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Monday, September 12, 2011

Singing to your baby, greater than or equal to reading???

Good morning to all our faithful readers out there! We appreciate you and your time.  We know it is precious and full of accomplishing great ideas, some of which you may have taken from this blog, in which case we are truly grateful for your support.  One such idea was given at the close of a fabulous summer and the opening up of a new chapter in you and your child's life.  I am just going to take a moment and re post part of that blog.

"With summer coming to a close and school starting again, it's time to switch our focus to helping our children becoming ready for that big step. One of the best things parents can do for their children is to read to them daily.  This will help your child in so many ways, mentally, physically, and socially."-(taken from 8/15/2011 on Preschool Reading.)

Reading is absolutely one of the best things we can do to promote our children's growth.  Yet with such a good thing concerns can arise.  Concerns like these:

-Isn't my child to young to read too?
-They cannot sit still for two seconds, no way they will sit through a book.
-All they care about are the pictures so why read it to them?
-I barely have time today to get my cleaning done, errands, walk the dog, think, let alone read to my child.
-And many others

In this world where we are juggling our huge list of to-dos, literally fighting the time we have to do it in, may I suggest that singing to your child is just as effective as reading.  Singing involves words, rhythm, repetition and often times rhyme.  All these things are needed to help a child grow mentally and all these things can be done starting at a very young age.   Singing can be done with your child as you sit together, as you clean, play run errands.  It can be done as you turn a picture book so that your very smart, bright child can associate the words with the pictures they see.  Singing can, not only calm a crying child, but it can calm your nerves too as you triumph over your day.

If you are worried about whether you child is paying attention as you sing? Yes! They are!  I taught a singing class to a bunch of 3 to 11 year olds, in the which at the end of the year the children put on a show.  The entire time I was teaching the songs they would need to be prepared to sing, they rolled their eyes, smacked their gum, talked to their neighbor, laid all over their teachers, and had a general bad case of the wiggle worms.  Many times I went home and cried because I "JUST KNEW" our program was going to be a failure.  Yet I carried on.  To my absolute surprise and utter amazement when it came time to preform the program the kids were so still, and quiet.  They sang every word not skipping a beat.  That night I went home and cried again for the last time, because I saw that they had been learning and listening the entire time.  When it came time to use it, what they had learned came through, and I never took seriously their wiggle worm syndromes again. Is it best to be jointly singing together for best results? Yes. But are they listening, and more importantly learning, when you sing to them?  Yes, sometimes even more then we may know.

It has been said that 20 minutes of reading a day to your Child will help them grow and be more prepared of the challenges of school that lay ahead.  When your child is young, even baby stages, singing can take place of this 20 minute reading time and will still be as beneficial.

So the next time you look at your long list of incredible things to do and think, "How am I ever go to do it all?"  Try singing a tune for your Baby's health and yours.

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