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

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