Improvisation (improv) Sessions with Your Little Ones

I don’t know about all of you other moms and dads out there, but improvisation has become a necessary skill at my house. I
image of adult reading to child
never thought that I would be able to use a skill like that (since I take time to process my thoughts), but sometimes children push the scope of our talents. Children use improvisation all the time while playing. I use improv at bedtime. Our nightly routine looks like this:
  • Take a bath or shower
  • Sit on the sofa and read one story for each child
  • Off to bed for each of them
  • I go and “snuggle” with each one for about 10 minutes
During that time, I have always sung them a song. Now, when they were babies, it was much easier. “Twinkle, twinkle little star” and “You are my sunshine” were staple lullabies, along with some French songs like “Frere Jacques” and “Les petits poissons”. Even when they are too young to understand all of the words, it will help develop their language skills, and the tone will sooth them. But now that my kids are older, they seem to want improv. I am not afraid to say that I am not great at it, but at least I can sing pretty well! Typically, my little girl wants princess songs, and my little boy wants dinosaur or transformer songs. Now if you are like me, you don’t have much time to go learn the entire Disney princess lyrics, so improv is my only way to satisfy the audience. I end up with things like: I’m a little princess Cute and sweet Here are my shoes And here are my feet When I twirl around I am pretty as can be Won’t you come and play with me (Sung to the tune of “I’m a little teapot”) It is fun to try and great to see the smiles on the little one’s faces. It is also great to see how good your rhyming skills are! You will probably end up laughing yourself, something that we adults need to do more of – especially with our kids. Why don’t you try a bit of improv with your little one? It can be in the form of song, stories, games, plays, or dance. Have fun! ~Sonya
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16 comments

  • What a lovely idea

    Carlie w on
  • That is so true about toddlers! My baby isn’t there, yet. But he’s wanting me to do more and more. I have to come up with SOMETHING. I used to sing random lyrics to try and get him to sleep when he was newborn, but not much lately. Just mostly Lullby.. and Silent Night hehe
    He’ll probably get bored of those soon.. :P

    Christine on
  • Aww. DH and I are both writers and performers so we improvise ALL the time! I make up words to songs on the radio and sing them to my belly in the car. People may think I’m crazy, but I consider it practice. ;) Really, anyone can do it. The kiddos aren’t expecting Andrew Lloyd Webber. :-D

    Kiersten W. on
  • How creative! My little Irish babes love Too Ra Loo Ra Loo Ra :)

    Kiersten on
  • My husband is the one who is good at improv stories…not sure what I’m going to do when he leaves on deployment next spring…lol!

    Rebecca Tucker on

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