I want a "goodnight" song

[Dandelion]

We do a song for grace every evening at dinner and my dc really enjoy it. Especially the baby. He gets this huge smile on his face and has been trying to sing along since he was 7 or 8 months old:heart. So I would really like to have something similar for bedtime. It is such a chaotic part of our day and I think that a song routine might help everyone to relax and switch their brains to sleep mode. I need help brainstorming a song that is relaxing and easy for small children to learn and remember.:)

[NovelMama]

I've sung the same songs to my girls since they were in the womb; they each have their own playlist. :D They're not specifically good-night songs, though, just peaceful songs. The songs we do: Jesus Loves Me, Away in a Manger, Silent Night, Amazing Grace (those are AJ's), There Is A Name (How I Love Jesus), God is Love, My Father's World, and Be Thou My Vision. I also throw in Holy, Holy, Holy sometimes. :)

[Bonnie]

For the Beauty of the Earth works wonderfully as an evensong. :hearts

[Kiara.I]

My mom changed the words to a lulllaby so that it was *mine*. (And conveniently, everyone else's whose names and/or nicknames can be made into 3 syllables. :giggle) It was to the tune of Brahms lullaby. (Lullaby, and goodnight, with roses bedight...) Jewel's done a version of it with different words lately too, if you want the tune.

Another good one might be Russian Vesper. Okay, that's what I learned it as in Guides. :giggle Apparently it's not called that elsewhere. Anyway, it's beautiful.
http://www.hymnsite.com/lyrics/umh685.sht

[ChristmasGirl]

My alltime favorite is "good night time to call it a day"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgAYWyPymvc

from the movie "Five Pennies"

it's the woman's voice in the 2nd half of this medley:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3FKbUplUjg

Here's Louis Armstrong's version, same movie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXF9ERIQz5A&feature=related

[Maggirayne]

My mom always sang "There's Something about that Name" to us and now I sign it to my girls.

[blondie]

My mom always sang Silent Night. :heart

I sing a song called "Light of your Face" to my daughter every night. It was a song that had incredible meaning to me during my whole pregnancy with her. I sang it to her when she was in the womb, and I have sang it to her every single night since she was born. It is from Numbers 6:24 "May the Lord bless you and keep you"....We have a vinyl wall sticky of it in our living room. :heart I'm not sure if I will have a different song for each child, but I'm thinking this will be *the one* for all of our kiddos.

[Dandelion]

Wow. These are all awesome suggestions:heart. Blondie, I love that song especially:happytears. When I was a child, and not a believer, the church that I attended would close the Sunday service with that verse. I hated church, but those words were always special to me.

[ChristmasGirl]

yes, i also sing, "the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make His face shine upon you, and give you peace, and give you peace, and give you peace forever" I love that it is a song and a prayer.

My Mom always sang "Oh how He loves you and me....He gave His life, what more could He give, and Oh howHe loves you, Oh how he loves me, Oh how he loves you and me..... and it still holds wonderful memories to this day :heart

---------- Post added at 07:09 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:05 AM ----------


I sing a song called "Light of your Face" to my daughter every night. It was a song that had incredible meaning to me during my whole pregnancy with her. I sang it to her when she was in the womb, and I have sang it to her every single night since she was born. It is from Numbers 6:24 "May the Lord bless you and keep you"....We have a vinyl wall sticky of it in our living room. :heart I'm not sure if I will have a different song for each child, but I'm thinking this will be *the one* for all of our kiddos.

just looked up that at youtube...how beautiful :heart

[Lady TS]

There's always Soft Kitty :shifty But I think you were wanting a more inspirational/prayerful song....

[Aisling]

My dad used to sing the first verse of this to me when I was little, and it's dd1's bedtime song. I :heart it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=238jV2AzWxM

The part we sing is:

Starlight on the windowsill,
Moon shines through the trees,
Angels by your bed tonight shine where no one sees,
And all that you've been dreaming of
Awaits you when you rise,
So with the peace that Jesus brings,
Close your sleepy eyes.


My dd3 loves "Stay Awake" from Mary Poppins. :heart
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPw6QBSggls

[Peridot]

I sang the lullaby from Mary Poppins- 'Stay Awake'

also I sing kind of a medley for Maximus- 'Turn Your eyes Upon Jesus', 'I Cast All my Cares Upon You', and 'As the Deer Panteth..'

those are all also known as's cause I cna't remember the titles. but the three worship songs are all in the samekey, and a combo I hit u[pon by accident.

