What songs do you sing to your children?

[angrypixie]

For some strange reason I have sung 'When a knight won his spurs' an old school assembly song to each of them when they were babies whilst they were having their last bottle and cuddle before bed.

I get requests for Puff the Magic Dragon when they are tired or sad, and I have been known to do that Seekers Classic 'Morning town ride'.

My 6 year old daughter likes a burst of 'She's so love-er-ly' Scouting for Girls (I think) at breakfast.

So tell me your guilty secrets and/or inspire me.

Always do 'Golden Slumbers' for my DS at night (DH does 'Rock-a-bye-baby').

My DD likes Lulay, Elizabethan (?) Christmas song I think (?). My mum used to sing to me.

DS likes all the classic nursery rhymes, but we do tend to sing a few cartoon/kid's TV theme tunes, too.

We make up silly words to the Wonderpets theme tune ('Smelly socks, smelly socks, they're on their way...' etc etc) and Backyardigans theme tune ('Because...I'm your mummy, the BackMummigan' etc)

We are a weirdy family, yes.

dd adoes edelweiss just now, she sounds so cut when she sings it back to me. she's 2.9.
She also loves Ally Bally Ally Bally Bee, although I don't think I know all the words

adores cute

I remember When a Knight Won his Spurs!

With a shield on his arm and a lance in his hand. For God and for valour he rode through the land.

It was a favourite of mine. We sung hyms every morning at Primary school and I used to love it.

I sing My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean at nap and bedtimes.

I also tend to make up lots of songs with silly rhyming words.

There are lots of songs listed here that I have forgotten, it's nice to see them again as it reminds me of my childhood.

it was you are my sunshine to ds1 ,then tweenies tune

my girl to DD ,then it was balomory tune

take good care of my baby for ds2,he now loves the thomas and his friends song

need a new song for dc4 when it arrives

All the usual nursery rhymes but also YMCA adapted for getting dressed, with improvised rhymes, e.g.

Young man, will you put on your shoes
I said young man, don't just do as you choose
I said young man, time to put those shoes on
And then we - will - be - so - happy
On on on on on (repeat until shoes are on)

Then whirl round the room to the chorus, as a reward for getting shoes on.

DS once confused me one brilliant Autumn morning by asking for "the conker song" I racked my brains and tried various fallen leaves songs before I finally twigged - "Thine be the glory, risen conq'ring son"

I also love "Ladybugs picnic" from the Clarks Shoes advert last summer (took ages before I finally managed to catch all the words)

The Frog Chorus is our bedtime song for ds - known in our house as 'Dee Dee Dee':

Dee Dee Dee
Dee Dee Dee
Dum dumdumdum Dum ...

Arm in arm, sink or swim [etc etc]

Also You'll Never Walk Alone

I have control over dd's bedtime though, so she gets 'Lullaby, lullaby'!

Lots of the songs mentioned bring back loads of memories for me too, especially all the scottish ones, coulters candy and ye canny shove yer granny etc.

We do the usual baa baas and twinkles but also:
five little frogs,
five little ducks,
she'll be coming round the mountain,
lavender's blue
and DH does a very rude version of 'I know a bear that you don't know' - shocking!

Ds's favourites

Amazing Grace

The Boxer (by Paul Simon)

The Mayflower (Paul Simon again)

Lord of the Dance

Bim Bom Batilon (actually a song my dad sang us but it is in Italian dialect - DS doesn't understand it but loves it nonetheless)

Che sara sara (should be accents on the final as but don't know how to do them) - Can still hear my mum singing this to me as a child

kookaburra
ging gang gooly (DS always laughs at that one)

But most is dh's preference for folky protest songs. He sang this to ds from when he was a newborn and now I know the words ds asks me to sing it to him

The Green fields of France/Willie McBride
Well, how do you do, young Willie McBride,
Do you mind if I sit here dawn by your graveside,
And rest for a while heath the warm summer sun,
I've been worldng all day and I'm nearly done.
I see by your gravestone you were only nineteen,
When you joined the great fallen in nineteen sixteen,
I hope you died well and I hope you died clean,
Or young Willie McBride was it slow and obscene.

