Family Literacy Day; Baa Baa Black Sheep

Today was Family Literacy Day. How did you celebrate?  With a 3 hour nap in the middle of the day (the boy is still under the weather), we didn’t do anything specific but always read books during the day anyway.  It’s just part of our routine.  Plus, we did some extra book time at night tonight for fun.

Songs and music play a role in language and literacy.  We are a musical household. My husband plays guitar (and learns song by ear) and we got my son drums for Christmas that he plays each day.  We always seem to have the radio on and can turn anything into a little sing-song.

Since my son was little, Baa Baa Black Sheep became the bedtime song.  I don’t know what it was, the simple lyrics, soothing tune etc. but when he is having trouble sleeping, we sing it (over and over again) and it works. 

But singing Baa Baa Black Sheep 20 times in a row gets tiresome after a while (you think?!) so we sometimes make up new lyrics.  The problem is, there have been times when I’ve made up new lyrics on the fly, then the next night he asks his daddy to sing my new song and of course, my husband has no idea the words (and sometimes I forget!)

So here are the lyrics to 2 other variations of Baa Baa Black Sheep (good luck reading it without singing it in your head!):

Bye Bye Baseball, where did you go?

Over the fence and over the wall

1st base, second base, third base, home

Single, Double, Triple, Homerun

Bye Bye Baseball, where did you go?

Over the fence and over the wall

Dino, dino, dino-saur

You like to thump* and you like to roar

Playing sports is what you do

Hockey, soccer, baseball too

Dino, dino, dino-saur

You like to thump and you like to roar

*Thump was the first  word that I sang when I made it up one nap time.  Then, the next time he asked me to sing the dino version, I suggested we change it  to ‘stomp’.  He refused.  I had only sang it once!!  So, it’s thump 😉