your challenge

Help children sing songs and practice basic music skills so they will be better readers. Did you know that children who cannot keep a steady beat are likely to struggle with reading?!

YOUR IMPACT

Happy children whose brains are ready to read!

Sing Your Day Away!

You are a child’s “rock star!”

• Give directions in rhythm and rhyme (with a smile!):  “Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go! Don’t be slow!”

• Instead of talking, spontaneously sing: “What are we going to do today?” “Let’s go to the park!” “I’m so tired.”

• Sing the same greeting song every morning.

• Sing your child a lullaby before they go to sleep, such as, “This Little Light of Mine” or “All the Pretty Little Horses.”

HAVE YOUR CHILD KEEP THE BEAT

• Play your favorite music and have your child keep the underlying beat or pulse with two hands on their lap.

• Download a free metronome app and see if they can match the tick-tick-tick by patting with two hands on their lap.

• Sing simple folk songs and chant nursery rhymes and raps with your child as THEY keep the beat with two hands on their lap. Try keeping the beat with two hands on other parts of the body, such as on their shoulders, head, knees…

Have your child match a pitch

• Sing a pitch and ask your child to match it singing “oo” or “loo.” Play another pitch and have them try to match it.

• Download a free pitch pipe and play a pitch, match it on “loo” and ask your child to match you.

• Sing or play two different pitches very far apart (one really high and one low) and ask your child which one was higher and which one lower.

develop Their musical fitness

Can your child keep a steady beat? Clap the rhythm of the words of a song? Match a pitch? Sing in tune? These basic skills need to be developed by kindergarten. Click below for a quick assessment tool.

PLAY SINGING GAMES

• Chant nursery rhymes and sing folk songs, such as “The Wheels on the Bus,” to your baby, toddler and preschooler. Have them do motions to the beat.

• With older children, play fun singing games, such as the African American hand-clapping game “Miss Mary Mack.” After they have learned it well, modify the game to practice reading skills, such as making up new rhyming words, such as, Miss Mary Ann, Ann, Ann, all dressed in tan, tan, tan…”
  
  See a dad and his daughter playing “Miss Mary Mack”

SAME-LANGUAGE SUBTITLES (SLS)

Singing with videos of popular musicals that have subtitles that light up exactly when they are sung causes inescapable reading behavior and substantial improvement in reading. Click on the button below for more information about Same-Language Subtitles (SLS).

You can also turn on the close captioning on your TV.

TUNE into READING

A singing-based software program that can be used as an intervention for elementary students who are struggling to read. For home or school. Students make one year of reading gain, on average, after 14 hours of usage. See the Tune into Reading website below.