Lullaby Link

If it seems that my blogging here has been sporadic here you are correct! I hope that you will accept my new site http://www.lullabylink.com as an excuse. I am so excited about this new work!

Music made such a difference in my life with Clayton when he was a baby. It remains one of our greatest ways of communicating. In fact, tonight he was really wound up before going to bed and he began singing about his day as a way to process (it's not fair Old Man Wolf can eat our kitty cat...") and also as a way of knowing what time it was ("it is dark out and my body is tired and I fall down and it is time to sleep..."). I asked him to sing some prayers and tell God what he was grateful for, he did, and he was asleep before I made it to the door to leave his room.

Reading about the decline of parents singing to their children made me even more determined to make LullabyLink easy to use and helpful for parents.

When people ask me why lullabies are important this is my answer. Lullabies are crucial to the development of our entire culture. If we teach our children that WE, that ALL PEOPLE can be the source of music and the arts, then the arts will thrive.

If we allow our children to believe that music comes only from the t.v. box, or only from professional musicians then we teach them to be consumers rather than creators.

Marketing firms want us to believe that the television or that recorded music can teach our children better than we can. This is a lie.

Our children need our voices. We have all that we need to help our children develop. It does not matter if you have a "good" voice or even if you are on pitch. What matters is that your child sees you creating. That your child sees you having fun. Your goofy chants and musical attempts will encourage your child to love music far more than anything recorded.

Recorded and professional music can play a wonderful role in the development of music appreciation and musical enjoyment. However, the key to it all, is in your body, in your arms, in your breath as you sing to your child.

I hope that you will check out Lullaby Link and let me know what you think. I look forward to your feedback!