America's favorite children's song

The Hokey Pokey?  Noooo.....

Ring around the rosey?  Noooo....

The Spongebob Squarepants theme song?   Noooo.....

To learn the answer and more, you have to click on the "Continue reading..." button below (hint...it has something to do with a Lilliputian arachnid).

My co-worker, friend, and Head Teacher at Knock Knock English, Tanja, turned me on to the site ZERO TO THREE.  It is packed with information and resources for the first three years of life, and it has extensive sections on the role music plays in early childhood development.

The site is set up in frames, so it's difficult to link to specific pages, but I wouldn't know where to start anyways.  Just type "music" into the search box and go nuts.  They also have a few nice PDF booklets you can print out for your house or school.  Give them to your children's teacher, or better yet, if you are a teacher or childcare professional, print out a bunch and pass them out to your students' caretakers.

Alright...back to the Toddler top 4o

A few months ago, ZERO TO THREE conducted an informal survey with you, our Web site visitors. We asked you to respond to a few questions regarding your use of music with young children. We had a wonderful response--141 people shared their thoughts with us. While not scientific, here were some of the fun findings we have as a result:

• 72% identified themselves as parents.
• 45% identified themselves as early childhood professionals.
• "Itsy Bitsy [a.k.a. "Eentsy Weentsy"] Spider" showed as the favorite song--and one that's been a favorite for at least two generations. While respondents mentioned a wide variety of songs in different genres and languages, no other came close to "Spider's" popularity.
• 30% commented that they felt music enhances the quality of young children's lives--bringing comfort during stress, and making children well-rounded and happier.
• 20% mentioned how routines help them incorporate music into children's daily lives--feeding, changing, bathtime, etc.

There you have it...Itsy Bitsy Spider.  I actually prefer Eentsy Weentsy.  If you've made it to the end of this post, take a second to leave a comment and let me know...which do you sing?  Itsy Bitsy or Eentsy Weentsy?

Check out DLTK for some Itsy Bitsy Spider activities.

Comments

[Schildpad]

I think I've always sung "Eensy Weensy Spider", and something smaller than that has always been eensy weensy teeny tiny. Always that combo, always in that order, and never just eensy or weensy by itself. Odd that. Odder still is the song itself, if you think about it, because spiders aren't exactly the biggest creatures on earth - why emphasize how small this particular spider is?

Yeah okay, I'm thinking too much.

Thanks for the shoutout.