Last year I did a post about 12 Nursery Rhymes you could sing with your baby, link below, and this has been a very popular post! Clearly a lot of you have had the same experience I did when first having a baby, finding yourselves on your own with them and wondering what on earth to do with them. You hear that singing with your baby is a great idea but you have no idea what to start with because in your sleep deprived state you can’t remember a single nursery rhyme to sing.
12 Nursery Rhymes To Sing With Your Baby
So, as I said, I made some suggestions for nursery rhymes to sing with your baby last year and feel free to check out that blog post which I have linked for you below. And here are 10 more nice easy and fun songs to sing with your baby and hopefully you will now have plenty of inspiration for songs to sing together. You don’t need any equipment at all, or even accompaniment to sing these songs with your baby, as you will hear from the sound clips for each song. You don’t need any accompaniment, or any particular singing skills. It absolutely does not matter whether you are singing in tune, too fast, too slow, too high, too low. Anything goes. The important thing is that you are singing with your baby. And as far as your baby is concerned, no matter what you think of your voice, your baby thinks it is the most beautiful, wonderful voice in the world. They are your number 1 fan!
For each song in this post, I am going to tell you a little bit about the song – literally a couple of sentences at most – give you the lyrics, and then a brief sound clip just of me singing the song with no accompaniment so you hear the tune.
I’m a Little Teapot
I’m going to start with one of my daughter’s recent favourites. This is a lovely little action song. As you sing “Here’s my handle”, put your hand on your hips to create your handle. As you sing “Here’s my spout”, put the other hand in the air with your palm facing upwards to look like a spout. As you sing “Lift me up and pour me out!” rise onto your tiptoes and lean over in the direction of the hand acting as your spout. Older children can do this as well if you show them the moves, and if you can lift up your toddler and tip them over so they are being the teapot, there will be shrieks of delight! My 6 year old still loves this song, and very much enjoys being the teapot.
I’m a little teapot
Short and stout
Here’s my handle
Here’s my spout.
When I get all steamed up
Here me shout.
Lift me up and pour me out!
So, what is the tune for this nursery rhyme? Here it is:
Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes
Another action song here. This one is great for memory development, for learning names of different parts of the body, and for getting your little ones moving. There are a couple of different ways of singing this song.
- The first is to just sing the song through, making sure you or your child touches the bit of the body they are singing about, so whenever they say the word “Heads”, touch their head, touch their shoulders when they sing “shoulders” etc. With very small children you touch the corresponding part of their body as they are singing to teach them that is the name for the head, their knees etc. For older children teach them by getting them to mirror your actions.
- To add in a bit of memory development you can sing this song through in full once. Sing it through again, but this time each time you get to the word “heads” miss it out, while still touching your head. Your child has to remember that the word is coming up in order to miss it out, and also has to remember the rest of the words to join back in. Next time through you could miss out the word “shoulders” or both “heads” and “shoulders” eventually getting to the point where you are just singing the word “and”! A word of advice with this one though, if you are missing multiple words out then use a sound in place of the word as a placeholder, “mm” for example. Otherwise it can get very confusing to remember where you have got to. Remember when doing this that while you know that you are helping to develop your child’s memory skills, the fun of this song lies in the mistakes that are made.
- In this version of the song, you again start by just singing the song through normally. Next time round you sing it through a little faster, hopefully matching your actions seamlessly with the words. Next time a little faster again, and again, and again until you are singing really fast, maybe tripping over your words, arms flailing about trying to keep up with the heads, shoulders, knees and toes, and everyone is laughing. Stop before anyone gets too over- excited and sticks a hand in their eye because they are going too fast though!!
Heads, shoulders, knees and toes
Knees and toes.
Heads, shoulders, knees and toes
Knees and toes
And eyes, and ears,and mouth and nose.
Heads, shoulders, knees and toes
Knees and toes.
And here it is with the tune:
London Bridge Is Falling Down
This song sounds like it is all about something that actually happened. While its meaning may well be fairly obvious from its lyrics and it may well be all about difficulties in building and repairing London Bridge, no one really knows the origins of the song’s words and many different theories have been put forward, including one very dark theory that the song is about the idea that a bridge would fall down unless a human sacrifice was buried in its foundations to watch over the bridge! The song is a fun one to sing though, just maybe don’t mention the song’s origins. Or think about them too hard.
London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down. London Bridge is falling down, My fair Lady Build it up with wood and clay, wood and clay, wood and clay Build it up with wood and clay, My fair Lady. Wood and clay will wash away, wash away, wash away Wood and clay will wash away, My fair Lady Build it up with bricks and mortar, bricks and mortar, bricks and mortar Build it up with bricks and mortar, My fair Lady. Bricks and mortar will not stay, will not stay, will not stay Bricks and mortar will not stay, My fair Lady Build it up with iron bars, iron bars, iron bars Build it up with iron bars My fair Lady. Iron bars will bend and break, bend and break, bend and break. Iron bars will bend and break, My fair Lady. Build it up with gold and silver, gold and silver, gold and silver, Build it up with god and silver, My fair Lady. Gold and silver we have none, we have none, we have none Gold and silver we have none, My fair Lady. Set a man to watch all night, watch all night, watch all night Set a man to watch all night, My fair Lady. Suppose the man should fall asleep, fall asleep, fall asleep Suppose the man should fall asleep, My fair Lady Give him a pipe to smoke all night, smoke all night, smoke all night Give him a pipe to smoke all night, My fair Lady.
Listen to the tune of London Bridge Is Falling Down (first two verses only):
Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush
This song is a great one to use to help your little ones learn about their daily routine. You can sing along with whatever you are doing using this tune – this is the way we brush our teeth, or comb our hair, walk the dog, whatever you want to include.