Chorus
Did they beat the drum slowly, did they play the life lowly.
Did they sound the dead march as they lowered you down,
And did the band play the Last Post and chorus,
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest.

and so on.... cheerful or what?.

angrypixie i LOVE 'live it up'

we're big singers in this house too...DP is great at making up songs so he does silly ditties about fried breakfasts and whatnot, also 'crazy for you' by madonna when on soothing duty. my bedtime repertoire includes 'dear someone' and 'one little song' by gillian welch, 'someone to watch over me', 'you belong to me'. my favourite is a song my mum used to sing to us when we were kids:

i see the moon, the moon sees me
under the shade of the old oak tree
please let the light that shines on me
shine on the one i love

over the ocean, over the sea
that's where my heart is longing to be
please let the light that shines on me
shine on the one i love

my mum and brother are both dead now so this is a little piece of my childhood with them that i can give to DS.

on a more upbeat note, the new girls aloud album is getting a lot of airplay in our house so DS is frequently serenaded with 'the loving kind'

I used to sing "Geordie Munro" to my DS when he was a baby....but I only know the chorus so it was a bit repetitive. Great for those pacing the floor colicky moments though....many a night spent in a semi catatonic state over that one

I've sung Paul Simon's St Judy's comet to all of them though; it's a lovely lullabye that he wrote for his son when he was a baby and is our lullabye of choice here.

Ally Bally a favourite here as well.

My favourites to sing to DD are:

I'll be seeing you by Ambrose and his Orchestra
The Garbage Man song (from the Simpsons)
Wonderful Baby by Don Maclean
The Wonderpets theme tune ()
Isn't She Lovely by Stevie Wonder

and anything by Tori Amos.

DH sings American army chants

e.g Sitting around with nowhere to go etc etc

Somewhere over the rainbow/what a wonderful world by Israel Kamakawiwo Ole'

here

I have loved reading everyones songs, and I am so glad I'm not the only one making up daft lyrics.

Someone asked for the lyrics for puff the magic dragon, so voila. I have to make up another verse in which my son Ben rescues Puff from his lonely cave and they remain best friends for ever

Puff here

I never know the words in Welsh, and I usually forget them in English too but I love Suo Gan and usually end up humming it to ds as he falls asleep.

Keep the Home Fires Burning, Over the Hills and Far Away, Willie McBride, Loch Lomond, Waltzing Matilda, Fields of Athen Rye, Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean, You are my Sunshine, If you're Going to San Francisco, Morningtown Ride, Blackbird (the Beatles), Moon River, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, Nightingale Sang in Berkley Square, Hushabye Mountain, Truly Scrumptious, a bit of something from Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence that Dave Bowie remembers as he is dying... so many others. I'd sing all night if I didn;t hear DH popping open a cork downstairs.

You are my sunshine my lovely Nana Seaside used to sing to me, Moon River and many others were my Dad - Mr Showtune - and all the protest and folk songs were Mum. They are all dead but I hear their voices in my head when I sing to my own children - which I do almost every night.

Good songs - I loved the Knight and his Spurs from school too - will look it up. Thanks!

When i was really sleep deprived when ds was newborn I couldn't think of any songs I knew all the lyrics to apart from I don't like Mondays, so I sang that to him in a gentle voice and hoped the grim subject matter wouldn't give him nightmares. I still sing it to him in between rock a bye baby and a Spanish lullaby my mum taught me.

Oh my goodness, I couldnt list them all! We sing so much in our house DH included, anything from current chart songs to hymns, nursery rhymes etc.

My bedtime lullaby is either
Hush little baby dont say a word, mamas gonna buy you a mockingbird - (I end up changing the verses everytime though)
or
A made up song that I have called 'Mummy loves you very very much', its amazing what songs you can make up at 3am in the morning!

the messiah

Just remembered;
'Hey, did you happen to see the most beautiful girl in the world, and if you did was she cry-in' cry-in"

another wee small hours song to my pfb dd.

The sha-poopy song from Family Guy

LOL Angrypixie Was just singing Live IT Up (MEntal as Anything) to DD as she ate her tea tonight. Not just you then

ooh it's like a campfire in here tonight. Lovely thread!