Music Confessions
Every morning I wake my children up singing my own version of "Good Morning" from Singing In The Rain.
Good Morning! Good Mor-ning!
It's great to be awake.
Good Morning! Good Morning to you (and you, and you, and you!)
Good Morning! Good Mor-ning!
The sun is shining bright
Good Morning! Good Morning to you.
Good Morning! Its time to get up.
Good Morning! Its time to wake up.
Good Morning! Get up out of bed.
We're gonna have a really great day!
Gooooooood Morning! Good Mor-ning!
Its time to get up now.
Good Morning! Good Morning to you!
I've found that singing this while yanking off their warm comforters is a sure way to get the kids up and moving. However, sometimes it is not a guarantee for a good mood.
This morning DD was determined to yell at me no matter what I did. Helping her brush her teeth and comb her hair apparently put me in her doghouse. Instead of losing my patience, I tried another tactic: As I stood her on my bed to help her get dressed I started to sing "If You're Happy And You Know It, Clap Your Hands". By the end of the third verse she quit yelling and was giggling and clapping and stomping and yelling Hooray (which made it much easier to pull her sweater on with her hands in the air).
Musical Psych Therapy. Who knew?
By the way, in case you were wondering, I learned this from my mom. When my sibs would fight (and yes, occasionally I was one of them) she would sing "Love At Home" (hear the hymn here: http://www.lds.org/churchmusic/detailmusicPlayer/index.html?searchlanguage=1&searchcollection=1&searchseqstart=294&searchsubseqstart=%20&searchseqend=294&searchsubseqend=ZZZ ). It got us to stop. Mom has a great alto voice. Sometimes she would pull faces while singing which would get us to laugh and stop the arguing.
There are other song traditions I brought to the family. Before we sing Happy Birthday I always start with this song my mom started:
O somebody is having a birthday
Our little (insert name) dear.
May her/his Heavenly Father bless her/him
Throughout the coming year!
Daddy composed a family song that we used to sing for ward talent shows. We still sing it at family get-togethers. Kazoos are the instrument of choice for that one. He also taught us those musical greats:
Singin' In The Kitchen
Who's The Greatest Singer In The Land (You are!)
Sneaky Snake
Put Another Log On The Fire
Most of you are scratching your heads thinking you have never heard these before. But they hold a special place in my family's musical history and are sung with great relish and harmonies when we get together.
I really miss singing with my parents. For now my kids get all the benefit of singing with me.
Whether they want to or not.
1 comment:
I used to sing to Jamie, my oldest, when I'd go get her out of crib. That always seemed to keep her in a good mood! She is now a morning person. By the time Faith came along, I was too tired to sing every morning when I'd go get the girls. So now Faith, like me, is not a morning person. I think the singing for Jamie helped her be a morning person. :)
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