Songs & Rhythms Are Developmentally Important
Songs are developmentally important, especially for young children. When I talk about “songs,” I am talking about everything from singing, rhyming, and music to rhythms and body movements. Singing, dancing, and hand & body movements all help the neurons in your little one’s brain to make new connections which help with learning forever.
Songs & rhythms are actually like a Part 2 to pre-reading readiness. It accomplishes a lot of the same things reading to your toddler does, but in a fun, more animated way. There are also all of the added benefits that come with kinesthetic hands-on learning, and who doesn’t love spending fun time with their little ones? Toddlers are so much fun!
Benefits of Singing with Your Toddler:
- Sensory Development
- Patterns
- Physical Coordination
- Hands-On/Kinesthetic Learning
- Memorization of Facts
- Introduces New Words & Ideas
- Vocabulary
- Speech, Literacy, & Language Skills
- Attention Span
- Relationship Building
Singing songs will help your little one develop rhythm, connect new neurons, fine tune their sensory development, build vocabulary, and recognize patterns in speech and language. It will introduce them to new words, and can be used as a tool to get them moving and active, too. Songs, even without educational content, play and important role in your child’s development. They can also be great mood enhancers on those especially cranky days, too!
That being said, the great thing about singing with your toddler is that you can use it as a tool in your teaching arsenal to actually teach your toddler new things, too!
Using Songs for Learning
Songs have been being used to help young learners for years – think about the ABC song, for example. For years and years it’s never lost its momentum in teaching children their alphabet. Why? Because it works.
Songs are a great way to introduce new concepts and ideas in a fun, meaningful way. Using songs, rhythms, and body movements to teach meaningful information, like counting, the alphabet, and letter sounds, helps increase their retention because you aren’t just focusing on the information you want them to learn – you are attaching it to something that is fun and meaningful in the process! You are helping their brain to connect the ideas and create new neuron pathways by attaching these activities and ideas to something fun for them – and you are intentionally building your relationship with them in the process.
Using Rhythm & Movements for Memorization
One of my favorite ways we utilize songs & rhythms in our home is for scripture memorization. Every day, I try to go over a scripture verse that we work on throughout the entire week. I just make up some big, animated body movements that seem to make since with the words as we go. I also seem to naturally always place some kind of rhythm to go with the verse as far as the way that we say it together.
Using these big movements, along with the made-up rhythm, has made scripture memory one of my children’s favorite time of their school day! You can find a free printout of short memory verses for young children here for some easy ideas to get started.
We actually do this all together as a family – my older two try to pretend they don’t love it, but I know they secretly do – they laugh the whole time! I have fun too! And can I just say it is SOO cute watching a toddler doing this?! Oh, it makes my whole heart melt!
Another way to maximize this teaching time, if you’re interested in teaching your children sign language, would be to use the sign language signs for these verses instead of making up your own movements. We don’t do this, but I have a friend who has done this with her children and it was so sweet to watch them all!
Of course, we like using rhythm and body movements for scripture memorization, but you can adapt the idea to help your kids memorize anything you wish. There’s even a multiplication facts song out there!
Ideas to Start
I first got introduced to the importance of songs many years ago by buying a toddler set from My Father’s World, which, at that time, included a CD & booklet called Wee Sing Bible Songs that my children really enjoyed. They also have another CD & booklet called Wee Sing Children’s Songs & Fingerplays with lots of pre-school songs and the finger/hand motions to go with it (for songs like itsy-bitsy spider, etc) that is wonderful!
I know it seems obvious, but don’t forget that the ABC Song is a song, too, and will help with ABC memorization. My toddler loves the ABC Song – I find him singing it every time he sees a letter and it’s soo cute.
There’s also another song My Father’s World introduced us to in their Kindergarten program a few years ago that’s worth mentioning. I don’t know the name of it – we call it the /a/-/a/-apple Song. But basically it’s a song, sung to the tune of the ABC song (or twinkle-twinkle-little-star), that focuses just on the letter SOUNDS instead of the names (/ah/-/ah/-apple, /buh/-/buh/-butterfly, /cuh/-/cuh/-cow, /duh/-/duh/-dinosaur…). I used this method to teach my older children their letter sounds and they absolutely LOVED this song, even more than the traditional ABC song. Keep in mind, though, that the two songs teach different things. Obviously the traditional ABC song teaches letter NAMES, while this new version of the song teaches the letter SOUNDS. Different songs for different purposes, based off of what you are wanting to teach at the time.
We don’t use a curriculum for our toddlers anymore, but I still like to use the A-A-Apple Song to practice letter sounds with young learners. We just change the words of the original A-A-Apple Song to match the pictures for whatever letter flash cards we are using for that child.
Another great idea is to sing nursery rhymes with your toddler.
Repetition
Remember that to help build vocabulary and build those neuron pathways, you want whatever you do with your toddler to be repetitive. While every song’s words might not be repetitive, usually the tune, melody, or rhythm of the song is. One way to make it repetitive and really help those new words and ideas to stick is to practice the same songs or books for a week or two before moving on. Some songs are worth sticking with until you know they’ve got it.
Just like with reading, where you want to pick 1-3 books to focus on at a time, you want to do the same thing with songs. Pick 1-3 songs to work on at a time so that those patterns, movements, and words really have time to cement themselves into your toddler’s brain before moving on to the next ones. And try to pick songs with movements, or even make up your own, to make it stick even faster and make it even more fun!
You’ve Got This!
Teaching your toddler feels a lot more like playing and fun games than it does learning. Think about daycares and preschools – the things they do are all developmentally appropriate and lots of fun! It’s not about trying to set up a “classroom environment” to get your toddler started off on the right foot. It’s about knowing what kinds of things to do to build upon the way they are already created to learn right where they’re at – through play.
Songs, rhythms, and body movements are one of the best ways to “play” with your toddler. Not only is it extremely effective, but it’s also lots of fun for everyone… with a side of educational and developmental benefit along the way. You don’t need a guide or a special set of things to get started… you just need some song ideas and enough imagination to make up some silly movements to go with it.
If you do need help getting started, I would recommend the Wee Sing Children’s Songs & Fingerplays booklet & CD set, for those of you who just don’t have the mental energy right now. I get it… really. Toddlers are cute, but they’re so exhausting! That being said, you don’t need a thing to get started today… just be intentional and take it one song at a time. Voila! You’re well on your way to teaching your toddler and making it fun with songs – just with the things you already have and know.
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