Controlling Chaos with a Song: Anne Meeker Watson’s sing.play.love. Program at the 2025 Sixpence Child Care Conference

Penny Gerking says that before taking Anne Meeker Watson’s sing.play.love. training, her “program was controlled chaos.” That was over 5 years ago, before she became a part of the Sixpence Child Care Partnership that introduced her to Anne’s program. Now she says, “The kids get along better. They’re able to manage their feelings. They know how to ask to join in. They know how to clean up after themselves.”

Watson’s sing.play.love. program is in her words, “equal parts music, play, and connected relationships with young children.” She trains early childhood educators to use songs, sign language, books, related activities, and more, not only to enrich the lives of children and families with music and ease the demands on child care providers, but also to teach children the foundational social emotional skills that make for confidence and success later in their educational journey.

Dr. Watson, who has degrees in Music Education and Music Therapy, began her career as an Early Childhood Special Education Music Therapist in Kansas City, but left because she said she “wanted to do something for districts that don’t have a music therapist; I wanted to help them utilize music in a very instructive and joyful way to support the things that they were teaching.”

She writes social stories that contain information children need to know about behaviors. She gives the example of one song that teaches self-calming. Children learn to count to 4, to breathe, and to utilize sign language so they can engage through motor movement as well as verbally. When she trains providers to use the program, they not only learn the songs and the signs, but they also receive books that go with the song skills, music videos and play-filled learning activities they can send home to families, and ways teachers can  generalize the skills across the child’s daily routine.

Stoney Straatmann, owner of Stoney’s Home Daycare in Hastings, first heard Watson speak in 2022 and was reintroduced to her through Sixpence. She went through the training and calls it “fun and engaging,” going on to add, “I love how she incorporates sign language into her singing.” She describes the training as something you want to go back to again, and says that after the training is done, “you want to return to your classroom and do things right away because it’s in your head and you just want to try it because it’s fun.”

Straatmann shares a “perfect pair,” the term Watson uses for matching her songs and picture books, for 2-3 weeks, and then she’ll introduce a new sing.play.love. book she wants to try. She says the songs are so catchy the children often sing them and that she likes them enough to memorize them. That way when a child wants a song, she doesn’t have to find it to play it; she can just sing it with the children. She describes a song called “Old House” that a child went home and shared with their parent. The mother contacted her to ask about the song. That’s why she likes the newsletters Watson provides to send home to families so they can share in the songs as well.

Gerking, who owns Little Gerkins Childcare in Auburn, also likes the family connections she can make through sing.play.love. A few years ago, she used Watson’s “Solutions Song” to make a solutions kit she sent home to her families. She said that one mother contacted her and said, “Thank you so much! Having the kit that I can just carry in my purse has been a game-changer when we’re at the store and they’re getting ready to have a meltdown.”

Gerking uses the “Bee-ing Me” song as the basis for her three main rules: 1. Use your walking feet; 2. Use your quiet voice; and 3. Use your kind hands and feet. She does a month-long lesson on each sing.play.love. book and loves the results. At circle time, she can just start singing the month’s song, and the children immediately come to the rug. She says that “if there’s a child having strong feelings, we’ll start singing “All the Feels” because they know … that’ll help them to calm down.’”

Gerking says that children who no longer attend her childcare still sing the songs. She even has a girl under one who would ask for “Birdie in My Window” and sign along with the song before she could say the words.  Since training in sing.play.love., Gerkins says that the program has been “amazing” and has transformed her child care. “Everyone I talk to, I say, ‘you gotta look at Sixpence and sing.play.love. Those are two of the best programs for any early childhood group,’” Gerking adds.

These are words Watson loves to hear, not only because the songs she’s designed are helping children with social emotional skills, but also because they help make the lives of educators who work with young children easier and more enjoyable. She says it used to be that early childhood educators said the hardest part of their job was supporting children with challenging behaviors, but now it’s keeping workforce. She wants to make their work more joyful, and to give them tools that make them feel valued as the educators they are.

Watson feels she owes a lot to Sixpence and Nebraska’s ESUs because they convinced her to start sing.play.love. It was when she met Auburn Sixpence Director Deb Reiman years ago that she began partnering across Nebraska with Sixpence organizations. She now offers training all over the country and in India and Bangladesh. She is thrilled to speak at the upcoming conference and share her passion for music, learning, and bringing people joy. “But,” she says, making the shush gesture, “don’t tell them they’re learning!.”

If you are a part of the Auburn, Hastings, Kearney, Grand Island, Morrill, or Falls City Sixpence teams, you may have already encountered Anne Watson’s training, but for those who have not, be sure to check out her keynote address at the 2025 Sixpence Child Care Conference in Kearney on Saturday, May 31. The Conference is for Sixpence Child Care Partnership Coaches, Program Coordinators, and their Childcare Partner Programs and Center-based teachers and support staff. Registration closes on May 9, so be sure to reserve your spot now by visiting the conference website.

For more information about the sing.play.love. program.

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