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What songs/lullabies do you sing to your kids?


moonlight
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I do a lot of Music Together lullabies.  Shenandoah, Raisins and Almonds, The Water Is Wide, My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean, Braham's Lullaby, Sweet Dreams Form a Shade, Irish Lullaby, All the Pretty Little Horses, Kum Ba Yah, Amazing Grace, Are You Going to Scarborough Fair?, Golden Slumbers, Sleep Baby Sleep, Your Father Tends the Sheep; the Manx Lullaby, You Are My Sunshine, and I can't remember all the others.  At one point, I would sing lullabies to my youngest for an hour every night without repeating....

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Each girl had her own song, though I could sing any of them to any of them (but one was especially for each):

 

Oldest: "They Were You" from the Fantasticks. This is my disabled dd who loves music, so she still gets sung to and she gets my full repertoire.

Middle: Moon River from Breakfast at Tiffany's. Don't know if it is from somewhere else originally, but I know it from Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Youngest: Don't know the title, but they sang it in oldest dd's Kindergarten class when youngest was born:

"A" you're adorable

"B" you're so beautiful

"C" you're a cutie full of charm

"D" you're a darling and

"E" you're exciting and

"F" you're a feather in my arms...(continue on through the alphabet)

 

Others I sing: 16 going on 17, Edelweiss, Soon It's Gonna Rain (Fantasticks), Dream a Little Dream, Where have all the flowers gone...pretty much anything I know the words to!

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When I did lullabies I was trying to make them fall asleep, so none of them were super interesting. 

 

I made up a short song for each of the boys (seriously, no more than 10 measures tops if I wrote them down--I never have). The lyric is their name. They can be looped and sung over and over. I thought hearing their own names over and over would be soothing. 

 

"Hickory Dickory Dock" was done a lot. It is looong, but it has some silly rhymes and toddlers can start to predict what number is coming next. And I like to shake it up a bit and change the rhymes every time. 

 

"Babe" by Styx

"The Ants Go Marching"

"Itsy Bitsie Spider"

"Farmer in the Dell"

"Six Little Ducks"

"Bears in the Bed"

"Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat"

"Hush Little Baby"

"Mulberry Bush"

 

 

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I made up my own, personalized to the child.  One is to the tune of Edelweiss; another is my own tune.  I find it very easy to take any existing song and replace the lyrics with my own. 

 

I think DS likes the fact that no other kid on the planet gets to hear his special songs, and I like that I can keep it cheery (as opposed to, say, a kid's cradle getting blown out of a tree in a midnight storm...).  ;)

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I used to sing:

 

Fa la ninna fa la nanna, except I never remembered all the words. I just sang the parts I knew over and over.

 

http://youtu.be/4no8_2_vIMQ

 

Too Ra Loo Ra Loo Ra -Since someone already linked to it, I won't.

 

The two above are what my mother sang to me, and I wanted ds to hear songs from his ancestral background. 

 

 

Also -

You are My Sunshine

The Winnie the Pooh Song (mostly just the chorus)

Rock-a-bye-baby, but I changed the lyrics to "Mommy will catch you, cradle and all

 

Dh used to sing Zippity Do Dah to calm him down when he couldn't stop crying (and we couldn't figure out what he wanted/needed). He says he also sang it to dss when he was a baby.

 

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For some reason my kids don't like me to sing to them. At least, my toddlers don't like it, the babies and older kids don't seem to mind but I have had more than one toddler tell me No! or put their hand over my mouth when I start to sing. I don't think I sing that badly :D

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My insomniac kids have kept me singing for hours at a time. We do a lot of the songs others have mentioned. When I know it's going to be a long night, I'll sometimes group the songs into blocks - traditional lullabyes, religious/hymns, patriotic songs, silly songs, TV show themes. This helps to keep me challenged when I want to run screaming from the room.

 

Some of our standards are:

 

I Love (insert child's name), Pretty Little (Child's Name)

I Love You a Bushel and a Peck

Sing a Song of Sixpence

I Love You, You Love Me (Barney theme)

"A" You're Adorable

Eidelweiss

Jesus Loves Me

I Love to Tell the Story

I've Been Working on the Railroad

America the Beautiful

 

My all-time favorite that I remember my mom singing to me was All Through the Night. I save this one for last as it's the signal that the concert is over, so they'd better shut their eyes and go to sleep.

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Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral (an Irish lullaby)

 

Man, how I adore Bing Crosby! I sing that to Han Solo as well.  Others I sing are:

 

The Thomas theme song (so, so many times)

Frere Jaques

Sur la Pont D'Avignon

Soft Kitty (he loves this song)

Itsy bitsy spider

Golden Slumbers

The theme song from Mouk (adore, adore, adore this show!)

The theme song from Mio Mao

The theme to Bert and Ernie's Great Adventures

Bedtime song from Tales of Friendship with Winnie the Pooh

The night-night song from Disney Jr, Europe (they don't play it in the US!)

 

He also loves to listen to In My Veins (Castle fans will recognize it).  One night when he was really little, and very fussy, I was trying to calm him down to no avail.  My iPhone was in my back pocket and sliding out, so I reached back to push it back in.  When I did, I accidentally turned the song on and he immediately quieted down.  Huzzah!

 

If you've never heard of some of these, here are some links:

Mio Mao

http://youtu.be/GqqNcG2MfSk

 

Mouk (just the theme)

http://youtu.be/euk0_ySZLhI

 

Bert and Ernie's GA

http://youtu.be/pf430yov8MQ

 

Bedtime song (Winnie the Pooh-I adore the singer, Robert)

http://youtu.be/d3FpvIM2L3M

 

In My Veins by Andre Belle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0KZuZF01FA

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I used to sing the usuals, but then I got tired of them and just sang some songs I enjoyed.

 

Kenny Loggins' Now and Then was a favorite. The words are so beautiful.

 

O Sacred Head, Sore Wounded doesn't have that cheery, baby vibe going on, but it's just so wonderful, I'd sing it anyway--they were too young to know the words.

 

Guess I was a little out there.

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