Trot My Pony

This is a little game that I remember my parents doing with my siblings and I when we were little. Erik has loved it for a long time, and I just introduced it to Paisley recently. She really seems to like it, and it's fun to pass it on to someone new. 

In case you want the words, they are:
Trot my pony,
trot to town.
Watch out pony,
don't fall down!

While this isn't exactly a song, it has qualities that it shares with music such as rhyme and rhythm.
Music has been shown to have a huge impact on infants and children and their ability to learn and develop. In the November issue of Parenting magazine, it said "Playfully dancing or singing to your baby could boost his pre-language communication skills and make him easier to soothe, according to research from McMaster University, in Hamilton, Ontario. In the study, 6-month-olds were assigned to take either an active music class, in which parents played musical games with their infant, or a passive music class, in which parents used blocks or read books with their baby while recorded music played in the background. After six months, the babies in the active class smiled more, were easier to soothe, and showed less distress in new situations than the infants in the passive class. 'There's something about the rhythm and synchrony of music, and engaging in it together, that increases the social bond between a parent and child,' says researcher Laurel J. Trainor, PhD., a professor in the department of psychology, neuroscience, and behavior".
Since reading this little snippet, I've been trying to come up with ways to get Erik and Paisley more involved in music, and I hope to be able to share them with you here.
So, you heard the professor, get out there and dance with your baby!