Classic Children's Music

There's one that I used to love, the chorus is:

There's a web like a spider's web
Made of silver light and shadow
Spun by the moon in my room at night
It's a web made to catch a dream,
Hold it tight til I awaken
As if to tell me
My dream is all right

The chorus is so lovely, but the verses are pretty awful...the guy gets hung in the end! I just sing the chorus to my kiddos and the first verse or two that are death-free!
I also love LOVE "For Baby" by John Denver

Hi, my name is Joe, and I work in a button factory.
I've got a wife and a dog and a family.
One day my boss said, "Hey Joe, are you busy?" I said, "No."
He said, "Turn the button with your right hand."
(make motion of turning a button with your right hand)

Hi, my name is Joe, and I work in a button factory.
I've got a wife and a dog and a family.
One day my boss said, "Hey Joe, are you busy?" I said, "No."
He said, "Turn the button with your left hand."
(continue turning the button with your right and and begin turning it with your left)

That's all I remember of the song. I'm thinking we added the legs and the nose?

I was just singing to my kids last night. I don't do this every night, but it seemed like a good time last night. I sang:

Green Trees followed by Taps
Red Balloon
Canadian Wilderness
Barges
Returning to Pooh Corner
Rainbow Connection
I Hope You Dance

I just kept singing until I could tell they were asleep. It was really precious.

The Wheels on the Bus? Or Wiggles songs? Row Row Row Your Boat? So many come to mind. If my kids are grumpy, they'll tell me to stop singing, lol.

Are you thinking "Old Dan Tucker?"

Old Daniel Tucker wuz a mighty man,
He washed his face in a fryin' pan;
Combed his head wid a wagon wheel
And he died wid de toofache in his heel.

So, git out de way for old Dan Tucker,
He's too late to git his supper.
Supper's over and breakfast cookin',
Old Dan Tucker standin' lookin'

Grogan's Goat, maybe?

I like "Hush Little Baby." There is a wonderful picture book version, illustrated by Marla Frazee. Really gives new life to the story.

Zip-ah-dee-doo-dah. Skidamarink.

And they aren't specifically children's songs, but I rocked my little ones (and still do!) to "Favorite Things" from the Sound of Music, "Shall We Dance" from the King and I, and their daddy and I often sang duets of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." Hey, the kids LOVED it!

ETA:
I can't believe I almost forgot "Lavender's Blue!" And that song from Dumbo - "Baby Mine"

I have never heard this (washed face with frying pan and combed hair with wagon wheel), but i googled it:
http://bussongs.com/songs/old-dan-tucker.php

i'll try to search for the other ones :)

Here are some my kids like:
1.The noble Duke of York (look on you tube and watch parent hold the child and move them to the song)
2. The Elevator song (Oh the city is great)
3. When I Was One (this link is a little different from how I sing it, but you have you child move this way that way) http://www.nurseryrhymes4u.com/NURSERY_RHYMES/Page_521.html

Bill Grogan's goat...

http://bussongs.com/songs/bill-grogan-goat.php

Joe..

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

If you can get some of the "Wee Sing Silly Songs", there are BUNCHES of the old classics on there.....

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.
Eensy (sp?) Weensy spider
I'm a little teapot
Bringin home a baby bumble bee

The frying pan guy is Ol' Dan Tucker. There are many variants of the words, but I learned some of it like this: "Went to town the other night to hear a noise and see a fight; all the people gathered round, singing, 'Ol' Dan Tucker's a-comin' to town. Say, get outta the way for ol' Dan Tucker - too late to get his supper. Supper's over an dinner's cookin' - ol' Dan Tucker just stood there lookin'." ... "Ol' Dan Tucker's a fine ol' man - washed his face in a frying pan - combed his hair with a wagon wheel - died of a toothache in his heel."

You might want to look for some of the recordings of Burl Ives. There are compilations on some CDs. You'll find a number of these old songs because they started out as folk songs, not children's songs. It's the way I learned many of them when I was a kid. Happily, I didn't understand what all of the songs were about - so the romance-death-and-violence stuff (not to mention tying the goat to the railroad tracks) in the songs didn't get to me; I just thought it was all silly.

One I particularly loved was called "The Big Rock Candy Mountain." I thought it was just a kid fantasy song, and had no idea it was a hobo song until I grew up! I still like to sing it.

Another source might be Laura-Ingalls-Wilder.com - because the music from the Little House Books is being recorded, and you might find some of the old songs you're trying to remember.

I know a poem about a crooked man, but I don't know music to it: "There was a crooked man who walked a crooked mile; he find a crooked sixpence upon a crooked stile [steps built across a pasture fence]; he bought a crooked cat who caught a crooked mouse, and they all lived together in a little crooked house." That's an old nursery rhyme.

Do you know the song about the old lady who swallowed a fly?

When my granddaughter was born a friend gave her a Wee Sing disc which came with a book giving the words.

You're doing great singing to your kids. I remember my mother singing us to sleep and it's a wonderful memory. The only song I remember was about Hiawatha. It's based on a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It was my first introduction to poetry and history, tho I know the words are not based on actual events.

Here are the words. http://www.metrolyrics.com/the-song-of-hiawatha-lyrics-mi... My mom only sang 2-3 of the verses and I only remember the first stanza. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

We got the Disney CDs for our car, and they have a lot of those traditional songs on them. They're called like Disney Sing Along or some such--it's not Disney songs at all, just all sorts of good nursery rhymes and stuff, if you're looking for a resource like that. We play CDs for all our kids at night.

You can go to youtube and put the lyrics you remember into their search engine and often find the song you are looking for. Sometimes it works to just search children's songs.