Today I was surrounded by 9 children between the ages of 14 months and 5 years old. When I began to sing row, row, row your boat … there was nobody to sing along with me. When I tried to do the hokey-pokey, it was as if I was speaking a foreign language.
Isn’t singing part of growing up? Don’t you learn how to rhyme, count and the alphabet when you sing songs? Twinkle, Twinkle little star introduces astronomy and How Much is the Doggie in the Window introduces the concept of cost and sales.
As a child, I sang in my kitchen while doing chore, walking to school and as a family. I KNOW I had an awful voice but that meant I just had to sing LOUDER!
My sons grew up singing the songs that I learned as well as many new Disney songs that came on the scene. As babies we sang, as toddlers we sang and as children we sang.
Now, with my grandson … we sing. We sing about the rainbow, about singing in the rain, about musical notes (Doe a deer … a female deer), we sing about the sunshine, the bones in your body and we make up songs.
But now, when our babies and toddlers get strapped in their car seats, they turn on a DVD player and watch cartoons. No mom/dad and child interactions. No looking at the trees, trains and mountains. No story telling, song singing or silly time. The child zones out and the parent dials in and talks away.
We’re cheating our kids big time …
Happily ... after retirement 