Here’s how to kick Old MacDonald three-year-old style:
Old MacDonald had a farm,
E, I, E, I. O
And on that farm he had a duck,
E, I, E, I, O
With a quack, quack here,
And a quack quack here,
Here a quack,
Everywhere a quack, quack,
Old MacDonald had a farm,
E, I, E, I, O.
And on that farm he had a X
“
“
“
“
Repeat for:
Cow, sheep, pig, kitty, and horse. Then, for the heck of it, throw in baby, car, puppy, and owl.
Then end with sheep, even if you already did that one, yell “yay!” loudly, and clap like mad.
Despite, or perhaps because of, the missing lines, the enterprise is pretty adorable. And much to my delighted surprise, Simon can already carry the tune pretty well. At the same age—ok, at twice his age or more—I was still very much a Johnny one-note.
Simon can also sort-of, kind-of say the pledge of allegiance. Words like “indivisible” are wobbly, and he skips the “one nation” part and goes directly to “under God”, but the pattern and intonation are spot on. And what spurred it in the first place was his rediscovery of a small flag from July 4. I guess you could call this the softer side of jingoism.
Granted, you have certainly improved over the years, but Simon gets his ability to carry a tune from his Dad.