:rockon

oh at Christmas I sing, 'O Come O Come Emannuel' :heart

[Amazement]

I sing "Thy Holy Wings":

Thy holy wings, O Savior, spread gently over me
and let me rest securely through good and ill in thee
oh be my strength and portion, my rock and hiding place
and may my every moment be lived within thy grace.

:heart

[allisonintx]

The Mary Poppins 'Stay Awake' song will still cause my oldest daughter's eyes to go droopy :giggle

[Sarusabeth]

I am not a fan of Disney beautiful princess/knight in shining armor/evil stepmother plot-lines...for some reason the songs always have been favorites of mine. Each of my children have their "own" song from a Disney movie that I have sung them almost every night since before they were born. My oldest's is "A dream is a wish your heart makes," from Cinderella. My second's song is "So this is love" from the same movie. As soon as I became pregnant with my third, my first daughter, I just knew she was a girl and felt as if I already knew her. So it was only natural to sing "Once upon a dream," from Sleeping Beauty (I think? I've actually never seen it!) to her. My newest little one's is "You'll be in my heart," from Tarzan. Of course, my kids don't know this, but I remember sitting with my own mom watching these movies, and so the songs bring forth beautiful memories and feelings of love that come not only from me, but also from their Nana, whom they sadly do not get to see very often. Even my oldest, who is a 4 "and three quarters" year old boy "too big" for kisses, will snuggle up to me and become my baby again when he hears "his" song. :)

[sweetpeas]

I sing "You Are My Sunshine" to each of my girls, but change it to their names . . . "You are my Ashlyn, my only Ashlyn . . ." the default for the rest is the real words but if she's done something I especially appreciate I'll throw that in "you make me happy, when you do the dishes without me asking" (as I type that, I suppose that could be construed as conditional love or something, but for Ashlyn especially, words of affirmation are strongly her love language, so anywhere I can sneak in an extra "thank you, you did good!" the better).

There's also a veggie tales song that Junior Asparagus's mom sings that I wanted to memorize to sing to my kids, I didn't, and now don't even remember the jist of it, but I liked it LOL.

[cro]

"Silent Night" is one of my favorites. :yes

Another lullaby my kids love is from a Care Bears book/cassette from back when I was a kid (remember those sets?). I can't find it anywhere, but the lyrics are:

Good night, sleep tight, time for a lullaby
Dream sweet dreams, as the world goes by
Stars so bright, shining down on you
Good night, sleep tight, may all your dreams come true

[KCMartha]

I love the JJ Heller song "Keep You Safe" It's really beautiful.

However, my DS has been requesting the ABCs lately, so I guess he doesn't quite appreciate it :giggle

[Dovenoir]

I sing Jesus keep me near the cross, heavenly sunlight, may my steps be worship, and modified versions of Brahms Lullaby and goodnight moon.

[NeshamaMama]

I love all these suggestions. :heart We sing pretty much 24/7 in our house and I'm always looking for sweet songs for DD.

I sing "Not While I'm Around" ("Nothing's going to harm you, not while I'm around...") from Sweeney Todd - some of the words are a little funky for a lullaby but with a sweet enough voice it all sounds very comforting. ;)

Other favorites are "Mary Did You Know", "O Come O Come Emmanuel", "Ten Minutes Ago" (Rogers and Hammerstein's Cinderella) and "Candle on the Water" from that obscure Disney movie (that I've never actually seen :shifty) Pete's Dragon.

[Milonna]

Wow, I really enjoyed reading through this thread, some wonderful ideas and something I'd love to do as well (and will do) :heart

[jandjmommy]

Away In a Manger was always a hit - I'd wrap DS up in a blanket ("swaddling clothes!") and rock him -- he called it "Baby Jesus".

[Andrea]

Deep in my heart, I'm a reggae kind of girl.

I've always sung a modified version of Bob Marley's "3 Little Birds" to my son (I say "this is God's message to you" instead of "this is our message"), starting from his time in the womb. I was pregnant with him during the most stressful time of my life (got pregnant during my last semester of law school and my DH's last semester of business school (surprise!), took the bar, my dad died, we moved, my mom immediately ditched us all for a new man), so it was/is very comforting to both of us.

