Songs pervade my parenting…we sing to learn, to communicate, to pray…we sing in play, we create songs to illustrate make-believe stories and to relive lived stories. Recent manifestations of this have been the following: 1) Ginna and I pray in song together at night. We take turns leading in lines, and the other repeats the line. This seems to keep her involved in the prayer. At bedtime, I tell a story (sometimes in song), we pray, and then I sing her 3 songs. So bedtime and song go hand in hand. Two nights ago, I was putting her to bed, and she asked to lead in the prayer song. Her first 3 lines were as follows: “Thank you God for this mommy. Thank you God for this singing girl. Thank you God for my windows.” I guess she appreciates the pervasiveness of song! 2) Jamey and I have recently started reliving our day together in song at night. I sing all of the things we did together…snuggling in the morning, going on walks, building with blocks, learning new words, reading books about animals and cars, etc…. On Thursday our song was particularly lively because Ginna had been at preschool that morning and we had some time alone to explore new activities. I remember once when Ginna was close to his age, my mom set up an activity for her to use a small ladle to spoon dried beans into muffins tins. I let him do this, and he loved it! He also drew pictures on the easel that morning. Sometimes when I come to the end of my song, and he will say heartily, “MORE!”

Singing with my kids is a way to add levity and light-hearted instruction to our interactions.