Learn Songs

Tips to Enrich Your Child's Life!

Learn songs along with your kids and sing out loud with them for the sheer pleasure of it. That's Tip No. 5 for you. This is not to be confused with learning music as in a musical instrument. You've probably noticed how uninhibited kids are at singing when they are really young. Some carry on, but others begin to get very self-conscious to the point that they stop entirely. This can be for any number of reasons;

• Loss of front teeth
• Extremely shy nature 
• Sarcasm, real or imagined
• Lack of encouragement

May be it is the loss of teeth when their speech is often characterised by lisping which causes a huge amount of attention to be focussed on them whenever they open their mouths. Forget singing, some kids even try to talk as little as possible to avoid the loud exclamations of cho chweet this invites.

Kid's songs may also cease due to lack of encouragement. In some extreme cases it may be ridicule that was real or imagined. It could be something such as "Quit caterwauling, can't you see we're watching TV" just as the child launched into her version of And I ayayay Will Always Love Youuuuuuu. Whatever it be, as a parent you could do wonders to nurture a cheerful attitude in your child if you could make sure that the singing does not stop. If you're thinking expensive voice lessons, no, that's not it. Of course, you could grab some online help to learn to sing.

Learning songs and learning to sing are two different things entirely. The first means to just learn songs and sing out loud without worrying about how you sound. The latter of course means voice lessons, breath control, diaphragm breathing and all that sort of thing that takes the matter up to a more professional level.

Sing To Your Child

Learn songs so you can sing to your baby even if you've never considered yourself a singer, ever. Sing in your natural voice without self-consciousness. Sing in a low voice if you don't feel very confident. You can start with a hum, progress to crooning, and then take it from there. Infants as young as 6 months old are able to distinguish between speaking and singing and immediately react to it. I figure a baby's babbling is closer to singing than speech.

So keep at it, I mean nobody's that bad that birds drop dead off trees. Singing for your child makes him grow up believing it is as natural and normal as dessert after dinner. Soon a hum results in a chorus joining in full throated song. Never mind if the cat runs out of the room or the dog howls along.

Songs to Sing

Songs for preschoolers are almost entirely up to the parents to come up with. They are certainly the first songs that are learnt as part of the formative early childhood years and will never be forgotten even if they live to be a 100. For this reason learn songs if you don't know any and teach them to your kids. Go for the old folk songs of your community and culture, Christmas carols, patriotic ditties, Easter songs, funny songs, old country and westerns that are timeless. Look for clean lyrics, funny themes, tongue twisters, and rhythmic verses. From Amazing Grace to Zoe Had a Zebra there is an almost infinite range that you can pick from.

ABC Songs for Children

Songs for toddlers soon progress to nursery rhymes and abc songs that they sing with an unmatched gusto. Rhymes for children tend to have a repetitive rhythm and catchy themes that make for easy memorising. Even kids in non-English speaking countries pick up these rhymes as a first step in mastering the English language. Songs really are one of the most pleasant forms of early learning experience. If only there were songs to learn algebra!

Songs Not to Sing

Songs for children these days bring to mind pop stars like Britney Spears or Eminem who in spite of their obvious talents and showmanship are not really worth emulating. Britney and MiIey Cyrus are idolised by really young girls who lisp their songs with a great deal of enthusiasm. So what's with the pole dancing routines? I read some place how Madonna proudly claimed in an interview that her own daughter as a 7 year old hadn't encountered any four letter words or related language in her highly sterile upbringing. This is despicable coming from a woman who never cared a damn when polluting the minds of millions of young kids with her saucy lyrics.

Sense pollution is right up there with air and water pollution, but since it's invisible it goes on unchecked while the polluters grab their millions and go waltzing to the bank. Well, not all pop stars contribute to sense pollution, so there's no sense in banning the entire crowd. Just make sure you look beyond the rhythmic beats and catchy music to check what the lyrics are all about. That's where the pollution comes from and of course, there are the raunchy videos. Let's not go there.

In any case, it's mostly not up to you who your kids are going to go crazy over once they're tall enough to reach for their choice of CDs. The time to intervene fruitfully is before that. Give them a taste of the good stuff and they'll return to it time and again from wherever they've gone to. The important thing is you've given them something to come back to.

Benefits of Song

Songs learnt in childhood invoke warm, cosy feelings that are hard to replicate. They provide that warm fuzzy feeling wherever you may be and however old you are. Singing has considerable physical benefits as well. It is proven to release beneficial anti-stress hormones and antibodies into the bloodstream. It elevates the mood and relaxes the mind besides exercising the lungs.

Teaching kids how to sing unselfconsciously is a great gift you'd be giving them. Of course, if it happens they have real talent, you could then consider giving them professional lessons and they may soon be learning opera and to think that it all began with your version of Two Little Toes...