These days, our nighttime routine goes bath, books, songs and snuggles. For months Little Man has requested the usual melodies: Old McDonald, The Farmer in the Dell, various Disney songs.
But lately Little Man has wanted a little more out of his songs. He wants originals.
It started out innocently enough when I sang about Farmer Goofy, instead of Old McDonald, after we read a book about Goofy. Little Man got a kick out of that and the next night when we'd finished our Dr. Suess and I launched into a lullaby version of The Farmer in the Dell, he covered my mouth with his hand.
"No, no," he said. "A song about Go, Dog, Go? A song about the mop the mop the mop?"
Since then, Little Man has been testing my improv skills every night. Pulling his favorite bits from his day and his stories, he requests songs about himself, his favorite trains, and the lines from books that make him laugh. I'm usually pretty good at creating them the first time around--but then when he asks me to sing them again and I don't get the words exactly right, he stops and makes me start again. And then the next morning, I hear him singing the songs I made up to himself while he plays.
It's a fun little way to end our way, and apparently it inspires Little Man to make up his own songs, too. The other morning Husband and I caught him singing, to the tune of Jingle Bells:
Jingle bells, jingle bells, choo choo all the way, oh what fun it is to ride in a big steam train!
This was impressive for several reasons: one, I didn't make that song up. Two, I didn't even know he knew Jingle Bells. Three, he managed to make a pretty good rhyme.
Maybe Little Man has a future in music.
No comments:
Post a Comment