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Sing to Your Baby for Brilliant Bonding
Multi-Grammy Award winners Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer have twenty five years experience in creating Music to further connect families together through a creative media. Sing to Your Baby features eleven original songs which range in tone, mood and genre designed specifically for singing with your little ones. Alongside this beautiful book is an accompanying CD. Each song has been recorded in two alternate keys making the Music accessible to both Mums and Dads singing pitch.
Inside the book ‘Sing to Your Baby’ is a contents page so that songs be can located easily, a letter from the authors to the readers, directions for carrying out and extending singing activities, lyrics for each song and a guide for parents explaining the developmental, educational and emotional benefits of singing for both children and parents. Each page includes the track numbers for both higher and lower pitch versions of the songs, as well as some guidance as to actions which can be included alongside the Music to encourage fun and learning. Sing to Your Baby also features colourful, bright, beautiful illustrations carefully created by James Nocito for both parents and children to enjoy.
Fink and Marxer have seen and experienced the power which Music instils into the lives of children and their families. More and more studies have been carried out which identify that singing to your child can improve communicative skills. NPR researched more into the parallels between a child and parents’ verbal connection at a young age and the same child’s educational success years later. NPR found that the more words a baby heard during their younger years,the more likely he or she was to handle the rigors of school later in life. You can read more upon the research carried out and results found at http://www.npr.org/2011/01/10/132749565/closing-the-achievement-gap-with-baby-talk
Songs featured within the ‘Sing to Your Baby’ book and CD include:
Love Is What I Feel For You - Rockin’ My Baby
- Wake Up
- Little Bitty Boat
- Chickadee
- I Love You
- Bouncing
- Baby’s Got A Giggle
- Pretty Little Baby
- Bye-Bye!
- Wherever You Go, I Love You
Whilst many parents feel uncomfortable with their own singing voice, it is advisable to put aside your own issues with confidence in Music and to ‘give it a try’. However, for those parents who are completely against singing and would prefer using spoken word, Sing to Your Baby includes chanted/ spoken rhymes and simple scat melodies (using Mmm and Laas) which can help both parents and children to build confidence within Music through simplistic themes.
Top Tips for Singing to Your Baby:
- Whether or not you are able to sing, your little one will enjoy listening to your voice.
- Relax and enjoy the experience
- Learn the songs and lyrics in your own time without pressure
- Make use of the CD for backing Music during play, travel or day to day activities to build familiarity with the songs.
- Play and sing the songs during pregnancy to build a stronger bond with your bump.
- It doesn’t matter if you don’t know the words!
- Sing to your little ones whenever you can (with or without the book!)
- Encourage siblings to join in
- Make up your own lyrics and get creative.
- Add your little ones name into the song to make the experience more personal.
- Add actions to the songs to make the experience even more fun.
Mums Baby Magazine put ‘Sing to Your Baby’ to the test with a little one, we found that the songs were rhythmic and easily memorable. We used this CD as backing Music during play for a few days in order to build familiarity with the material and then we began to add actions to the songs. We later accompanied the Music with instruments such as drums, shakers and bells which made the songs even more fun to take part in for our little tester as they were more able to feel and experience the Music in a physical sense.Although the songs do seem lengthy, the lyrics are repetitive and therefore an excellent choice for teaching infants, toddlers and children memorable words. We found that the Sing to Your Baby book and CD offered a more structured way in which to bond with your little one through Music, providing parents with clear guidance and support.
Mums Baby Magazine give the Sing to Your Baby Book and CD 8/10. Sing to Your Baby is an ideal gift for expecting parents, new-borns, infants and toddlers which retails at $19.95 from www.singtoyourbaby.net.
Bringing together the essential information for the early days: The Baby Book (Colchester and Tendring)
For the past twelve years Sharon has worked as a health visitor. Her job is to support, advise and guide soon to be parents and carer through the rollercoaster that is parenthood. Sharon was previously a children’s nurse where she found that many parents didn’t feel supported by their health visitor, this spurred Sharon to make a difference and become a health visitor herself.
