Julie Andrews running blissfully through the Alps in the sunshine, singing a beautiful song inspired by the environment. Children who also join in and spontaneously sing along in polyphony. Only for a musical? No, you can also achieve this at home with some fun songs to sing! I preceded you, because singing makes life more fun!
Well, I don't live in the Alps and I can't really hit a clean note or keep a rhythm, but I do sing and also with the children. I'll tell you it's even going a little overboard.
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Everyone knows that life gets better with a song. I have a special cleaning playlist for nasty cleaning jobs. If I put it on, I will spontaneously hum humming the house clean, well at least with less reluctance. This also applies to children, every parent knows that. You have nice songs to sing in the form of tidying songs, cleaning songs, coat on / coat off songs, going to bed songs, teeth brushing songs and so on. And if you don't know a song, then you "just" have to come up with something..
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just make something up??? Yes! That's how I do it. Nice songs to sing 'make up yourself' and that's how you do it. You pick a tune from a well-known children's song, adjust the lyrics and you have a song with subject of your choice 😉 . For example, you can use a song by K3, Kabouter Plop or 'Papagaaitje Leef Je Nog'. Father Jacob is also always a grateful melody for me. Fairly short, a lot of repetition and it doesn't even have to rhyme.
A child can do the laundry, notice:"Brush teeth, brush teeth, Up and down, back and forth, up and down, up and down, last time, last time" or `Get your shoes, get your jacket. Do it, do it, mama will help you, mama will help you. Now we're done, Now we're done`
Grab one of your child's favorite cuddly toys to help and don the brushing coat will be one big party! And how about Village People songs? “In the Navy” becomes:to the dentist, tralalalalala! And if you're going to march too, make sure they come after you to join in!
This works well for toddlers and preschoolers. For older children you have to be (a little) more creative. Then toddler songs really can't be heard anymore! Because the average Top 40 is not always suitable in terms of melody or goes way too fast, you really have to get started yourself. How do you handle this without fun songs to sing?
It starts with a little rapping. Rapping always catches on:"You go to bed, what fun, are you coming with me, just the two of you". Add a little toughness and make some rap movements and they look their eyes out. “Sock/jacket/trousers/bicycle/key where are you now? Come quickly, asjemenou, where are you?" At first they think you've gone mad (and so do your neighbors when they peek through the window) but soon they understand you and want to join in. I now have standard rhyming words in my head. Soon, well, wow, love, faithful, woman. Bed fun with retteketet. Me, you, us, them, happy. Can be used for almost anything 😉 .
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Now I notice that I am going a bit too far and add melodies with separate verses and a chorus. I start slowly and then even make a nice swipe or hit a long (false) note at the end to finish the verse. On the other hand, sometimes it's just, "tralala, trallie" or a "yeah yeah yeah yeah". Just look at the average song on the radio. It is often not much more than repeating two sentences.
Believe me, once you get the hang of it, you start paying attention to all the songs how they are put together. Do they rhyme or not, what kind of melody is used, how does a song end. Some songs are classic a-a-b-b rhyme (look at me, make me happy, come along, just the two of you), others a-b-a-b rhyme. But some songs don't rhyme at all or only the last two lines.
So I made a whole study of it and now the children ask their own song about the day before going to sleep. Pfff. I sometimes pick up the melody of 'I'll take you with me' to start with:Today was leu-eu-eu-euk, we were in a deu-eu-eu-eu-eu-euk. Now it's klaa-aa-aa-aar, and we are now going naa-aa-aa-aar (long swipe)… Bed, bed, bed! Retteketet. But otherwise I just start “rapping” about the day.
It even goes so far that I catch the children making their own songs, with long lashes at the end and all. So there is quite a bit of singing and composing in our house, where we regularly burst into out-of-character singing. We simply complement each other, an average musical is nothing compared to! The boys now also know the standard rhyming words and also supplement them. Johny Ewbank watch out, if we continue like this, we will write and compose all of Marco's new songs!!
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