There's not much more satisfying than a baby laugh. Or a toddler laugh.
Or, how about that magical moment of eye contact that communicates a shared understanding? Without a single word, it's like that toddler is saying, "Ah-ha! I see what you did there..."
How do we amplify that joyous time with music? With a peekaboo song!
Peek A Boo, my peekaboo song, is perfect to use online or in-person with scarves. If the kids are online, you can have kids use any kind of scarf, blanket or t-shirt that they can use to cover their faces. During virtual session, you can cover use your scarf to play “peekaboo” with your camera!
This song utilizes a musical cue— “ahhhh, boo!”, that reinforces the peek-a-boo game and makes it even more engaging and fun for young kids. Adding that anticipatory cadence makes kids excitedly and effectively wait for that signal to play peekaboo. 🙈
Why do I like musical cues vs. verbal cues? Music is highly communicative. Just think of the film score of a scary movie. They're using cadences, melody, pauses, chord progressions, and more to COMMUNICATE. And they're great at it!
We can do the same thing with our musical interactions. And musical cues are something I'm constantly thinking about when I'm writing my children's songs.
(Plus, kids hear verbal cues from adults all day long. "Don't touch that!" "Eat your breakfast!" "Time to go!" Sometimes verbal cues go in one ear and out the other... simply because they are happening all day long. And as an adult, they are exhausting to repeat again and again. Musical cues are novel and can feel like a game. That helps you get some buy-in from the kids you're working with!)
Here’s a video for my song Peek A Boo that I originally posted on the Music For Kiddos’ Instagram. This is one of the many, many (325+ and growing!) resources you’ll find inside the Music For Kiddos Community: an online community of resources for early childhood music therapists & music educators.
Download the chords + lyrics of Peek A Boo down below ↓
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