How to Teach Your Children Through Songs

Teaching your children through songs is easy, enjoyable and effective. Do you remember all the little nursery songs, nonsense tunes, patriotic ditties, and lullabies you learned in your childhood? Hard to forget them, isn't it, probably because songs we learn as children bring back warm memories of feeling safe and happy. Why not use the songs you remember fondly in order to teach your own children? The things we learn in song are not easily forgotten; songs are a wonderful way to teach our children all the things we want them to remember.

History, patriotism, safety procedures, Scripture and rote lists that needed to be memorized are all things we used songs for in our own family. I was taught the Books of the Bible in song when I was a child, and I still sing the song under my breath when I am trying to find chapter and verse. If you weren't taught many songs in your own childhood, though, there are still plenty of ways for you to teach your own children through song. There are existing songs for just about everything, but don't be afraid to make up songs as well. The quality of the singing is not as important as the memorability factor, which is greatly enhanced by the fun factor. You can even hold contests to see who can make up the best song for a situation or set of facts, which makes a personalized teachable moment never to be forgotten.

There are so many great reasons to sing the old songs to our children. They are fun, for one thing, and children make lifelong memories over any interludes where their parents spontaneously burst in to fun. There are so many, many songs, they can be interjected for just about anything you like. My Mother was a genius at this, singing a snatch of song for every occasion. I taught those songs to my own children, and found they wove a delightful thread of love through the generations. Songs become a way to bond the generations, and to pass important knowledge and culture down to future generations.

There are many existing resources for songs to teach children by. "Sing, Spell, Read and Write" by Sue Dickson is the best comprehensive phonics program I've ever seen, in no small part because of the music the concepts are set to. You can get this program through Pearson, at http://singspell.com. Amazon also sells most of it. Sue Dickson has done other musical tapes, as well, such as U.S. Presidents, and some Math concepts. Her phonics are the best though.

Rappin' Rabbits Safety Habits cassette tapes were something my own children loved, and they can still be obtained (here's one place that still has some: http://www.firebooks.com/product.aspx?pid=1231) and are worth having. There is also a newer tape called Rappin' Rabbits Christian Habits that I have not heard, but if it is anything like the first one, your child will probably love it.

For more songs to teach your children, there's a great resource called "Songs for Teaching" at http://www.songsforteaching.com that can definitely help you if you want to use songs for specific subjects. Also, if you Google "songs about" science, or patriotism or what ever, all sorts of possibilities will come up.

Another existing resource is our elderly Americans. If you don't have a Grandma or a neighbor that likes to sing, perhaps someone at a nursing home would like to share their wealth of old songs with your children. Thrift stores often carry old song books used in Scouting or schools.

By now there are probably all sorts of songs running through your head, so I will leave you to it - write them down, or find a child and impart them before you forget. (You know how a song "infects" your brain until you sing it to someone else, at which time they can't get it out of their own head? This will work in your favor at last). But before we part, I'd like to give you the lyrics to a couple of songs from my own childhood. Feel free to sing them to whatever tune you like.

When I was a child, my mother sang two songs that I particularly liked. I do not know who originally wrote them, but have found mention of them on the internet. The first one is called "The Cannibal King" and the lyrics are as follows:

The Cannibal King
With the Brass Nose Ring
Fell in love with the dusky ma-a-aid
And every night
By the pale moonlight
Across the lake he ca-a-ame
He hugged and kissed
His pretty little Miss
By the shade of the bamboo tre-e-ee
And every night
By the pale moonlight
It sounded like this to me-e-ee
Harrumph, (smooch, smooch)*
Harrumph, (smooch, smooch)
Harrumph Diddily I E A A A**
Harrumph, (smooch, smooch)
Harrumph, (smooch, smooch)
Harrumph Diddily I E A
Bump Diddily A A
(SMOOCH, SMOOCH)

*make smoochy, kissing noises
** pronounce each letter separately

The second song is called "The Crocodile Song" and the lyrics and motions can be found here http://kristinhall.org/songbook/Motions/CrocodileSong.html. This song is about a lady sailing away on what she imagines to be a tame crocodile. "But at the end of the ride, the lady was inside, and the smile on the crocodile!"

Whatever it is you want to teach your children through songs, whether it is basic knowledge, tenets of your faith, culture and family memories or just that music can be fun, there are plenty of resources, but you are the best resource for teaching your children through songs.

Resources: personal experience
http://kristinhall.org/songbook/Motions/CrocodileSong.html
http://www.songsforteaching.com
http://singspell.com