From a very young age, my little lady has had an ear for music. It was kind of unavoidable, I guess, considering my intense passion for recorded and live music and how much of it goes through her ears on a daily basis. Because we do not watch much television, it is usually music that can be heard emanating from our house and car (no vehicular DVD player for us!)
At some point last year, she started to do something rather humorous while sitting in her car seat, staring out the window or playing with a stuffed animal friend. She would begin to sing a made up song about something she had just spotted on the side of the road, in the air or sitting next to her in the backseat. She still does it to this day, getting more elaborate as her vocabulary expands, her memory improves and her cache of ready-to-use melodies broadens. Her lyrics will usually contain a bunny, a bird, a truck or airplane and more often than not will feature, in a staring role, her baby dolls.
Recently, we have turned her songwriter habit into a little competition and game while we drive around town. We each take a turn crafting a couple verses of a made up song and sing it aloud to the rest of the family. Then the remaining players have to remember the words and sing it back. The newly minted songs need not be fancy and they don’t need to rhyme (in fact, bonus points are awarded if a player avoids a cheesy rhyme!)
The results are usually cute, quite often silly, possibly absurd but always 100% hilarious and charming.
I like to think this made up song activity helps to develop creativity and harnesses an increasingly observant eye – as she is constantly on the lookout for new things to throw into a tune. This brand of fun and imaginative play is generally extinguished once a DVD player or handheld electronic device is introduced. I often worry about a generation of children being raised with their head facing straight down into a 2 inch screen, missing all the wondrous, bizarre and funny aspects of the world around them.
Luckily, good active parenting can reverse this trend and help us get back to a genuinely more unique and pleasant brand of fun!