Helpful tips to start singing with your children

Start singing with your children! It can be a wonderful activity to do in your home. It provides variety, structure, and joy in your day. Here are some tips to get started!

Choose your songs

There are so many songs you can use to start singing with your children. If you already don’t have a handful you are familiar with from your childhood, it doesn’t take much searching around the internet to find some that can be sung throughout the day. There are two categories of songs that we focus on in our house: evergreen songs and seasonal songs.

Evergreen songs

Evergreen songs are the ones that you may be most familiar with. These are songs like: “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”, “Mary Had a Little Lamb”, “The Itsy Bitsy Spider,” etc. You can sing these songs with your children anytime during the year. These types of songs are the foundation of singing in our home. Some favorites in our house are:

Old MacDonald Had a Farm
Down by the Bay
Baby Beluga
Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed
In the Leafy Treetops

Evergreen songs to start singing with children-02

Keep your ears open for new songs that you will enjoy singing with your children. New ones pop up all the time. Remember how “Baby Shark” seemed to just come out of nowhere and then it was everywhere? This happens all the time with children’s songs.

Make a list of those evergreen songs you want to start singing with your children and then keep adding to that list! Soon you will have so many to choose from. Kids love repetition! Don’t be afraid to sing the same songs over and over again…. and don’t be annoyed when your kid asks you to sing “ABCs” for the thousandth time.

Seasonal songs

These are the fun songs that change depending on the season or holiday that we are currently in. It is always rewarding to see my kids’ faces light up when I pull out a song we sang last year. It helps them start to anticipate all of the other activities/celebrations that we might do during that season/holiday. Some of our family favorites are;

Popcorn popping (spring)
Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer (Christmas)
Once There was a Snowman (winter)
Five Little Pumpkins (Halloween)

Use visual aids

I love a good visual aid. I love them so much that I make them. (click here to get your FREE visual aids for three songs to start singing with your children!) They are amazing and fun. Some of the benefits of visual aids are:

Visual aids of a flower and bird that can be used for singing "In the Leafy Treetops" with children

Improved learning and memorization: Visual aids can help singers remember lyrics, melodies, and song structure. Additionally, they can help your child recognize words. It is helpful to have a visual representation of a bird and flower if you singing about birds and flowers!
Enhanced expression: Visual aids can inspire your children to convey emotions more vividly. Seeing images related to the theme of the song can help your child connect more deeply with the lyrics and express them with their emotions.
Overcoming singing anxiety: Visual cues can provide children with a sense of security. Knowing there is a visual prompt can help them feel more confident in the lyrics or notes. This can help your child participate better.
Accessibility: For children with different learning styles or even disabilities, visual aids can be a invaluable tool. They can provide an alternative way to access and engage with the material, ensuring inclusivity in learning.

So get those visual aids out! It cues to your children it is time for some fun singing! Check back here often for more visual aids to use while you sing.

Include additional singing tools

We talked about how beneficial a visual aid could be (and hopefully you got these free visual aids to start your singing adventure!), but now it might be time to kick it up a notch and add some more tools to your singing kit! Some of our favorite additional sining tools in are:

There are so many ways you can be creative with just these simple tools. They will add a fun new dimension to singing in your home. These tools will inspire your children to dance, skip, jump, and tap.

A set of instruments used for singing with your children

Add actions

Now it is time to use hands, feet, and arms to get moving while you sing. This can be a simple as singing “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” while pointing to each body part in the song. It can increase a little in complexity if you are teaching our kids to skip during “Skip to my Lou.”

You can add in hand claps that help teach kids rhythm or bounce them on your knees while you sing “Bumpin’ Up and Down in my Little Red Wagon”.

Or just let your children dance anyway that they want to as they listen to singing. They have such fun(ny) dance moves that they invent. It will immediately cheer them up as they start shaking and wiggling.

Here are some ideas of songs that incorporate actions that you can immediately start using.

Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes
One Little Finger
The Hokey Pokey
Shake Your Sillies Out

Find even more action songs for your children here.

A mom singing head, shoulders, knees, and toes

Create structure

There is so much value in just spontaneously singing with your children. Having a home filled with music will create joy, confidence, and a sense of security. Sing often and without a whole lot of forethought.

Additionally, I think there is a lot of value in structured singing time with your kids. This gives you the opportunity to bring out the visual aids and drums. It allows you to think of the fun holiday songs you can be singing at this time of the year. The full power of singing with your children can be unlocked with a little planned structure around it.

It will give you the opportunity to invite others to sing with your kids if you are in the season of life. This is how we start creating those “mom villages” and friendships. We do singing with friends at a pre-scheduled time every week. We also have it scheduled, just our family, at certain times in our day and week.

Structured singing will give your child the opportunity to learn invaluable skills. I personally have my children and their friends sit on carpet markers when we do planned singing. It creates a sense of order and allows us to get the most out of our singing time.

Red circle floor markers and a drum set on a scarf that can be used to sing with children and create order

Fair warning: It will be a little tricky at first and take a lot of reminding to get your kids sitting in their assigned areas. Be loving, but firm and they will pick up the routine soon! Think of other structures and rules that will help your kids get the most out of singing.

Be sure to grab my free visual aids here!

Be sure to share to help other moms start singing with their children!