Playsongs blog ~ where we share songs, news and views 

My Blue Heaven, sung by Gene Austin in 1927, has the perfect lilt for rocking or back-patting a little baby.

'What shall we do with the dandelion green? We could make a gift for a flower fairy queen..' An action song or lullaby, which tells

Don't know the words to songs to sing to your baby? Well, they don't know the words either. But they just love your voice. Hum, sing la, or reflect back to them the sounds they are making - mamma or dadda - those are good ones! Charlie says she's noticed that her little toddler is vocalising melodies using sounds like 'ah'. So you may well find you're encouraging your toddler to sing by taking away the words and reducing the complexity of the sound he or she is tuning in to.

Gene Williams' Wyoming Lullaby is one of those songs which passes into the oral tradition and reappears in many slightly different varia

See-saw Margery Daw is one of the best little rocking songs you could wish for. Use it to rock a newborn on your shoulder, or to swing a bigger baby at the playground. See-saw, Margery Daw, Johnnie shall have a new master. He shall earn but a penny a day, Because he can't work any faster. See-saw, sacaradown, Which is the way to London town? One foot up, the other foot down, That is the way to London town. Traditional #SeesawMargeryDaw #lullaby #rockingsongs #Seesaw #sa

Rachel Shearer ran her own independent music group in Oxfordshire for over 20 years until recently. She loved the baby music classes and seeing the relationships between little babies and their adults grow and develop. She still does the occasional class for the Abingdon Music Centre. We sang a lot in our house as my brother and sister and I were growing up, but the song that I distinctly remember from early on was 'The Fidgety Bairn’, a Hebridean cradle song. I remember dem

Take your time. Songs don't have to be bright and unremittingly cheerful for children to enjoy them. Have a peaceful, restful moment sharing a lullaby. They work from day one. Here are some of my traditional favourites. Lavender's blue dilly dilly All the pretty little horses By'm bye But they're so easy to make up. My lyric memory is rubbish so I'm forever filling in the gaps with nonsense words or sounds. If in doubt, hum. Humming with baby's head tucked under my chin gets