Songs for small children - - retroactively.

In My Humble Opinion
1

My sons are in their thirties and I just discovered that they never learned The Little White Duck song. I’m going to be in a 12+ hour van ride with the eldest and his two teenage daughters (who don’t know the song either). We’re going to visit my middle son and his family. His daughters are nearly one and nearly three.

I think the ride will be the perfect time to teach everyone kid’s songs that they may have missed. I’m going to be checking out itunes kid’s albums and online lists. But if you can think of a kid’s song that EVERYBODY ought to know, or if you’ve been surprised that your offspring made it to adulthood without learning a really standard one, let me know.

They’re Coming to Take Me Away, will definitely be on the list. Also One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night. Even if they are a little advanced for the three year old.

2

I have to warn you that on a lot of recent recordings of kids’ songs the lyrics have been horribly bowdlerized. Things like “That’s what you get for jumping on the bed” changed to “No more monkeys jumping on the bed” and “The monkey, he got drunk” changed to “You should have seen the monk”. Some of the changes I’ve heard make no sense at all, like “Look down my rain barrel, slide down my cellar door” changed to “Slide down my rainbow, run 'round my cellar door”

3

Makes sense to me - hardly anybody anymore has the sort of cellar door you can slide down.

4

You realize the teens will likely have earbuds in, right?

5

When I think of a great kids’ song, I imagine it being sung non-stop for hours from the back seat of a car. For your own good, I will not help you.

6

We used to love singing Boom Boom Ain’t it Great to be Crazy on car rides. But the lyrics we learned back in the '60’s & '70’s would be VERY inappropriate today! I’m sure there is a new version.

7

White Rabbit

'nuff said

8

One of my personal favorites that I feel is underrated is I am a pizza (youtube link). If you want to get fancy you can sing it in French!

A few more: Baby Beluga, Down By the Bay, Little Rabbit Foo Foo, Do Your Ears Hang Low (including second verse: Do Your Ears Hang High*), On Top of Spaghetti.

Everything from the album “No” by They Might Be Giants. My youngest is 11 and I still sometimes sing “Bed, Bed, Bed” when I’m trying to get the kids into bed.
*includes best lyric ever in a traditional chlidren’s song: “Can you semaphore your neighbor with a minimum of labor?”

9

The Bubble Gum song!

10

They may not be as common, but they still exist. Unlike cellar doors that you can run around, which have never existed.

11

I’d never heard The Little White Duck song. I looked it up on youtube in case I’d forgotten it, but nope, hever heard it before.

I once told one of those long, shaggy-dog stories that ended with a pun on the lyrics from This Old Man He played One. My nephews were confused by it. Turns out they’d never heard that song before, which I had assumed was a childhood staple that had survived the ravages of time.

I’d recommend There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly. Also those songs that are take-offs on other songs, such as Glory Glory Hallelujah (Teacher hit me with a Ruler) and Jingle Bells Batman Smells.

12

Um, what? You can run around my cellar door, in as much as you can run around any other door. Obviously the door would need to be open (outwards) at the time…

I’ve never heard a The Little White Duck song, and I used to work with preschoolers. Little Bunny Foo Foo is a good suggestion - I was once at a statewide National Honor Society meeting, and the MC was shocked, shocked I’ll tell you, that only half the kids knew that song. Lots of us had never even heard it…so they immediately taught us :smiley:

Others kids “should” know:
[ul]
[li]Tom the Toad[/li][li]If I were not a Camp Counselor/If I Were Not a Boy Scout [/li][li]Baby Bumblebee [/li][li]Raffi’s Skin And Bones [/li][li]Apples and Bananas [/li][li]Miss Susie [Had a Steamboat][/li][li]You Are My Sunshine[/li][li]Miss Mary Mack[/li][/ul]

13

Make them learn Tom Lehrer’s “The Elements”.

Maybe don’t make them learn Tom Lehrer’s “Be Prepared” or “Smut”.

Definitely, Sama Kama Wacky Brown

Almost anything by Allan Sherman.

“Old MacDonald Had A Farm”, done the right way: Each child sings a stanza, repeating all the animals (in order!) from the previous stanza and adding another one of his choice, so the stanzas get longer and longer. So after a while, a stanza starts of look like this:

Old MacDonald Had a Farm,
E-I-E-I-O!
And on his farm he had some… (try not to have to stop to think here!)
DOGS!
E-I-E-I-O!
With a woof woof here and a woof woof there,
Here a woof, there a woof, everywhere a woof woof,
Baa baa here and a baa baa there,
Here a baa, there a baa, everywhere a baa baa,
Neigh neigh here and a neigh neigh there,
Here a neigh, there a neigh, everywhere a neigh neigh,
Oink oink here and an oink oink there,
Here an oink, there an oink, everywhere an oink oink,
Honk honk here and a honk honk there,
Here a honk, there a honk, everywhere a honk honk,
Quack quack here and a quack quack there,
Here a quack, there a quack, everywhere a quack quack,
Moo moo here and a moo moo there,
Here a moo, there a moo, everywhere a moo moo
Old MacDonald had a farm.
E-I-E-I-O!

