The most beautiful of birds, the Red Cardinal, what a sight to see today.
I was sitting listening to the Word on the dailyaudiobible website while birds enjoyed eating from our bird feeder. The Red Cardinal especially stuck out because of the white fresh fallen snow. God is so creative and makes such beauty with diversity.
20 And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.” 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” 23 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day. Genesis 1: 20-23 NIV
I discovered a delightful YouTube channel yesterday dedicated to babies and how to care for them. Well actually, Babies411 contacted me because Diba the owner Stumbledupon The Singing Nurse and found my YouTube channel. Diba said “Your site is great, really cute songs.” thanks Diba.
Diba is a fellow registered nurse and has created the informational hands on baby care vids for the Babies411 channel. Babies411 has created an array of vids to watch that will help you with all your “how to care for baby” needs.
There are videos about changing, feeding, burping, taking a temp and breast feeding which are great for the first time mom and those who need a refresher course. One vid I particularly enjoyed was the demonstration on how to make homemade baby wipes, who doesn’t want to save money and have the peace of mind that the finest ingredient are wiping our babies little bottom. I have included the baby wipe video below.
Since all of these vids are about caring for beautiful babies, I have included my own “Babies are Beautiful” vid that features my first grand baby Nathan, who is singing with grandma by the way, really, he is singing, you will hear him loud and clear. Listen how he jabbers while I touch his face, point to various body parts and pat his tummy.
Babies love and thrive on the interaction with the adults in their lives. Remember the study that claimed how much babies depend on our touch, cooing and care. Some of the babies in the study died who only received the basic care of changing and feeding. Babies have died without adult affection and nurturing.
We have such an awesome and important job of caring for our most “fragile” and “helpless” little ones. Raising my own three children have been some of the best years of my life for certain.
Moms (and dads too) please be encouraged, you and the adult care givers you choose are unbelievably important and valuable in your baby’s life. Thanks to Babies411, there is a knowledgeable resource to help us give our babies, our best care.
“Babies are fragile, we have to treat them gently, babies are helpless, we have to treat them kind.”
The Singing Nurse and Babie411 are now connected via twitter and our YouTube channels. Check us out @
♥ Nothing creates a love for reading more than sitting with our child and doing just that, reading.
♥Start as soon as they will sit still, which of course starts as an infant right from the crib.
♥Our children love hearing our voices, the rhythm and the tones.
♥ We spark our toddlers curiosity when we read to them, let them turn the pages and allow the anticipation of what’s to come, remember not to rush. They will ask for the same book again and again.
♥Start with board books which you can pick up cheep from your local thrift store.
♥Visit your local library and participate in a story hour for young children. Story hour is a nice break for moms and expands your child’s exposure to new stories.
♥Make sure and sign up for a library card and let your child be part of checking out the books.
♥It is helpful to use a book bag to keep books organized and accounted for.
♥ Remember to borrow more books than DVDs.
♥When the children get older it is fun to create a chart to keep track of the titles and the amount of books read.
♥Good books are windows to explore the world in which we live.
Hand washing for good health, how many interesting and enticing ways can we share, show and encourage each other to “just do it”, and teach our highly observant and ever emerging preschoolers to follow in our footsteps.
Doing what is takes to teach the point!
This handwashing post is dedicated to those feisty energetic preschool teachers, who I happen to believe are some of the most creative bunch of gals on the planet. Most of us are women who work in early childhood because, who else has the patience, and delights in hanging out with a gang of wiggly equally energetic three and four year olds.
My experience working with preschoolers developed while being a mother of three, teaching Sunday school, being a teacher assistant for emotionally disturbed children, and then later, as a nurse, the singing nurse.
The task of hand washing became necessary not only as a mother washing off mud pie and finger paints, but also as a Head Start Nurse. You might be familiar with this program that helps low income families learn all they can about parenting, raising healthy children, leadership and setting goals for themselves. The staff’s job was to discover anything that may hinder the child’s growth in all aspects, be it emotional or health issues, hearing or vision difficulties or the spotting of a potential learning disability.