For my daughter, I've always sung a modified version The Melodians' "Rivers of Babylon" (I say "our Yahweh's song" instead of "King Alpha's song"). Finding out that I was pregnant with a girl prompted me to work through some icky issues from my own upbringing and religious background concerning womanhood, and my pregnancy with her also correlated with a time of spiritual growth in my own life and our eventual move to Messianic Judaism. Needless to say, it means something to me.

[Dandelion]

Wow, all these great suggestions:rockon. And so I have been letting my dc choose the songs we sing at bedtime:). Number one favorite atm? Three blind mice:lol:lol:lol. And we are now singing their own created versions:shifty. Last night was 6 sausage mice who proceed to get cut and eaten :-/:giggle (ds who is 4) and 4 sewn mice who are dearly loved gifts from the farmer's wife to her children (dd who is 6):):giggle. It's a little weird and a lot goofy, but they are loving it so :rockon:heart:heart:heart

[Teribear]

This is going to sound really strange probably but did you know that Taps has lyrics? We sung it in scouts.

Taps

Day is done, gone the sun,
From the lake, from the hills, from the sky;
All is well, safely rest, God is nigh.

Fading light, dims the sight,
And a star gems the sky, gleaming bright.
From afar, drawing nigh, falls the night.

Thanks and praise, for our days,
'Neath the sun, 'neath the stars, neath the sky;
As we go, this we know, God is nigh.

Sun has set, shadows come,
Time has fled, Scouts must go to their beds
Always true to the promise that they made.

While the light fades from sight,
And the stars gleaming rays softly send,
To thy hands we our souls, Lord, commend.

[RealLifeMama]

[QUOTE=Teribear;4422998]This is going to sound really strange probably but did you know that Taps has lyrics? We sung it in scouts.

[QUOTE]

I :heart Taps. It brings tears to my eyes, always.

The family I nannied for in college had the song "Bind Us Together" as their bedtime song. I hated singing it because it was so hard for me to sing. I don't know if it was the wrong key or what, as I am an OK singer, but it was terrible. I wish I could sing it better, though, because I love the words, and I would like to use it for my own children. It sums up nicely what I want for our family.
I sing "There is a Redeemer" a lot.

[rebecuna]

I usually sing one my mom made up for us as kids or one I modified from Braham's (?-- not sure I've ever hear the original)

Rock-a-bye, and goodnight
It is time to go to sleep
Close your eyes, rest your head
It's safe here in our bed
Go to sleep, little one
You have nothing to fear
Go to sleep, little one
When you wake I'll be near

*I like it b/c it talks about our family bed :grin

[Llee]

Pretty much any song off of the "Sleep Sound in Jesus (http://www.rhapsody.com/album/Alb.151880)" CD by Michael Card.

Especially 'Song of Jesus'.

[doubleblessings]

One that I sing is You and Me by Frances England
(http://www.amazon.com/You-Me/dp/B001DYNHU2)
Some of the words:

You and me, reading books in bed
Your head on my shoulder,
Your eyes on the pages ahead

How did you grow so big overnight
How did you get so smart and bright
Yesterday you were asleep in my arms
Today you’re growing off the charts

[Mert]

One that I sing is You and Me by Frances England (http://www.amazon.com/You-Me/dp/B001DYNHU2)

:happytears :heart :grin

[doubleblessings]

or one I modified from Braham's (?-- not sure I've ever hear the original)

my modified Braham's is...

Lullaby and goodnight
Go to sleep little babies
Mommy loves you
Daddy loves you
go to sleep my little ones

[nessnco]

I sang two songs one straight after the other:

I love you in the morning and in the afternoon , Love you in the evening and underneath the moon. I love you bo bo be do

Jesus loes you etc but with the childs name in the lines Yes Jesus loves you

About the age of 7/8 they asked me to stop :hunh :lol

[Elyse221]

"Give Me Jesus" has become ours. I like that it lends itself to making up my own verses pretty easily, so I leave out "when I come to die" and do "when I am afraid", "when I'm getting tired", "when I go to sleep", etc.

[DoulaClara]

When I was little, my mom used to sing the song that ended the Lawrence Welk show, "Good night, sleep tight," and i sing it to these guys now. I sort of make up the tune, as i'm sure i'm getting it wrong. It goes:

Good night, sleep tight, and pleasant dreams to you,
Here's a wish and a prayer, may all your dreams come true;
So now, until we meet again,
Adios, au revoir, auf weidersehen!