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All sorts of daily activities can be opportunities to bond with your baby.

Try making up your own songs and rhymes and singing them to your child to make your routines more fun.

Watch the short video below for inspiration on making up your own songs to fit into your routine.

Why should you make up nursery rhymes for your baby?

  • Making up rhymes about things around you, introduces your baby to words in their everyday routine.
  • Singing while doing an everyday activity, will help your baby link words to objects and sounds.
  • Nursery rhymes teach your baby about rhythm and detecting patterns, which are key to language development.
  • Singing to your baby is a great way to help develop their listening and attention skills.
  • Repeating the rhyme as part of your everyday routine will help your baby pick up and understand key words quicker.
A mum is doing the washing up with her 3-month-old son in the kitchen. She is holding a plastic glass filled with water.
Image caption,
Not only do songs and rhymes help babies to learn words and sounds, they make everyday activities more fun!

How to get the most out of singing to your baby

When your baby is very small, you might feel self-conscious talking to them as they can't respond to you in a conversation.

But singing is something that you can both enjoy together. It is also a really easy way to help your baby hear lots of new words.

Singing nursery rhymes is a way of providing them with as much input as possible in a way that's entertaining. Because of this there’s a greater chance they’ll take in all those new words.

Babies like repetitive songs where they can predict what's coming next. If you repeat your made-up nursery rhyme over and over, eventually your baby will recognise it. They will also start to link the words with the actions you are doing.

Babies start to recognise their parent's voice during pregnancy. That’s why singing to babies from early is also a great way to bond with them.

Find out more about how singing to your baby helps them learn.

A mum is doing the washing up with her 3-month-old son in the kitchen. She is holding a plastic glass filled with water.
Image caption,
Not only do songs and rhymes help babies to learn words and sounds, they make everyday activities more fun!

What songs to sing to baby

Try making up your own songs and rhymes to make routines more fun and get the most out of your one-to-one time. You could try singing about:

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