I\'m Summer, a mouthy, sarcastic bitch. I\'m passionate about natural birth, long term breastfeeding, and living naturally. I curse too much, love tattoos, and will some day be crushed to death by my book collection. I homeschool, dream of gardening, and swing to the left. 
Sing a song
I was asked what songs I’m using to transition (and why did some of the comments to that post dissapear?). I don’t have af luid day worked out, but here goes. In the morning and at night I found a couple nursery rhymes in the Mother Goose book that I am using. After breakfast we do some stretching which leads us into a short morning circle, I sing Raffi’s Roots and Shoots to transition us into that. Actually we listen to that CD a lot. To tranistion him from an inside activity to going outside I sing Boys and Girls, that seems to get him excited enough that its ok to give up what we’re doing. That also works to get him in the car if we suddenly need to go somewhere. Mother Earth and Father Time helps to relax him and get him into a calm state for nap time, though I haven’t found a good song to transition us out of nap yet. He wakes up from nap in an aweful mood, just unbarable. I also need to find something to help transition us from outside play to back inside, that’s another rough area for E that I can’t figure out how to smooth over yet.
That’s all I’ve got so far. I’m sure I’ll have more as I try to find new ways to help. I would have never guessed that a song would be so comforting to him, but it honestly seems to be helping him. Before this any transition from one activity to another was dreadful, a complete nightmare. I’m not sure if he’s typical for his age or if there are some issues, but so far things are a lot smoother.
Technorati tags: children, songs, nursery rhymes
We did something similar with our oldest. She had a really hard time with transitions. So far our other two haven’t had any problems. I’m hoping that continues.
You have some great ideas!
Thanks for sharing! I love the Mother Earth and Father Time one. We use transition songs for naps, cleaning, and when getting ready to head back home from a visit somewhere.
Transitions are so difficult for a lot of kids, but some more than others. Intrepid was the king of transitional chaos, which he thankfully grew out of a few years ago. I never even thought to sing any songs to him, despite both of us being fairly musical people. D’oh!
I’ll be sure to try this out with the new little guy. Gutsy loves most transitions, as long as there’s something in it for him. He’d probabably scowl if I tried to sing him a song about it and ask me to stop ‘that noise’