We worked as a team and were privileged to be part of their developing lives, to give them a “Head Start” before Kindergarten. We worked not only with the children, but with the whole family unit. We take for granted the skills we’ve learned from our parents like, being encouraging, sitting and reading a book with our child, cooking a meal together and gathering as a family to eat it. It was part of the Head Start program to teach and model these family values.
The Rubba Dub Dub Baby
Oh yes, hand washing, just a slight sidetrack and bit of knowledge about the path I’ve been on. So, how does this all tie together? I am a musician as well as a nurse, so I decided to write some health songs while I was working in early childhood development. Who can vouch for the fact that we all write and sing little songs for every purpose while working with preschool children? The common adventures and sometimes scary situations preschoolers encounter in school and with medical professionals gave me the spark to write songs like; I’m Gonna Brush My Teeth, The Dentist is a Good Guy, Don’t Spread Your Germs Around, The Audiologist, The Tick Song, and Babies Are Beautiful.
One health song in particular is a hand washing song for preschoolers called “Rubba Dub Dub”. The tune is an echo song, it is easy to sing, the hand motions are simple, it’s tested and true and the kids love the lively beat. I was blessed by my daughter Hannah who created an animation of my song as a Christmas gift.
I just completed a lesson plan with activities and discussion points that integrates my hand washing song. The basic health lesson is complete with a germ game and several project options, lyrics with hand motions and more.
“Rubba Dub, Dub”, as well as other health tunes can be downloaded at my website. Check it all out, sign up via my contact page to receive news when my animated dental song and completed lesson plan book is finished.
Thanks to a new friend Deborah Stewart who encouraged me to reach out to her circle of early childhood educators with my educational health songs. I found her and her website, Teach Preschool via twitter.
Cheers to competent, innovative preschool teachers. Lead by example and they will follow!
The winter is upon us, so we need to teach our children to protect themselves from the lurking germs about us. We need to enthusiastically model to them; washing our hands often, educate our children to not touch their eyes, mouth and nose and remind them to cough and sneeze in their shoulder. The Singing Nurse has a special song available to download that makes your job fun and easy.
Your kids will think you are amazing as you dance and incorporate hand motions and a conga line while waving your tissue. Read on to learn more, to read the lyrics, and to learn the history and inspiration behind the health song, “Don’t Spread Your Germs Around”.
PreschoolRadio.com has included the song, “Don’t Spread Your Germs Around” on their most recent Radio Show. PreschoolRadio is a fun podcast formatted show who plays music for children 6 and under and those who love them. You will meet new artist and have access to their websites to purchase their music. My hat is off to Lyn Michaels-Carden, the producer.
Drawing by April Matula, special ed. preschool teacher, artist and illustrator.
Don’t spread, don’t spread, don’t spread your germs around x3
Oh no, don’t spread your germs around
If you think you need to sneeze
You think you need to sneeze
If you think you need to sneeze
(Sneeze sound into your shoulder) in your shoulder
If you think you need to sneeze
You think you need to sneeze
Show me what you’re going to do.
(Sneeze sound into your shoulder) in your shoulder
Chorus:
Inspiration
“Don’t Spread Your Germs Around” has a Latin beat so I had my Puerto Rican friend, Jackie Rosado sing it. The song helps children learn to cough or sneeze in their shoulder rather than in their hands or in the air. If they happen to forget and do it in their hands Jackie asks the children “what are you going to do?”, and they jubilantly reply “wash your hands”. It’s amazing how kids pick up concepts when you use music and motions. We’ve dressed up in Latin attire for this song and towards the end of the song formed a conga line while someone handed a tissue to each child as they passed by. If you have a smaller group, have them pass by a second time for another tissue so they will have one in each hand. One time we had a child dress up in my Nurses dress and cap and had her hand out the tissues.
3 Free Christmas songs are available until the end of 2009, add them to your library today ready for next Christmas!(update: The Christmas songs will be back again@ the end of 2010)
