Which songs do you sing with your toddler?

[Toposlonoshlep]

I was never musically inclined, but my 19 month old really responds to music, especially when we sing together. Unfortunately, I don't know many songs. The standard Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and the same old lullabies is what I've got. Help me out, folks! What do you sing to your LO?

[MissMommyNiceNice]

You should look into the Wee Sing Series:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss...refix=wee+sing

Songs with puppet or fingerplays.

Also Barefoot books makes a few that come with CD's like Playtime Rymes for Little People and the Book of Lullabies. Both are excellent.

We also make up a bunch of songs for our general day to day activities.

[tzs]

ugh...i wish i could find it on the internet...i spent all night trying actually.
it's this song in hebrew that starts "ooga ooga ooga...." and is all about walking in a circle and standing and sitting. then we do it in english
"circle circle circle...walk around the circle...walk around.all day long...'til you find a place to sit down....sit down...stand up. sit down....stand up. sit down and stand up."

it's so cute. we hold hand and my non-walker toddles around in a circle and sits and stands, cracking up the whole time.

[T-man's Mama]

We were involved with a baby music class for several months, and I learned several great new songs to share with my son. Baby Beluga is now a daily favorite, and is probably available in book format at your library (by Raffi). I'm sure with this (or any other children's song) you could find the melody by searching YouTube or something. Anyway, we also like Over in the Meadow (also available in book format, which is nice because there are like 10 or 12 verses). Another song I like a lot is The Barnyard Gate song, which like a lot of popular kid songs, incorporates animal sounds.

And of course there are the old stand-bys: Old McDonald, BINGO, Five Little Ducks, the ABC song...

[lach]

At this age, songs with hand motions are a huge hit. My 19mo sings "The Wheels on the Bus" all day. He has some language delays, so it comes out "uh uh uh" but he does ALL the hand motions! It's an easy song to do because you can basically go through as many verses as you can think of objects that make a noise or a movement... "the doggies on the bus go woof woof woof" for example.

The eensy weensy spider is another hit around here. As is Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes. Both have simple hand motions.

Old Macdonald is also fun, and another one that you can drag out with as many verses as you can think of animals.

I found it helpful when DD went through this stage to go to the library and take out some CDs of kids music. I was really surprised at how practically all the songs came back to me, even though I'm sure I hadn't heard or sung any of them in 25 years! She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain, Five Little Ducks, etc.

[Nicole730]

We listen to Alphabutt by Kimya Dawson a lot. I think we all know the whole CD by heart. We also listen to "alphabutt' radio on pandora - I love a lot of those songs too and DS has been learning them.

You can check out books from the library that are songs - that always helped me figure out what to sing. I find it hard to just start singing randomly, but I will sing along with books and the cds or pandora.

[angelandmisha]

Music Together

I don't know where you are, but I highly recommend Music Together. It's a parent and child music class that is designed to teach basic musical competence over the course of semesters they offer. We've been going for almost 2 years and we love it. I can't say enough good things about the program. Check out their website www.musictogether.com

We now have lots of songs to sing because of Music Together. My son sings all the time now and I don't think without this exposure to music that he would be doing that as much. He's also gotten to explore a variety of small rhythm instruments in class. We love it, if there's one near you, check it out.

I didn't know any songs to sing when we started the program. The only thing remotely like a lullaby that I could think of was Amazing Grace. It somehow seems hard to think of kids' songs when you have a child, I was drawing a complete blank.

[crunchy_mommy]

We went to a free demo Music Together class & it was awesome. I can't afford to sign DS up but if it's not too pricey for you, give it a try! We also look up songs on youtube, DS will say he wants a song about a cat so I try to find cat songs, for ex. We get a lot of poor-quality songs that way but a lot of great ones too (and we don't watch the videos, just listen, the videos often creep me out).

Sooo... We sing Wheels on the Bus, Twinkle Twinkle, Farmer in the Dell, Renee & Jeremy songs (It's a Big World Baby, We Are One, C'mon C'mon), Raffi (Baby Beluga, Brush Your Teeth, etc.), Itsy Bitsy Spider, Old Macdonald, The Cat Came Back (a horribly butchered version lol), She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain, Five Little Monkeys, Six Little Ducks, modified versions of The Elephant Song & The Duck Song (youtube), ABCs, Alphabet Sounds (Barbara Milne on youtube), Ring Around the Rosy, Frère Jacques, This Old Man, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Three Blind Mice, Open Shut Them, Head Shoulders Knees & Toes, wow I guess we sing a lot (too bad I can barely carry a tune!!), I can't think of others at the moment but we sing most of those every day. We also make up songs, we have a song about Daddy flying in a big red airplane (and a yellow dump truck, and a little red racecar, etc.) that's kind of to the tune of Great Green Gobs of Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts lol...

[Wild Lupine]

I recommend Ella Jenkins CDs here and here. I find her music to be great for kids and also enjoyable for adults. Many of the songs are simple to remember and sing together.

[MamaPhD]

We are also a big fan of Music Together & Wee Sing CDs. I also sing quite a bit of classic Disney princess songs like "someday my prince will come" or Sleeping Beauty songs we watch on Youtube. Youtube also has many great nursery rhymes but some are pretty bad so I usually pre-screen them myself and bookmark.