Here we go round the mulberry bush, the mulberry bush the mulberry bush Here we go round the mulberry bush So early in the morning. This is the way we wash our hands, wash our hands, wash our hands This is the way we wash our hands So early in the morning.
Listen to Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush here:
Frère Jacques
This is a lovely song, very easy to learn and sing with your little ones. I have given you the song’s lyrics in both French and English, and sung it in French so you can hear how to pronounce the words if you need it. As well as being a lovely song to sing on its own, it is a great one to use to start singing in rounds. To sing in a round, one of you would start at the beginning and the next person would join in singing exactly the same thing, but starting a little later. For this song you can start after the first Frère Jacques, at the end of the first line, basically at the end of any of the phrases. (See link to blog post below that explains what I mean by singing in rounds)
Frère Jacques, Frère Jacques. Dormez-vous, dormer-vous? Sonnez les matines, sonnez les matines. Ding-Dang-Dong Ding-Dang-Dong Translation: Brother Jack, Brother Jack Are you sleeping, are you sleeping? Morning bells are ringing, morning bells are ringing. Ding-Dang-Dong Ding-Dang-Dong
Listen to Frère Jacques:
Singing songs in rounds – a fun way to introduce harmony to your children
Michael Finnegan
This was one of the first songs I actually remembered myself when I had my little boy. I used to sit with him lying along my legs so we could see each other, and sing to him watching his reactions and letting him see my face. He liked me tickling him on his chin when I sang about Michael Finnegan’s whiskers, and liked me blowing a little in his face when I sang about the wind blowing the whiskers in again. Of course, your child may not like the tickling or blowing on their face so of course these actions can be missed out. It is, in itself, a fun and silly song. Repeat as often as you want and the last time say “stop” instead of “Begin again.”
There was an old man called Michael Finnegan,
He grew whiskers on his chin-egan.
The wind came out and blew them in again,
Poor old Michael Finnegan,
Begin again.
Listen to Michael Finnegan:
ABC song
This song is sung to the same tune as Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. The lyrics are, well they are just the alphabet. It is a very repetitive song, and repetition is the way that we, and especially small children, learn things. So it is a great way to learn the alphabet. Once they had learned the song, both of my children sang it over and over and over again, mostly when walking out of school and balancing when walking along little walls when we were going for walks. There are hundreds of versions of this song on YouTube, or Spotify. All over the place really. But all you need to start singing it is you and your baby.
A, B, C, D, E, F, G,
H, I, J, K, LMNOP,
Q, R, S,
T, U, V,
W, X,
Y and Z.
Now I know my A B Cs
Next time won’t you sing with me.
Listen to the ABC song here:
Three Blind Mice
Ahhh, nursery rhymes. Lovely, fun, sweet songs we sing with our most precious and tiny bundles of joy. Actually a lot of them are surprisingly dark and violent when you listen to the words you are singing, but we will carry on singing them anyway. This one is a very easy tune, often one of the first tunes your child will learn to play when they are learning a musical instrument. It is another song that works well in a round (see discussion of Frère Jacques above) with a second person joining the song at the end of any of the phrases.
Three blind mice, three blind mice
See how they run, see how they run
They all run after the Farmer’s wife,
Who cut off their tails with a carving knife.
Did you ever see such a thing in your life,
As three blind mice.
Listen to Three Blind Mice here:
Jack and Jill
I may as well get the violent ones out of the way. Much like the song about the man who went to bed with a bucket on his head, or that lovely lullaby about baby’s cribs being put up in a tree, why do we sing such scary songs to our vulnerable, tiny babies? Maybe this is a subject for a blog post for another day. In the meantime, this (despite its dark lyrics) is a fun song to sing/say with your little ones.
Jack and Jill went up the hill,
To fetch a pail of water.
Jack fell down, and broke his crown,
And Jill came tumbling after.
Jack got up, and home did trot,
As fast as he could caper.
To old Dame Dob who patched his nob,
With vinegar and brown paper.
Jack and Jill went up the hill,
To fetch a pail of water.
Jack fell down, and broke his crown,
And Jill came tumbling after.
Listen to Jack and Jill (first verse only):
Hush Little Baby
This is a really nice tune. It rings true, because when you first hold your new baby you want to give them the moon. And while you will would love to give them the moon as the grow up, your tiny baby is not going to ask you to actually go out and get it for them. Well, probably not. This is one of those songs that has been recorded by some amazing singers, including artists like Nina Simone, Joan Baez, Regina Spektor; and there are various different versions of the song available if you want to have a listen, including the R&B version “Mockingbird” recorded by Aretha Franklin. I have sung this as a lullaby to my children when they were just not going to sleep – I am certain that I changed the lyrics to anything I could think of, not even necessarily caring if the lyrics rhymed at the time.
Hush, little baby, don’t say a word
Mama’s gonna buy you a Mockingbird
And if that mocking bird don’t sing,
Mama’s gonna buy you a diamond ring
And if that diamond ring turns brass,
Mama’s gonna buy you a looking glass.
And if that looking glass gets broke,
Mama’s gonna buy you a billy goat.
And if that billy goat don’t pull,
Mama’s gonna buy you a cart and bull.
And if that cart and bull turn over,
Mama’s gonna buy you a dog named Rover.
And if that dog named Rover don’t bark,
Mama’s gonna buy you a horse and cart.
And if that horse and cart fall down,
You’ll still be the cutest little baby in town.
Listen to Hush Little Baby (first two and final verses only) here:
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