"Songs and rhymes are a gift to ourselves. The gift is our babies' delight and laughter as we engage in sharing words, actions and melody, face to face, one to one."

Interactive Play with Under-fives

We bring together songs and rhymes for interactive play with under-fives. They're hands on, engaging, and active ~ and they're all about shared fun.

Our songs and rhymes are specially selected, adapted, and written for the very young. Interactive play through games such as peekaboo, face touchers, knee bouncers, pony rides, lifts, ticklers and teasers, finger and toe plays, dances, whole body actions, sound exploration, fingerplays, croons, lullabies ~ all these ways to play have been invented and enjoyed by generations of parents, grandparents and carers. Our mission is to nourish that tradition and provide the songs and rhymes to allow it to flourish.

Our songs and rhymes come in Books • Audio stream • CDs • Movies

All our books come with guidance and ideas for getting the best from the interactive songs and rhymes, whether they're a peekaboo, a fingerplay, a face-toucher, nose-squeaker, a toe-tickler, a knee-rider, pony trotter, action song or dance. They're full of pictures for sharing too.

Our audio is performed by Playsongs People, a band of brilliant musicians: Sandra Kerr, Nancy Kerr, Leon Rosselson, Kevin Graal, Steve Grocott, Janet Russell, Kaye Umansky, Debbie Sanders, Rick Wilson, Giles Leaman and Tom Wright.

All our songs and rhymes are free to stream. Order the books to get the best from them, enjoy the illustrations, and have each collection available (with optional CD) in a hands on, physical space.

About Playsongs Publications and the baby music we publish

Why sing baby songs?

There's already so much to do when a new baby arrives. Why sing baby songs? The answer I found in my own experience was that it helped me. It helped in all kinds of ways and not least of those, it was as soothing to me as it was to my babies. So here's something about Playsongs Publications and the baby music we publish to explain why we so much enjoy sharing these songs and rhymes with you.

Our reasons for wanting to give you songs and rhymes for your babies are these:

- that first smile! Isn't it magic? And we generally have to wait five or six weeks for it. So wouldn't we all want as many of those smiles as we can get? Songs and rhymes are magnificent, reliable smile generators.

- our voices! they're magic! Our babies know it. So wouldn't we all want to take every opportunity to look baby in the eyes and sing or speak a song or rhyme over and over and over?

- face to face attention. That's magic! Specially when it's combined with our voices, our expressions, and our baby's attention to the intriguing way our mouth moves and makes sounds while we sing and say rhymes.

- pattern and repetition. Another bit of magic! The magic of realising that a baby of ten weeks anticipates and adores the action pattern of a rhyme like 'The elephant'. She may not have learned how to vocalise her laughter out loud, but her wide open mouth and delighted eyes are a gale of silent giggles.

- the magic of touch. We walk the floor, back and forth, settling a newborn baby on our shoulder, patting her back, soothing with touch. There are so many songs here to help us with that. But that's not where it stops. There are songs and rhymes galore for extending touch into gentle or lively action play from birth onwards.

Songs and rhymes are gifts to ourselves. The gift is our babies' delight and laughter as we engage in sharing with them face to face, one to one.

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The longer read…

Whether you're a new parent, an Early Years educator, a grandparent or a carer, Playsongs Publications has action songs, knee bouncers, peekaboo games, finger plays, nursery rhymes, dances, lifts and lullabies for all your infant music magic.

We provide easy access to early childhood music making, which supports child development: physical, social and emotional; language and communication; listening and understanding; and of course music, movement and singing.

You can get straight into using our baby music through our books, CDs and music downloads, and through the Baby Music Blog, which offers regular posts featuring our infant music in movies, audio and illustrated text.

The Playsongs sound was created by Sandra Kerr (Bagpuss) and Leon Rosselson (Rosa's Singing Grandfather), who brought their friendly voices and fresh, uncluttered acoustic accompaniments to the songs and rhymes. They along with Nancy Kerr, Janet Russell, Kevin Graal, Steve Grocott, Debbie Saunders (with friends playing a kitchen cupboard full of sound effects) have gone on to record all our Playsongs albums.

Tamar Swade created Someone Special and added her own unique and lovely sounds to the Playsongs mix.

Artists, Rachel Fuller, Alison Dexter, Alex Ayliffe and Stephanie Ryder created the Playsongs illustrations which so enliven the action instructions and song characters.

Parents, grandparents, carers and Early Years practitioners keep coming back to this growing treasury of children's music. And now Playsongs ‘babies’ are buying and singing Playsongs to their own babies!

To find out more about our wonderful musicians, writers and illustrators, please follow these links:

Rachel Fuller (All our colour picture books and website illustrations)

Alison Dexter (Five Little Frogs, Five Little Owls illustrations)

Alex Ayliffe (Playsongs bear)

Kaye Umansky

Tamar Swade