Music Ideas for Toddlers
Music-Loving Toddlers!
Most toddlers LOVE music! And videos! And time with the special people in their lives! So, we've written some fun toddler music ideas for you! Of course...sing with your toddlers – any nursery rhymes or traditional songs you know are fine. You’ll be amazed how many you know! Do create songs of your own too. Toddlers love to hear their name (don’t we all)! So use their name in the songs too – you’ll be surprised how often you can substitute or insert their name in a song!
Toddlers enjoy songs with hand gestures and actions. Easy examples you probably know are “Where is Thumbkin?” and “If you’re Happy and You Know It”. Songs with actions are great for developing fine motor skills, gross motor skills and co-ordination. One thing to remember is to sing a little slower in parts than you would normally – toddlers sometimes need time to sort out their gestures! Pause if necessary so they don’t feel rushed!
One of the Rainbows and Sunshine songs called “Toodle Toodely Doo” has its actions done by the children characters - these have been designed for adults and children to copy – do these with your toddler while watching the video (you can see it on our website). You can then create your own actions for the animals like the duck (your hands “quack”), the cow (a finger either side of the back of your head), the panda (hands in front like “paws”), etc. The matching book also shows the children doing these actions and there's a butterfly pictured (some almost hidden) on every page for the children to find!
Here’s some fun ideas for using the book “Black and White Cow”: You can use the book as a fun educational learning tool for your little ones by asking them questions about colours, numbers and shapes. Examples include “What colour is the tractor?”, “How many flies does the cow have flying around her tail in this picture?”, “Let’s count the haystacks! “What shapes can you see on the front of the barn?” Little children love to look for the butterfly that we put into each page especially for them to find! The pages vary in style occasionally also to give that element of surprise of what might come next.
To encourage creativity in your little ones with “Black and White Cow” or other songs like this, invent some actions to go with the words! Suggestions are: “Happy and contented cow” (put your pointer fingers at the top of your head, to look like the horns), imitate “munchy”, “itchy”, “big voice” with actions, etc. Putting actions with the song make the experience much more fun because it directly involves the children in the story! They can do actions while singing the song, reading the book, or watching the animation. Children also love to make "Moo" the plush toy cow do the actions!
Dancing is a lot of fun with toddlers! Even “Ring a Ring a Rosy” can be done with just you and your toddler. Bring out your inner child and you will have as much fun as they do! A fun way of getting a reluctant toddler away from their toys and to the dinner table is to sing a train song and be a “train” with them. If they ever get tired of that, you can be planes, or race-cars....it's all about distraction from the end-goal of getting them to the table. They will love the fun of getting there with you, and it takes much less time than hassling them to come to the dinner table!
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About Rainbows and Sunshine
Rainbows and Sunshine produces books with the matching songs included; audio songs; our 15-song album; animated song-videos which tell song-stories, teach concepts or are action, dance or movement song-videos. Four of these animations bring the matching “books with songs” to life; and we also have character toys which match the Rainbows and Sunshine recurring animals featured in these products; together with complementary support material for using these products to provide maximum “learning through fun”.
There are sequential learning opportunities with our themed products. Firstly, from newborn, through the baby and toddler stages, families use our books with the songs included (CD and mp3 download), audio songs and the plush toy cow. This encourages bonding between parents and child, and because they are multi-sensory, they simultaneously engage areas of the brain involved in cognition, intellect, listening, sight, speech, movement, touch, imagination, creativity, and emotions.
At the next developmental stage, usually from 2 years, the matching animation videos are used to bring these books and songs to life. And the character toys are now also integrated into the theme in a more interactive way. For early readers and parents, additional videos have the lyrics to the songs across the screen.
Whilst some of our songs and song-videos are stories to encourage imagination, many of the songs and accompanying song-videos are action, creative movement, or dance songs, and these encourage skills of following cues, co-ordination, gross and fine motor skills, language through interactive involvement, and the senses of sight, hearing, movement, and kinaesthetic development – learning through following cues and instructions, and doing.
From 3 years onwards, the finger puppets representing these recurring story-characters add a further dimension through play, simultaneously encouraging learning in the areas of hands-on creativity, story-telling, fine and gross motor skills, language, kinaesthetic and tactile senses.
Everything is designed for the child to grow with this fun-based sequential learning using the multi-sensory, matching themed products, introduced at the appropriate developmental stage. The combination of the hands-on product, integrated with digital product, means that children can explore their own creativity and imagination for ongoing brain stimulation, develop the varied senses and build neural pathways for cognition.
In sum, our products range in suitability starting from newborns to age 7, and offer fun and multi-sensory experiences, plus learning opportunities for intellectual concepts e.g., colours, counting, addition, subtraction, learning words in foreign languages, child humour, creative movement, and dance. Each has been carefully designed to nurture brain and cognitive development, provide variety, social involvement and interaction for the parent and child, and can be used in an age-specific manner for children’s developmental stages.
We provide tips and ideas for our products so adults learn how to be involved, bond through the “play and learn” experience, and show the different ways the product can be used from birth to age 7, using fun learning, giving kids multiple ways to make connections, have different sensory experiences and learn concepts. It is education through fun engagement at many levels; they are ‘play and learn’ experiences.
The important aspect of our products is that they bring “traditional” play experiences such as books, music and experiential toys into the digital age through an integration of hands-on products and complementing auditory, visual and kinaesthetic digital material that reflects the expectations, needs, and relevance of parents and children today. It is an all-round, total sensory awareness approach to benefit children's development using fun play experiences.