Parenting Toddlers

I can’t believe I didn’t think of this before! When my little sister was a toddler, she loved singalongs. She loved them the way only toddlers can - with her whole thirty pound being. A few months ago, we got a singalong to try with Peanut. She didn’t care for it, so it went away into the dvd case. Today, though, we were hanging out with the Little Guy, looking for something to do. It was cold and snowy out so outdoor play was out. She started singing “Circle of Life,” from the Lion King. She gets really into it, so I dug out the video and put it on.

She loves it. The one we got has songs from the Lion King, plus a few more Disney ones mixed in. The great part is that she can sing and dance. These videos are perfect winter activities because she gets a ton of movement from dancing. I picked up the Little Guy and danced too. Hey, toting around a 15+ pound baby is a workout too, so we all win.

There are a bunch of singalong videos, so you’ll be able to find some with songs your child loves.

Peanut is Rafikki and Bo is Simba. She gets VERY into this.

If you don’t want to buy the videos, you can probably get them at your local library. I know ours has singalongs you can borrow. You can also use a CD with kids songs and dance around. Or thanks to the internet, you can go on Youtube and play any videos you like. We used to do this with Peanut because they’re typically very short…if you need a minute to yourself, Youtube is pretty good.

So we had a fun hour of dancing and singing…yes, an hour. That’s a great amount of exercise and Peanut was nice and mellow for a while after. That’s very worth listening to Disney songs. She got the song “Yummy, Yummy, Yummy” (sung by Timon and Pumbaa) stuck in her head. Me too. But again, it’s worth it.

Singalongs are my new favorite. We won’t see the grass for another four months, and when it’s too cold to go out, this is a great alternative. And fun for your toddler.

As an aside, I was putting away my Christmas decorations earlier and kept finding random candy canes around. Peanut will eat these at any time of day, and they are just sugar. I wanted to get rid of them, but I seem to be genetically unable to get rid of food, even if it is junk food. So I found a great idea on Wax and Bubbles, a fun craft site. You can make a sugar scrub from your leftover candy canes. This was a fabulous idea, and you can have a piece of the spa at zero cost (better than paying $200 for a sugar scrub, huh?) Check it out if you have some leftover candy canes that you don’t want hitting your toddler’s teeth.