Our Song Box

Two different events happened that led me to make our "song box." First, I was with Macy in a different ward's nursery. It was singing time and the leader pulled out pictures of the temple for the kids to hold while everyone sang "I love to see the temple." Macy loved this and held it proudly over her head. Then the leader gave each kid an Easter egg with beans inside to shake while they sang "Popcorn Popping." I knew Macy loved this because she loved shaking the eggs in her rec center music classes too. Second, I was thinking of ideas to keep us occupied inside for this really hot summer and after the baby comes when I'm not ready to go outside yet. Since Macy loved the nursery singing-time so much I decided to come up with a few props to use while singing.

Here are the songs we  have so far in our box. I'm planning to add more later and when supplies become available. I got the clip art from google and laminated all the paper pieces. Luckily I had a bunch of popsicle sticks waiting to be used.

• Wheels on the bus- I used velcro to attach the little driver, horn, baby, mommy, daddy, and people into the bus windows. Macy takes them off before singing and we sing them in the order she decides to put them on. Once I finally buy some brads I'm going to attach wipers to the windows and wheels that actually spin.
• 5 little monkeys- Macy can actually sing most of the words to this song. I put velcro on the monkeys and we take them off as they bonk their head.
• Yankee Doodle- We have 3 feathers and Macy hands them out to me and herself (and Ja too, even if he isn't around she'll set one aside for him). She dances around in circles while I sing and her contribution is macaroni (which she pronounces as RAC-a-roni!").
• Twinkle twinkle little star- Macy spins in circles while we sing.
• Jesus wants me for a sunbeam- (of course the loves to yell sunbeam)
• Old MacDonald- I have 8 or so animals. Macy caught on very quickly and loves to sing "e-i-e-i-OOOOOOOO!" She shakes her head a little during the "O" part.
• I like to eat apples and bananas- She uses the "shakey eggs" for this song. I originally wanted to get fake apples and bananas but the first time we used the eggs I asked Ja what song he wanted to sing and he choose this song. From then on Macy only lets me sing apples and bananas with the eggs. She calls it the "Juice song."

• A, B, C's- Macy can only recognize M for Macy but she likes to point to the other letters as I sing them. She can find an M anywhere and reads all sorts of signs while we are driving because all the sudden she'll yell, "M! Macy!" I look around and sure enough there's an M on a sign somewhere.
• I like to look for rainbows
• I love to see the temple- I never thought I'd say this, but I'm actually getting tired of this song. I sing it about 10-15 times a day. It's the only song Macy wants sung to her when she's going to bed. Over, and over, and over.
• I belong to the church of Jesus Christ- It's a name tag she got from nursery
• 5 little ducks went out to play- Her contribution is quack, quack, quack.
• I know an old lady who swallowed a fly- I used velcro to attach all the little animals she eats. Macy's favorite is the spider because it wiggled and jiggled and tickled inside her. She loves to wiggle for that part.

I knew after putting all the effort into making all these things Macy could either love it or not care about it at all. I'm so happy to say she loves it and gets excited whenever I suggest we sing using the props. She sings and runs around in circles the whole time. It's so adorable and I'm very glad I took the time and effort into making it for her.

I would like to add some quilt batting in the shape of a snowman for the song "Once there was a snowman." We can make it grow tall and smash it to the ground for small, small, small. I was also thinking about adding chop sticks or something similar for the song "This old man."