Bye Bye All Done

We use this song as an ending for every session.  It would be hard to overstate how much easier it is to convince childen to leave than it was pre the Goodbye Song.  It is hard to leave a place where there are great toys, you get one-on-one attention, and the whole session is all about what you like.  Our most successful language teaching strategy is talking about and thinking about a child's affinities and interests--often creating new and exciting interests that a child would like to explore further.  But, we don't have many I am not leaving meltdowns anymore because this song prepares the child to leave in a happy way. 

I posted this particular clip, because the child's wave was both cute and revealing.  We have since convinced this little guy to turn his hand around by singing our goodbye song in front of a mirror.  The first time we did it, he frowned at his own hand reflection for a moment and then turned his hand around. That was that.  We kind of hated to fix his cute little wave though.  It is often hard for kids to understand the perspective of others, even in this concrete way.  I see children put masks on so that the mask faces the child.  I see children become upset if a parent has a different favorite color.  But then, grown-up people get upset because others think or believe differently too.  So, there is a continuum of mental and emotional flexibility around noticing and appreciating the perspective of others.

Tip: Another way to see if a child understands how things look from another person's perspective is to have the child show mommy the picture and see if the child turns the picture he or she is showing mom around or instead shows the back of it to mom.

Song from http://www.supersimplesongs.com/