Singing to a Child—Your Little One Is Not Too Big
We know that reading to a child develops language skills and that parent and child can enjoy the activity long after the child has learned to read. Every new story is a new experience for the imagination and for parent-child intimacy, with stories of increasing complexity as your child gets older.
Singing a baby to sleep and singing nursery songs with toddlers may be common, but the flood of media and the lack of musicality in popular children’s songs minimize the practice of singing to a child one-on-one. Singing to a child can be as meaningful an experience as reading to a child. Each well-chosen song offers rich experience for the musical imagination and for parent-child intimacy.
We take young children to library story hours so they can hear new stories being read to them, taking their imaginations on new adventures through words. Yet group music sessions generally entertain and focus on words to songs with appropriate motions rather than taking the musical imagination on an adventure. Your child’s musical needs crave something more sophisticated musically. The little Art Songs and Gem Songs of CCS offer the opportunity for you to sing songs to your child that captivate the musical imagination with increasing musical complexity as your child grows. Use the recording to support you as needed and simply sing to your child. The more repetitious, the more you do for your child’s music development. Your own solo voice, no matter how imperfect, provides an opportunity for parent-child intimacy as well a rich experience for your child’s developing musicianship. Don’t worry whether or not your child sings with you or not. Your little musician is not too old for you to sing to him. You may find that you, too, are moved musically, as well as being moved by the special closeness with your child.
