I want to focus on the power of music with children (and adults). I, for one, am not naturally musically inclined. However, I love music of all forms and title myself an "appreciator of the arts."
I work full time and am fully aware of how fortunate I am to have my parents watch my kids during the day. Not only do they get to spend time with grandparents and get individual attention, but my mom is a wizard. She is a legit baby whisperer, toddler super hero, discipline Phenom. In her working days, she was a preschool teacher but never received enough credit for her brilliance in child management and development. One strategy my mother uses 90% of the day is music. She sings non-stop with the children. NONSTOP. During larger family get-togethers, it is most likely annoying as music will be used to re-direct the kids, to entertain the kids, to teach the kids, to flaunt the kids knowledge, to put the kids to sleep, to discipline the kids, etc., etc. And I would be annoyed if it didn't work. But it is magic!
Let me break it down:
1. Music as re-direction
2. Music as entertainment
3. Music as a teaching tool
4. Music as a performance
5. Music as a sleep aid
6. Music as a discipline strategy
7. Music as emotional regulation
1. Music as re-direction.
This will be the most effective if a child loves music and is familiar with it. In my work with behavioral therapy, it was encouraged to ignore any behaviors that were annoying or obnoxious. If safety was not a concern, basically ignore it. This planned ignoring is more effective when combined with re-directing the child to a more appropriate activity or behavior. This takes a lot of effort on the parent/caregiver.    Â
EXAMPLE 1: We use singing a lot in the car to keep the ride enjoyable. Depending on the age of the kids or their interest, songs can redirect their focus. Currently, I like ones that encourage participation and turn taking like 🎵Old McDonald Had a Farm🎵 or 🎵Mommy stole the cookie from the cookie Jar🎵     Â
EXAMPLE 2: Remember when my child said "dammit"? This was a sticky situation. Do we ignore or address it? We had to establish that is was a word we didn't say and then ignored it. Every time it was said, we stated "oh dear". There is a song 🎵Oh dear, what can the matter be🎵and we would continue to sing it and then move forward with a smile. Sounds skeptical but it worked. We might also sing 🎵Hakuna Matata🎵. These are two songs my kids know and love!
2. Music as entertainment
This is self explanatory. Again, my children love music so this is easy for us. Often, when I am cooking, I will have Alexa play songs at their request to keep them entertained. As a family, we will have dance parties.
Fan favorites include: 🎵Cupid Shuffle🎵
🎵What Does the Fox Say🎵
🎵Let is Go🎵
🎵Hokey Pokey🎵
🎵I like to Move It🎵Â
and 🎵Kids Bop🎵
3. Music as a teaching tool     Â
The possibilities are endless with this. The most basic is the Alphabet Song🎵. My kids know 3 different melodies to this basic song but that's 3 different ways of hearing the letter so instead of hearing "elemeno" they hear each letter separately. Music helps with #literacy, #speech, and #numeracy. It improves memory.   Â
EXAMPLE 1: As babies, we sang different songs which teach body parts. 🎵Head Shoulders Knees, Toes🎵Â
My grandma would sing 🎵Roll your arms. As nicely as nicely as nicely as can be...now roll your arms like me🎵 and switch movements while switching body parts.   Â
EXAMPLE 2: Teach #rhyming words. 🎵Down by the bay...Have you have seen a CAT wearing a HAT🎵  Â
EXAMPLE 3: Math/Spatial Relations/Counting
Music helps children with anticipating what is next, enhancing their ability to identify patterns and sequences.
Any of the songs that say 5 little fill in the blank and count down help.Â
 🎵Five little ducks went swimming one day..four little ducks..three little ducks.🎵
🎵 Five Little monkey jumping on the bed..Four little Monkeys.🎵Â
They begin conceptualizing taking one thing away to make a smaller number.
We also march around the house to the 🎵Ants Go Marching🎵 and practice counting up with repetition and rhyming.  Â
EXAMPLE 4: Spelling. We make up words to already known songs or tunes. My daughter's name is E-M-E-R-Y so we sing the letters to the tune of 🎵B-I-N-G-O🎵 and she knows how to spell her name! Â
EXAMPLE 5: Using the Potty Daniel Tiger has great educational songs. We made up our own jingle for when the kids use the potty to celebrate but this Daniel Tiger potty song helped with the sequence of steps!.
4. Music as a performance
Like I said, we enjoy a good dance party/performance. This not only aides in family bonding but increase #self-esteem and #confidence. I love to see our kids make microphone out of random objects and to use their imaginations to create a stage. It is such a fun time to offer lots of praise and enthusiasm. My daughter sings a little loud and off-key sometimes but we can work on that at a later date.
5. Music as a sleep aid
I have sang to my babies since they were in my belly. I read studies that babies will recognize voices from being in the whom. I sang my babies to sleep. The songs may not have made them close their eyes and drift to sleep but it added to our bedtime #routine.. increasing #structure and #predictability in their evenings. For my now toddler, who we are trying to keep in his toddler bed, we will play classical music for some #relaxation.
6. Music as a discipline strategy
🎵Clean Up Clean Up Everybody Everywhere🎵
You know this one. Lets take a tedious task and make it enjoyable with a little jingle!
Songs like this help ease #transitions and #dailyroutine.
🎵Put on your Shoes🎵  🎵Brush Your Teeth 🎵 🎵 The Bath Song🎵
7. Music as emotional regulation #emotionalregulation
Emotional Expression - If you're happy and you know it.
Empathy - Picking up on tone and communication, reading emotional signals from other, understanding own emotions and feeling. When my daughter was an infant, every time I sang "Silent Night", she would begin to cry. She noticed the mood of the tune and displayed empathy at 9 months old.
Emotional/Physical Regulation Use music to soothe moods. Sometimes my children get really hyper in the evenings and we will play some quiet, slower songs to set the mood for bedtime. I love 🎵this song🎵 to work on regulating body movements along with emotions. When we tiptoe, we will "whisper", and sing louder for "running"Â
Mindfulness. - We got to the point on road trips and car rides where the kids ask the dreaded "Are We There Yet". Instead of giving them electronics or getting annoyed, we use this song from Super Simple Learning. They offer a great site on activities, songs, and tips. You can find songs by themes! It is fun for all of us and the kids practice take turns identifying what they see. Sometimes we change the lyrics to "what do you hear?" This increases their ability to stay in the present, notice their surroundings, keeps them focus, calm, and preoccupied.