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:

1. Love Is What I Feel For You
2. Rockin’ My Baby
3. Wake Up
4. Little Bitty Boat
5. Chickadee
6. I Love You
7. Bouncing
8. Baby’s Got A Giggle
9. Pretty Little Baby
10. Bye-Bye!
11. 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.