Music Tip #80 Recipe for Getting Hyper Kids into Sleeping Kids

My daughter called me one night with what she called her “homemade recipe for getting-wound-up-hyper-kids to sleep”.  She said it works like a charm every time. 

This is what you do: with your child lying in his bed, you pat his back while singing a song to him, but you’re patting very quickly, kind of matching his wound up energy level. Then you sing the song again, but this time pat a little slower. 

You sing the song 2 more times, and with each repetition you pat slower than the time before.  And wholah!  Your child has calmed down and in my daughter’s case the night she called me, her son was sound asleep—in just 4 times of singing the song with the gradual slowing down on each repetition!  She said this works for her 8 year too.

In musical terms, you pat 8ths notes the first time you sing the song. Pat quarter notes the second time, half notes the third time and whole notes the fourth time.  Wow!  Try it out tonight!

From this:

 To this: