"Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature can not do without." ~Confucius

Friday, June 22, 2012

Walkin' Old Joe



We had a great (hot!) day at the train station in Strasburg, PA this week for their Day out with Thomas. Great fun. Highly recommended. Lots of kids, and wheee--oooo! - when they ALL go into meltdown mode at the same time, it's a bit crazy, but even with that, it's great fun!

Today I wanted to share another of our favorite baby/toddler bounces, and we even used it on the train when baby M was getting antsy for lunch.

There are many variations of this around, but this is the one we like.
Here are the words:

Walkin' Old Joe


Walkin' old Joe, walkin' old Joe - 
You're the best horse in the country. 
Walkin' old Joe, walkin' old Joe
You're the best horse in the country 


Whoa!

Gallop Old Joe, gallop Old Joe,
You're the best horse in the country.

Gallop Old Joe, gallop Old Joe, 
You're the best horse in the country

WHOA-OH-OOOH! 

Mosey Old Joe, mosey old Joe, 
You're the best horse in the country. 
Mosey Old Joe, mosey old Joe, 
You're the best horse in the country. 

WHOA-Oh-HO!!! 

Walkin' old Joe, walkin' old Joe - 
You're the best horse in the country. 
Walkin' old Joe, walkin' old Joe, 
You're the best horse in the country. Whoa! 

Directions: 
With baby/toddler in arms or on lap, bounce moderately on first verse. 
On second verse, bounce faster and more horse-gallopy-like (my new word creation)
On third verse, sashay side to side. 
On fourth verse, back to moderate and happy bouncing from first time. 

With the "whoa" parts in between, feel free to make those as fun as you can. I wrote them differently to try and describe what we do, but you can do lots of things. These little transitions are great to teach expectancy, build excitement, etc. 
You can draw the words out to increase suspense, make them loud and obnoxious or a combination of soft and loud, do a crescendo with your voice up until the verse, raise baby up high on the word, etc. etc... be creative and find out what brings the most giggles from your little one. 

This can be chanted or sung. Below is the song we use: 



Have fun - keep bouncing and chanting with those babies! 




1 comment:

  1. I love chants and songs! Do you know "This is the way the farmer rides..." where you bounce them on your knee differently for each rider? On my I have that song in my head constantly! haha Sorry I don't know the real name for it. Thanks for sharing on Saturday Show & Tell at Cheerios and Lattes this weekend!
    If you're interested, we would love to invite you to also link this up to the Summer Activities for Toddlers Collection! Here's a quick link: http://www.cheeriosandlattes.com/summer-activities-for-toddlers/ This would be a perfect activity to do with young ones!
    Have a great week and hope to see you again next weekend! :)
    Mackenzie

    ReplyDelete