The Power Of Music – Influencing Your Child With Song

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Music.jpgMusic is a powerful thing. Certain songs that you hear on the radio, can take you back to a certain time, or place in your life. It can bring forth emotions & feelings that you had forgotten were there. It can make you cry or smile, soothe you or get you pumped. It has an amazing effect on all of us big & small.

It’s calming. When my daughter was a newborn, she cried all the time. Rocking or dancing with her was my most popular method for calming my little girl & it was usually always accompanied by song. My favorite song to sing her was ‘Once upon a dream’. I still sing it to her now, only now she joins in.

It is said that introduction to music at a young age aids in physical and mental development. We enrolled our daughter in music classes when she was 18 months old. She loved everything about it. She was fascinated by the instruments and the lyrics. She was learning to talk during this time. It was fun hearing her try to mimic the song lyrics. Each session began with a song introducing each classmate. What a wonderful tool to help remember your classmates names, I thought. It is a great memorization tool. How do you think kids have learned their ABC’s for years?

It gets them moving. If your child is anything like mine, she loves to dance. Whether it is an up tempo song or a more soothing ballad type, she will move to the beat of the music.

It is incredible the influence music can have in influencing our lives…

Our daughter is like a tornado through our home. I call her “Destructor” because she leaves a path of destruction in her wake where ever she goes.

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Mai has not been the best at picking up her toys. She is great & taking them out, but does not like putting them back. Mai is at an age now of understanding. She may not always listen, but she hears me & comprehends what I am saying. I have tried several different methods for getting her to put her things away. She often liked to challenge mommy & would take out some toys, pour them out & then say “Mommy pick up”. No, no, no, this was not going to happen.

One day after she had made a particularly big mess. I started singing while picking up her toys. I asked Mai to help me.

We’re going to pick up our toys…

We’re going to make some noise… (making noise)

We’re going to pick up our toys, right now…

(Clap hands) Good girl!

I have only sung this song probably about 3 times.  A couple of days ago, my daughter in a “destructor” moment, pulled out a box of her flash cards & threw them all over the floor. Mommy very calmly, said “Mai Mai, please pick up your cards.” All of a sudden she broke out singing. “Pick up tooooooyyyys, make noooooisse…pick up toys, right now. Gggggood girl.” She proceeded to pick up all of her flash cards & continued singing. I was floored. Floored not only that she remembered this little song, but that it actually worked. I could not believe it. She has done this everyday since. Never underestimate the power of song.

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18 comments

  1. Our first had colic and you are so right about the power of song. I would totally sing to her to calm her down and it did help many times when she was inconsolable. And now I love hearing my youngest sing Let It Go (from Frozen), she knows all the words and totally can put me in a better mood just hearing her sing it, too 🙂

  2. I totally agree with you here, my dear. My little one is a crazy fan of Barney’s. Now one day, she had created a lot of mess, all her lego, balls and puzzles were on the floor. When I asked her to clean, she looked at me as if I was talking an alien language. Then she broke into this song, “Clean up, clean up, everybody do yourself” and started picking up the things. I was surprised. Then I came to know that she had learnt this from Barney. Oh, how I love that dinosaur!

  3. It certainly is. I love to sing to Brody and every now and then I’ll hear him hum or sing a tune. It’s so gratifying. I hope that he is interested in music soon.

  4. Wow, your song really hit a “note” with daughter! It’s amazing that she remembered you clean up song – and also acted on it by cleaning up!

  5. We played the clean up game – if they were done in x minutes then we’d have a prize – stickers, new coloring sheet….it was so simple. Now they are teens. It’s not nearly as simple. 😉

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