STORY FROM A MOM
Last semester, we played in class with leaving out the words in songs and chants, which gives our children the space to audiate (or hear inside their heads) what’s missing. Once our children can audiate songs/chants, they can start to express the music (by singing or chanting parts and, eventually, the whole) themselves. One mom tried this leave-out-the-words game at home, and was surprised with the results! Here’s her story:
“There’s this song, Captain of the Ferry Boat, that my parents sing to [my daughter]–and I started singing it to her as well. Today I tried your little trick of leaving out words at the ends of phrases…and she said the words I left out. I was pretty flabbergasted. Thanks for the tip!”
Magical things can happen in our purposeful silences. Give this a try at home, if you haven’t already…
[Note: This mom recorded an audio clip of the game in action and sent it along to me -- not only was her one-year-old daughter saying the words the mom left out, but she was also working to match the pitch of the missing words -- she was singing.]
