In another lifetime, I wrote songs about heartbreak. I called my genre "sad girl folk music" and wrote some songs that I'm still quite proud of. But after meeting my husband, falling in love, and building a life I adore, I found it really hard to get inspired to write music. Any time I tried, it sounded schlocky, saccharine, false.
I decided I could only write about heartbreak and so my season of songwriting was over.
Fast-forward 5 years and our lives were forever changed with the arrival of our twin boys. It took me until they were toddlers to realize that my songwriting inspiration had come back with abandon: I was coming up with daily ditties and silly songs to take advantage of teachable moments. I sang to them constantly and inspiration flowed in way that I'd never experienced before.
At first I felt like this didn't count. Surely the world doesn't need silly songs about feeling disappointed or remembering to put on all of your winter gear before going outside. Surely everyone comes up with little songs for their kids?
But as they started to get old enough to consume media, I realized that there's a dearth of music that doesn't talk down to kids. That recognizes their innate intelligence. That helps them internalize the lessons they're learning every day. And that's when I realized that maybe my silly little songs really do matter after all.
Children's music is due for an overhaul
I grew up on Raffi, Woody Guthrie, and monthly potlucks where my mom and her friends would jam their way through the Rise Up Singing catalog.
When I had kids of my own, I couldn't find songs with strong messages. Baby Shark makes me want to die and I know I can't be alone in that. Even the songs from my own childhood that I loved (and still sing to them!) were often just silly and didn't have much meaning beyond that. No shade to silly songs: they have a time and a place! But I yearned for songs that helped my kids understand the social and emotional development concepts we were teaching them. That would become part of their inner narrative as they got older. That they could lean on as emotional regulation tools when they felt upset or overwhelmed.
Once your kids start talking, you get the really fun realization that they've been listening all along. Paying attention to every repeated mantra, every song, every affirmation, every way in which we speak to ourselves. And so it feels even more important to be mindful of the messages that we're exposing them to, even long before we think they're paying attention.
When we discovered Miss Katie's YouTube channel, I realized I wasn't alone in my desire to find children's music with a strong message. And that's when I decided that it was time to share the songs I've been writing for my own boys.
Why is music important for children's development?
I truly think that helping kids discover a love of music is one of the greatest gifts we can give them: GooGoo made up his first song when he was 2.5 and it was one of the proudest moments of my life. The look of pride on his face when he sang it to me for the first time was priceless: what a gift to nurture his creativity from such a young age!
Anybody remember those infomercials for those Beethoven at Bedtime cds? I grew up in the era that told parents that the only way to raise geniuses was to pump them full of classical music. While I don't believe that classical is the only type of music that can enhance children's cognitive abilities, I do think that music is an incredibly powerful tool for children's development.
Here are a few reasons why:
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Language development: Singing and listening to music can help children learn new words and concepts, as well as improve their listening and memory skills. Because children's songs often include simple, repetitive lyrics that are easy for young children to remember, they can become a powerful tool in helping them learn new words and concepts.
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Enhanced creativity and self-expression: Music gives kids the opportunity to become creators. When you hand a child an instrument or teach them a song, you're giving them the opportunity to express themselves creatively, stretch their imagination, and even develop their problem-solving skills ("huh, that note on the ukulele sounded weird: let me try another one!").
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Improved cognitive skills: Listening to music can improve children's spatial-temporal skills, improve memory, and develop concentration. Music engages a child's brain in unique ways that can have lifelong benefits.
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Love of learning: Music should be fun. When learning is just a side benefit, children have the opportunity to fall in love with music without the pressure of feeling like they have to prove themselves. This can help to foster a love of learning and a positive attitude towards education.
What makes songs a useful learning tool for toddlers?
While I love me some classical music, I think that there's incredible value in children's songs that are designed to be a learning tool. They can help toddlers learn new words and concepts while improving their listening and memory skills. Here are just a few ways in which songs can help toddlers learn:
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Repetitive lyrics: Toddlers thrive on predictability and repetition so songs with simple, memorable, repetitive lyrics can be extremely effective for helping them learn new words and concepts.
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Rhyming words: Rhyming words can be especially helpful for toddlers because the rhyme helps to make the words more memorable.
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Action songs: Songs that include gestures, actions, or a dance can be especially engaging for toddlers while helping them learn new words, concepts, and improve their gross motor skills.
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Reinforce familiar themes: Whether you're working on teaching colors, emotional regulation skills, or animal sounds, songs that reinforce the themes that they're already learning about can give toddlers a new way of approaching and memorizing these concepts.
My goal is to share songs that support your parenting style in ways that are fun, simple, and accessible. Here's to raising a generation of children with love, compassion, and creativity.