the pencil deliberately to create something before they can fine tune that to make letters. Shapes are a precursor to advanced drawing. If children can see how complex figures are made up of simple shapes, then they can draw them by combining basic shapes into something complex. Recognizing shapes is a precursor to literacy. Letters are just more complicated shapes.
Here’s a fun song to introduce shapes and their definitions. You can use objects with your child as you sing the song to show a real-life example of the shape.
Shape Song
(to the tune of: “The Farmer in the Dell”)
A circle’s like a ball,
A circle’s like a ball,
Round and round
It never stops.
A circle’s like a ball!
A square is like a box,
A square is like a box,
It has four sides,
They are the same.
A square is like a box!
A triangle has 3 sides,
A triangle has 3 sides,
Up the mountain,
Down, and back.
A triangle has 3 sides!
A rectangle has 4 sides,
A rectangle has 4 sides,
Two are long, and
Two are short.
A rectangle has 4 sides!
Rhythm ribbons: doesn’t that just sound fun? They are! My daughter loves to jump/run/dance around the room with her ribbon in hand to just about any kind of music. The concept is quite simple: move the ribbon to the music. This is great because it doesn’t take any kind of musical genius or even rhythm to have success with rhythm ribbons. It’s a chance to connect body movement with the music.
Watch for the crawler at the end who makes a dash for an abandoned ribbon. So cute! Music in the video is At the Bottom of the Sea on For the Kids Too!
I know you’re just jumping at the chance to put rhythm ribbons to work in your playtime so here are some resources to get you going. First, you need the ribbons. This project was so incredibly easy to make. In fact, I was able to make them while my toddler crawled all over me trying to get a better look and help any way she could. Second, you need to choose some magical music to get the party started!
Making Rhythm Ribbons
Materials: craft sticks, ribbon, Tacky glue
Directions: Cut ribbon into 3 1/2 foot (42 inches) lengths; Apply glue to one craft stick; Smear glue from first stick onto another craft stick; Place one end of the ribbon on the stick about 1 – 1 1/2 inches. Place the other craft stick (glue side down) on top of the craft stick with the ribbon; Press sticks firmly together; Place on wax paper, cover with wax paper and place a heavy book on top while glue dries.
Once the glue dries, your rhythm ribbons are ready to use! Sammi danced around the table asking if they were dry yet for about 10 minutes. (I was very impressed with her attention span for waiting for the ribbons!) Finally I gave in and checked and they were dry! We turned on some music and started spinning, zigzagging and waving our ribbons around the room.
Choosing Music for Rhythm Ribbons
Since using rhythm ribbons is about moving the ribbons, it’s a great way to introduce children to classical music. What would otherwise be boring to just sit and listen to now provides a dynamic, engaging background for exploring rhythm ribbon movements. Once caution on classical music: The songs can get pretty long. If the song is too long children may lose interest in the rhythm ribbons and you may run out of ideas for different ways for them to move the ribbons around. Look for songs that are two to three minutes long to start with and then increase the length of song from there. Here are some ideas to get you started:
Baby Einstein: Traveling Melodies
The Bumble-Bee (from ‘The Legend of Tsar Saltan’)
William Tell Overture (Finale)
