To think that a woman at MT should not try and impose her "parenting" on the rest of us.

[lucyellensmum]

OK - so, i go to a lovely M&T group on a friday, and while the lovely old dears who organise it tidy some of the toys away and prepare drinks and biscuits (and cups of tea for mums) for the children, the mums (and dads and grandparents etc) have a little informal singing session with the children, just to distract them really and they enjoy it. So, twice while i have been there, a grandparent brings her GD (i dont have issue with this, she just happens to be a GP) and she thinks that we should sing each song twice because that way the children "learn" it better and know what is being sung (all under three!) the second time around. So, again she points it out to the lady who takes the lead with the singing, first time we repeat it, only a short song, then we do "wheels on the bus" so this is quite long and repetitive, not only does she insist on sining stuff like "the ticket collecter on the bus says fares please" quite a mouthful! we get to the end and she says to the lady, when we decide to sing a different song, um, and again!! in a rather bossy head teachery tone. I sat quietly seething but a rather forthright woman (who i am quite scared of actually) said, oh for gods sake, cant we just have another quick song.

I mean, she should wind her neck in, she doesnt come to the group regularly, it is hardly a teaching exercise, just something we do to keep the kids occupied while some of the toys are spirited away. Bossy baggage - i just sat there thinking, thank the lord she is not my MIL!!!

cat, we do help each other out, we have a right good whinge about life and our children have a good play, as i have said, this is just about five minute sing song before we have tea.

I do know what you mean about learning rhymes though. I think most people know the standards but its great to learn the actions etc, i just think people can be a little to anal about these things. But then i DO know four different versions of baa baa black sheep and six versions of row row the boat, it is so funny at play groups where mums often know different versions how some parts of the song collapse into giggles as we all sing something different.

I had no idea there were so many different versions of some songs! Even the Hokey Cokey! I sometimes wonder what my dd makes of doing it differently in different places like we do.

On Wheels on the Bus, we go to a music group once a week and their version irritates me. We sing along with a CD so the words are fixed by it and the line goes "The windscreen wipers on the bus go swish, swish, swish". It so doesn't scan and I refuse to sing it. I mutter "The wipers on the bus..." and they only catch up with me on the "...swish, swish, swish" part!

Sorry for digressing

I didn't even know that there was a ticket collector on the bus - I used to get as far as 'the fathers on the bus....' and start changing words anyway .

I used to sing nonsense words anyway to the music and defy my dd to correct me (which she did).

You could always try multplication songs - they're enough to make you run for the hills screaming. They're sung 2-3 times each on the tape.

It would drive me mad to sing every song twice ! As much as I enjoy all the classics, and I go to three different groups a week, so thats a lot of songs ! If kids go every week then they are learning them anyway. Most would get pretty bored doing each song twice, unless it is their absolute favourite. I would just say, no we don't have time, we want to sing lots of songs in 5 mins, so if we repeat each one, thats about 2 songs ! She probably won't mind.