When my granddaughter ABC was living with us, we sang a lot of songs with her, but one of her favorites was “Old McDonald”.
I would often sing it to her when we were trying to get her to sleep. Using it for that purpose, I would try to sing as many verses as possible, and would extend each verse by singing the animals sounds backward in succession.
This was a challenge when you were doing 15 verses or so. In order to keep things, well, in order, I would group the animals and then remember the order within each subgroup.
I’d start with barnyard animals, cows first because she had a book where Old McDonald had a cow. (It was a board book, so only cows.) Then, horse, sheep, pig, sometimes goat, ending with dog and cat, which could be pets or work animals.
Next, I would go on to fowl. Chicken, duck, goose, turkey, sometimes chicks and doves.
E-I-E-I-O!
Then, I would go on to animals that could be wild animals or ones that were part of the farm. Frogs, bees, and sometimes animals that don’t make sounds, like rabbits. (FYI: rabbits go hop, hop here and hop, hop there.)
I could sing continuously for about fifteen minutes, which was usually enough for ABC to drift off to sleep. I’d sometimes back out of the room and close the door still singing.
Ending very quietly e-i-e-i-o…
ABC, who is now living in London, is now heavily into dinosaurs and making what she thinks are dinosaur sounds.
I don’t think Old McDonald had one of those…
E-I-E-I-O!
*****
Please join us for Linda’s Stream of Consciousness Saturdays! This week’s prompt was animal sounds. You can find more info here.
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I also thought of this poem when I read the Prompt!
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I’m sure many of us have sung lots of renditions over the years.
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Indeed. But I always get lost after the first couple of stanzas!
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LOL! You can just choose an animal and only do that sound without trying to go back through all the animals each time. I used to do that if ABC was doing the animal sounds with me.
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That is good tip. I will remember that when doing it with my grandkids, when they will be old enough to talk. They both are just 10 months old. 😍
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Congratulations on the grandbabies! Wishing you all many years of happiness!
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I’ve sung this with my grand daughter, too. It’s good to know the song is still alive and well. Dinosaurs could give it a whole new twist!
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I’m sure ABC’s interpretation of a dinosaur would bring a smile to your face.
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🙂
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You are a clever grandma singing all those verses. My granddaughter also keeps awake forever.
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They do seem to have lots of tricks to keep themselves awake as long as humanly possible!
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I know I remember my son also. As long as he kept his eyes open he won’t sleep.
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One of my daughters would try to keep moving to stay awake. I remember one day she was so tired she fell asleep standing beside the couch with her head resting on the cushion.
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Haha, cute. My grand daughter just can’t stop at night.
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Sometimes, it seems that toddlers are like mini-teenagers…
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True but how are they going to react when they are teenager is another question. I also think it’s because the toddlers see less of their parents because they are both working and that’s why they don’t want to go to bed.
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Grand/children are a mystery no matter their age!
I’m sure there are some toddlers who stay up to be with their parents, but some just are so active they don’t want to quit. With ABC, she had her mom, her aunt, and me with her most of the time, but still didn’t want to go to sleep!
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Wow, just shows you when they are on a high nothing helps to calm them down.
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