Each time we put our daughter down to sleep, we read a book or two and sing a few songs. I was sure that I knew A LOT of songs, but I found myself thinking of the same few every time. The brain was not cutting it, and I wanted some way to have all of the songs that I knew at my fingertips when it came time to choose. I found a lot of ideas on Pinterest for having kids choose their chores or choose an idea of something to do when they're bored. My favorite idea, that could be adapted to create a solution to my problem, was a jar of Popsicle sticks.
Final Product:
My Process:
First, I made an alphabetical list of songs that I wanted to include. I came up with 150 (I was right, I did know a lot!). The songs were mostly folk songs and silly songs that I knew from my childhood or had come across in my teaching, that I wanted to pass on to my children.
Next I got out my trusty DYMO label-maker, and ran to Wal-Mart to buy a box of jumbo craft sticks, several rolls of clear label-maker tape, and a plastic container with a lid that could hold 150 jumbo craft sticks. I spent a few shows worth of time printing out all the labels, each with one of my song titles, and sticking them onto the craft sticks.
The last step was painting one end of each stick. I wanted to make sure we would sing through all of the songs before repeating, giving her equal exposure to all of them (here's the part where you realize the reason for the "Type-A" title of my blog). I painted one end of each stick using two coats of acrylic craft paint. Now when we sing the songs, we pick the ones with the purple ends up, and put them back in the jar purple end down. Once all of the sticks are purple end down, we turn them all over and start again!
I may decide to get some kind of Mod Podge to paint over the sticks so that the labels stay on longer and the sticks stay nicer longer. I also plan on creating a book of lyrics and notation for all of the songs so that anyone that sings to her can pick sticks with her and be able to sing any of the songs.
Happy singing!
