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Because I'm a big old geek or something, I want to learn to sing the Levan Polkka to sing to the babies.
But I don't know what doubled vowels and doubled consonants do in Finnish, or what they use the umlauts for. Worse -- because I can't begin to imagine what they sound like -- are the doubled umlauted vowels. Anybody know how to tell me, or should I ask in linguaphiles?
Singing is one of the most effective crowd control techniques I have with the infants. No, it's the most effective. You get a baby crying, sometimes that means three or four others will join in because they're all in solidarity or sympathy with each other or they're just annoyed as hell about the noise. So you have to address the angst of more than the first baby. Sometimes they all need something physical -- diapers, food, bottles, naps -- and sometimes they don't, but whatever they need, if they all need something, they aren't all going to get it instantaneously. So you have to give them something to think about while they're waiting their turn. Remembering of course that "waiting their turn" is an abstract concept that it takes more than three to twelve months to master. So I sing. And it always works for at least a minute, which is long enough to get one of the kids on the way to the comfort zone (and more, when there is more staff around, which there usually is). And then, when that kid is okay for now, another round of singing stops the next round of crying long enough for them to sort themselves out into angst-sympathy-and-solidaruty cryers on the one hand, who generally cheer up, and needing-something-specific cryers on the other hand, whose needs become clear.
One of my favorite songs to sing to a roomful of crying infants is "Whimper and Whine," a song I learned off the Electric Company twenty-five years ago. Its lyrics, after the folk process has got to them, are:
We are the children known as Whimper and Whine,
Whimper and Whine, Whimper and Whine:
That's what we do most all of the time,
Is whimper and whine, whine, whine.
When at dinner we find something we hate,
We whimper and whine it right off of the plate:
That's what we do when we sit down to dine,
Is whimper and whine, whine, whine.
It has a really lovely tune. It was meant to teach the silent E!
Children love this song. Babies adore it. I pitch my voice, by the way, so that it blends in with their voices in a pleasant way. I can't describe it. But you can feel the tension fall away (especially I can feel my own tension fall away!) when the voices meld like that and the discordant edge of the cry is smoothed over like that.
I do baby circle time too. Not by declaring that it's circle time and hauling out the carpet squares and insisting on participation. Just when the kids seem to be receptive and not really too involved with their own agendas I plop down in a strategic spot and sing songs and catch their eyes and clap and stuff. They adore this behavior and reward it handsomely.
You know how cartoon babies say "Goo!"? The actual sound they make is kind of warbly and it always means some kind of pleasure. So I have this one baby who says that when he's pulling himself to standing and snitching everybody else's binky, and another baby who says that when he's clapping his hands and smiling very broadly. So they say that when I sing. And they attempt to climb right into me, which is physically impossible, but they can crawl into my lap and pull themselves up on me and stuff.
Other faves are "Yonder he comes," "Way down yonder in the paw paw patch," "Billy Boy," a whole raft of songs about turtles and frogs, "Prettiest Little Baby in the County-O," and a parody of "The Big-Time Woman from Way Out West:"
Who's that baby with the sparkling eyes
Shine just like the stars in the sky
He's a big-time baby from way out West.
The way he treats these New York babies
oh Lord, it's a sin:
keeps them asking the same darn questions
all over again.
For every baby's got a winning smile
but he treats them all just like a child
He's the big-time baby from way out West."
But I don't know what doubled vowels and doubled consonants do in Finnish, or what they use the umlauts for. Worse -- because I can't begin to imagine what they sound like -- are the doubled umlauted vowels. Anybody know how to tell me, or should I ask in linguaphiles?
Singing is one of the most effective crowd control techniques I have with the infants. No, it's the most effective. You get a baby crying, sometimes that means three or four others will join in because they're all in solidarity or sympathy with each other or they're just annoyed as hell about the noise. So you have to address the angst of more than the first baby. Sometimes they all need something physical -- diapers, food, bottles, naps -- and sometimes they don't, but whatever they need, if they all need something, they aren't all going to get it instantaneously. So you have to give them something to think about while they're waiting their turn. Remembering of course that "waiting their turn" is an abstract concept that it takes more than three to twelve months to master. So I sing. And it always works for at least a minute, which is long enough to get one of the kids on the way to the comfort zone (and more, when there is more staff around, which there usually is). And then, when that kid is okay for now, another round of singing stops the next round of crying long enough for them to sort themselves out into angst-sympathy-and-solidaruty cryers on the one hand, who generally cheer up, and needing-something-specific cryers on the other hand, whose needs become clear.
One of my favorite songs to sing to a roomful of crying infants is "Whimper and Whine," a song I learned off the Electric Company twenty-five years ago. Its lyrics, after the folk process has got to them, are:
We are the children known as Whimper and Whine,
Whimper and Whine, Whimper and Whine:
That's what we do most all of the time,
Is whimper and whine, whine, whine.
When at dinner we find something we hate,
We whimper and whine it right off of the plate:
That's what we do when we sit down to dine,
Is whimper and whine, whine, whine.
It has a really lovely tune. It was meant to teach the silent E!
Children love this song. Babies adore it. I pitch my voice, by the way, so that it blends in with their voices in a pleasant way. I can't describe it. But you can feel the tension fall away (especially I can feel my own tension fall away!) when the voices meld like that and the discordant edge of the cry is smoothed over like that.
I do baby circle time too. Not by declaring that it's circle time and hauling out the carpet squares and insisting on participation. Just when the kids seem to be receptive and not really too involved with their own agendas I plop down in a strategic spot and sing songs and catch their eyes and clap and stuff. They adore this behavior and reward it handsomely.
You know how cartoon babies say "Goo!"? The actual sound they make is kind of warbly and it always means some kind of pleasure. So I have this one baby who says that when he's pulling himself to standing and snitching everybody else's binky, and another baby who says that when he's clapping his hands and smiling very broadly. So they say that when I sing. And they attempt to climb right into me, which is physically impossible, but they can crawl into my lap and pull themselves up on me and stuff.
Other faves are "Yonder he comes," "Way down yonder in the paw paw patch," "Billy Boy," a whole raft of songs about turtles and frogs, "Prettiest Little Baby in the County-O," and a parody of "The Big-Time Woman from Way Out West:"
Who's that baby with the sparkling eyes
Shine just like the stars in the sky
He's a big-time baby from way out West.
The way he treats these New York babies
oh Lord, it's a sin:
keeps them asking the same darn questions
all over again.
For every baby's got a winning smile
but he treats them all just like a child
He's the big-time baby from way out West."
Tags:
Smiles