Sharon soon realised that parenthood can be a very stressful job, often parents have feelings such as guilt, anxiety, and distress. Having undertaken the life changing step of becoming a Mother herself, Sharon had a good understanding and knowledge of how many other parents were feeling. For many parents the change from working full time to being on maternity leave and having to care for a new born for the first time can be daunting.
Sharon lacked the time and motivation to search the internet for advice upon parenting in the early stages, she wished that there could be a booklet available for parents, a simple guide to follow in the early days of parenting. As a health visitor Sharon found that many other parents also wished that there could be a book given to parents rather than having to listen to endless information which often was unheard due to information overload.
Weeks and months after Sharon and many other parents had experienced feelings of loneliness or isolation they would be told of local groups or activities to support parents, often these recommendations came all too late. Due to the lack of information and support often given to new parents, Sharon decided to launch ‘The Baby Book’.
The Baby Book was designed to be easily read, small in size and not too overwhelming. The Baby Book is split into sections featuring local information (such as baby clinics, mother and toddler groups etc) and advertisements for relevant businesses which readers may be interested in.
The Baby Book has become a popular source of information for parents and is now available three times per year, you can now access information and extracts from the baby book at www.thebabybook.co.uk, they also have a monthly newsletter and are featured upon facebook and twitter.
Turn your children into creative souls with ‘The Creative Family; How to Encourage Imagination and Nurture Family Connections’ by Amanda Blake Soule.
Amanda Blake Soule has written an online blog www.soulemama.com for a few years. Amanda documents her life as a Mum to four, sharing pictures, creative ideas and instructions on how to be creative with little ones to parents Worldwide. Amanda currently has two publications available for purchase and another upcoming book which is due to be released in 2011.
‘The Creative Family; How to Encourage Imagination and Nurture Family Connections’ is an inspiring read, Firstly it describes how Amanda has brought her children up in terms of beliefs and traditions. Secondly, it explains in clear detail how to go about using the materials which are all around us to create from.
Amanda explains how children discover themselves through art, craft and play. This book features photographs of Amanda’s and her children’s work, the creative home setup, materials and storage. This book is an excellent guide for parents wishing to learn how to bring the family closer together through tradition, art and craft.
Available for £9.10 from www.amazon.co.uk, ‘The Creative Family, How to Encourage Imagination and Nurture Family Connections’ is a fantastic resource for parents wishing to encourage their children’s imagination and inspire learning for their little ones.
Something Old, Something New, sound advice and a tip or two… Liz Fraser brings sweetness back into our childrens lives with her book A Spoonful of Sugar.
Liz Fraser’s second book ‘A Spoonful of Sugar’ brings the basics back into child rearing. Liz tells the story of of her visits to see her Grandma up in ‘Bonny Scottland’ where conversation is fuelled with debating the comparisons of modern day and old school child rearing.
The book is split into chapters for each area of parenting: Education, Fashion, Feeding, Discipline, Routine etc. Throughout each chapter Liz explores how modern society has become selfish and therefore forced changes which may not necessarily be for the better into the upbringing of ‘today’s children’. Together Liz and her wise Grandmother compromise upon parenting techniques.
This book is not only a fabulous read but will educate you upon how to bring back the traditional whilst adding a touch of the modern to your child’s upbringing.
Available from www.amazon.co.uk for £8.39 (or if you fancy a bargain saving money for your family as Grandma herself suggests, it is also available in the used/ new section for only £1.69!)
Learn how to talk baby with Baby Sign.
Based upon BSL (British Sign Language) baby sign is a language accessed easily by both babies and parents enabling communication from an early age.
Imagine not being able to talk and wanting to convey a key message to somebody, How frustrating would it be? Frustration is something which babies encounter everyday, learning the basics can be extremely daunting and difficult!
Try to ease the frustration and upset that your little one may feel by being unable to communicate through speech by teaching yourself and your baby ‘Baby Sign’.
Baby Sign is fun for both child and parent, Annie Kubler has created a series of board books containing clear, colourful pictures with annotations explaining how to sign with your baby. ‘My First Signs’ focuses upon the basic needs and key language that babies and tots require.
My First Signs if available from www.amazon.co.uk for £4.99
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