Next child sings:

Old MacDonald Had a Farm,
E-I-E-I-O!
And on his farm he had some… ummm… ummmmm…
BIRDS!
E-I-E-I-O!
With a chirp chirp here and a chirp chirp there,
Here a chirp, there a chirp, everywhere a chirp chirp,
Woof woof here and a woof woof there,
Here a woof, there a woof, everywhere a woof woof,
ummmm,… ummmmmm…
Baa baa here and a baa baa there,
Here a baa, there a baa, everywhere a baa baa,
ummmm… uh, ummm…
Oink oink here and an oink oink there,
[EVERYBODY: YOU LEFT OUT THE NEIGH NEIGH!!!]
Here an oink, there an oink, everywhere an oink oink,
Honk honk here and a honk honk there,
Here a honk, there a honk, everywhere a honk honk,
Quack quack here and a quack quack there,
Here a quack, there a quack, everywhere a quack quack,
Moo moo here and a moo moo there,
Here a moo, there a moo, everywhere a moo moo
Old MacDonald had a farm.
E-I-E-I-O!

14

No, you can’t. You’d only get partway and then be stopped by a wall. Unless it’s somehow free standing in the middle of an open space. Even then it wouldn’t be a fun activity for kids playing outdoors.

15

We used to sing: “Slide down my rainbow, in through my cellar door.”
Some other suggestions for very little kiddies:
Miss Polly Had a Dolly
Open, Shut Them
Der-Glumph Went the Little Green Frog

16

Nobody likes 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall? Huh.

17

This has already been done!
Check out a three year old singing the whole thing
Warning: cuteness overload factor 10

18

Do you know the words to any Disney Movies? Because 2&3 yo all over are belting out Let It Go from the movie Frozen.

Micheal row the boat ashore
Jimmy crack corn
Mouse mousie in the housie
Ten little Indians / Michael finnegan

19

Thanks, everyone. I’m seeing a lot of songs that I don’t know. This will be fun.

I’m not expecting it to keep up the whole ride. I’ll have a playlist, so that it’s not just me singing. Also, If they already know it, there may be no need to practice.

I’m sure there are many versions. Songs that pass from kids to kids morph.

That’s one they’re supposed to drive the adults nuts with.

Collecting into a list - Ones I know:
[ul]
[li]Boom Boom Ain’t it Great to be Crazy[/li][li]Little Rabbit Foo Foo[/li][li]Do Your Ears Hang Low[/li][li]On Top of Spaghetti[/li][li]Micheal row the boat ashore [/li][li]Jimmy crack corn[/li][li]Baby Bumblebee [/li][li]There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly[/li][li]This Old Man He played One[/li][li]The Song that Never Ends[/li][li]Found a Peanut[/li][/ul]

Ones I’ll have to check out:
[ul]
[li]Mouse mousie in the housie [/li][li]Ten little Indians / Michael finneganTom the Toad[/li][li]If I were not a Camp Counselor/If I Were Not a Boy Scout [/li][li]Raffi’s Skin And Bones [/li][li]Apples and Bananas [/li][li]Miss Susie [Had a Steamboat][/li][li]The Bubble Gum song[/li][li]I am a pizza[/li][li]Baby Beluga[/li][li]Down By the Bay[/li][li]Miss Mary Mack[/li][/ul]

I think these count as grandpa songs:
[ul]
[li]You Are My Sunshine[/li][li]I’m Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover[/li][li]I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts[/li][li]Hey Look Me Over[/li][/ul]

Oh, and songs the toddler already knows:
[ul]
[li]Twinkle, Twinkle[/li][li]I’m a Little Teapot[/li][li]The Itsy, Bitsy Spider, and[/li][li](may all the gods help me) Baby Shark[/li][/ul]

Feel free to keep adding. We’ve got more than a week before we go.

20

In this case, the ‘to’ is implied- “Run around (to) my cellar door.” IOW, ‘Don’t come to the front door; run around the back of my house to the cellar door, where we can hang out in the bonus room in the basement and have grand fun.’ Not literally run circles around the door.